i  hi 

University-  of  California. 


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Class  N, 


fre-  /t?s~ 


ADDRESSES 


AND 


SPEECHES 


ON 


YARIOUS  OCCASIONS, 


Br 


ROBERT    C.    WINTHROP. 


5I7EESIT71 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,    BROWN,    AND    COMPANY 

1852. 


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j.» 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1852, 

By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company, 

in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE  I 
PRINTED  BY   II.   O.  HOUGHTON   AND   COMPANY. 


TO 


THE    HONORABLE 


JOHN  H.   CLIFFORD,   LL.D 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL   OF   MASSACHUSETTS, 


My  dear  Sir, 

I  am  sensible  how  little  there  is  in  this  volume,  to  entitle  it 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  any  formal  dedication.  But  I  am 
unwilling  to  forego  the  opportunity  which  it  affords  me,  of 
testifying  how  highly  I  value  the  cordial  relations  of  friendship 
and  confidence,  which  have  existed  between  us  without  inter- 
mission, since  we  first  entered  public  life  together  in  1834. 
Believe  me,  My  Dear  Sir, 

With  sincere  regard  and  respect, 
Always  faithfully,  Yours, 

ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP. 

Boston,  May  12,  1852. 


y»I7BRSITT- 

PREFACE 


Some  circumstances,  connected  with  the  progress  and 
close  of  my  late  Congressional  career,  have  induced  me  to 
comply,  not  altogether  unwillingly,  with  the  suggestion  of 
friends,  —  that  whatever  I  have  said  on  public  questions, 
should  be  placed  within  the  convenient  reach  and  reference 
fit  such  as  may  care  to  know  any  thing  about  my  course. 

I  have  ventured  to  think,  too,  that  this  volume  would  not 
be  entirely  unacceptable  to  the  people  of  Massachusetts, 
and  particularly  to  the  people  of  Boston,  to  whom  I  have 
been  indebted  for  whatever  opportunities  I  have  enjoyed, 
and  in  whose  service  most  of  these  Addresses  and  Speeches 
were  made. 

They  are  given  here  just  as  they  were  delivered,  and 
many  of  them  printed,  at  the  time,  —  with  no  other  change 
than  the  correction  of  a  few  inaccuracies  in  matter  of  form, 
or,  it  may  be,  in  matter  of  fact.  They  thus  contain, —  not 
what  I  might  have  said,  or  might  now  say,  —  but  what  I 
actually  did  say,  on  the  subjects  to  which  they  relate,  during 
sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  public  employment. 

I  will  not  deny,  that,  in  revising  the  proof-sheets,  I  have 


M  PREFACE. 

found,  here  .and  there,  an  opinion  of  men  or  of  things, 
which  has  been  in  some  degree  modified  by  subsequent 
events.  And  there  may  be  a  few  strong  partisan  expressions, 
especially  in  some  of  the  earlier  political  speeches,  which 
might  not  altogether  approve  themselves  to  my  maturer 
judgment.  But  there  is  nothing  of  substantial  principle 
which  I  desire  to  revoke,  and,  upon  the  whole,  I  have 
preferred  to  let  the  record  stand,  as  it  has  been  made 
up  from  time  to  time,  rather  than  allow  room  for  the 
imputation  that  I  had  suppressed  or  altered  any  thing, 
to  suit  any  mere  change  of  political  circumstances  or  of 
public  sentiment. 

The  size  of  the  volume  has  compelled  me  to  omit  many 
things  which  I  desired  and  intended  to  insert,  but  I  have  no 
fear  that  there  will  be  any  complaint  on  this  score  from  any 

quarter. 

Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

Boston,  May,  1852. 


CONTENTS 


THE    PILGRIM   FATHERS. 


An  Address,  delivered  before  the  New  England  Society,  in  the  City  of 
New  York,  December  23, 1839 1 


THE    INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 


An  Address,  delivered  before  the  Boston  Mercantile  Library  Association, 
on  the  Occasion  of  their  Twenty-fifth  Anniversary,  October  15,  1845      .     39 

NATIONAL   MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON.     « — ~- 

An  Oration  delivered  at  the  Seat  of  Government,  on  the  Occasion  of  lay- 
ingthe  Corner-Stoneofthe  National  Monument  to  Washington,  July  4, 1848    70 

THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

An  Address  delivered  before  the  Maine  Historical  Society,  at  Bowdoin 
College,  on  the  Afternoon  of  the  Annual  Commencement,  September  5, 
1849        .        .        .         . 90 

FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS. 

A  Lecture  delivered  before  the  Boston  Lyceum,  December  20,  1838  .        .137 

THE    BIBLE. 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Bible 
Society  in  Boston,  May  28,  1849 165 

COMPENSATION  FOR   THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   THE    URSULINE    CONVENT. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts, 
March  12, 1835 174 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 


THE    TESTIMONY   OF   INFIDELS. 


A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts, 
February  11,  1836 187 

PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts, 
February  15,  1837 200 

CONGRATULATIONS   TO   THE   WHIGS   OF   NEW   YORK. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  Masonic  Hall,  New  York,  November  22, 1837         .  221 

THE    SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts, 
March  26,  1838 227 

THE   VOTES   OF   INTERESTED    MEMBERS. 

A  Decision  pronounced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  [Massachusetts, 
February  19,  1840 273 

REPLY   TO   A   VOTE   OF   THANKS. 

An  Acknowledgment  of  a  Vote  of  Thanks  to  the  Speaker,  passed  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  March  21,  1840  .        .        .  285 

THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
July  2,  1841 .289 

THE   POLICY  OF    DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
December  30,  1841 306 

THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF  FREE  COLORED  SEAMEN. 

A  Report  made  to  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  Jan- 
uary 20,  1843  . 341 

THE    SAFE   KEEPING   OF   THE   PUBLIC   MONEYS. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
January  25,  1843 353 


CONTENTS.  IX 

THE   CREDIT   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  Faneuil  Hall,  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Whigs  of  Boston, 
October  12,  1843 375 


THE    RIGHT    OF    PETITION. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Repesentatives  of  the  United  States, 
January  23,  1844 389 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
March  18,  1844        . *        .        •        -415 


THE  ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
January  6,  1845 438 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
February  1,  1845  ..........  464 


ARBITRATION   OF   THE   OREGON   QUESTION. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
January  3,  1846 481 


RIVER  AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
March  12,  1846 .  500 


THE  WANTS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  WAGES  OF  LABOR. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
June  26,  1846  .         .         . 523 


WHIG    PREDICTIONS   AND  WHIG   POLICY. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  State  Convention  of  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts, 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  September  23, 1846        .......  551 


CONTENTS. 


tin:  war  with  Mexico. 


A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
January  8,  1847       .  5C4 

TIIE   CONQUEST   OF   MEXICAN   TERRITORY. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
February  22, 1847 .        .        .589 

ADDRESS   ON   TAKING   THE   CHAIR   AS   SPEAKER. 

An  Address  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
December  6,  1847 609 

THE   DEATH   OF   JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS. 

Announcement  of  the  Death  of  Ex-President  Adams  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States,  February  24,  1848 614 

HORTICULTURE. 

A  Speech  at  the  Festival  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society  in 
Fancuil  Hall,  Boston,  September  22,  1848 616 

THE    CITY   OF   WASHINGTON. 

A  Speech  made  at  a  Complimentary  Dinner  given  by  Citizens  of  Washing- 
ton to  Members  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  December  20, 1848        .        .  620 


REPLY   TO   A   VOTE   OF   THANKS. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
on  the  final  Adjournment  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  March,  4,  1849  624 

PERSONAL    VINDICATION. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
February  21,  1850   .        . 603 


TnE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
on  the  Announcement  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  Death,  April  1,  1850  .        .  651 


CONTENTS.  XI 

THE   ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA,  AND   THE   ADJUSTMENT   OF   THE 
SLAVERY    QUESTION. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
May  8,  1850 654 

THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  TAYLOR. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
on  the  Announcement  of  the  Death  of  General  Taylor,  July  10,  1850       693 

THE   DEATH   OF   DANIEL   P.   KING. 

Remarks  made  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
Announcement  of  the  Death  of  Mr.  King,  a  Representative  from  Massa- 
chusetts, July  27,  1850 697 

TO    THE   PEOPLE   OF   BOSTON. 

Letter  of  Acknowledgment  to  the  People  of  Boston  on  retiring  from  their 
Service,  July  30,  1850 .699 

THE  BOUNDARY  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND  TEXAS. 

Remarks  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  on  the  Bill  for  Organizing  a 
Territorial  Government  in  New  Mexico,  August  14, 1850         .        .        .  701 


PROTEST    AGAINST    THE   ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

Remarks  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  on  receiving  a  Protest  from  a 
number  of  Southern  Senators,  August  14,  1850 708 


THE    FUGITIVE    SLAVE    LAW. 

Remarks  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  August  19,  1850     .         .        .713 


THE    OTTOMAN    EMPIRE. 

A  Speech  made  at  a  Public  Dinner  given  to  Amin  Bey  by  the  Merchants  of 
Boston,  November  4,  1850 720 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION   OF   THE   YOUNG. 

A  Speech  made  at  the  Anniversary  Meeting  of  the  Warren  Street  Chapel 
Association,  on  Sunday  Evening,  April  27,  1851 723 


XU  CONTENTS. 

THE   AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

| 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Annual  City  Dinner  in  Faneuil  Hall,  July  4, 
1851 729 

RAILROAD   JUBILEE. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Pavilion  on  Boston  Common  at  the  Celebration 
of  the  Completion  of  the  Canada  and  Boston  Railroads,  September  19, 1851  737 


AGRICULTURE. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Dinner  of  the  Middlesex  Agricultural  Society, 
at  Lowell,  September  24,  1851 743 

TIIE   MECHANIC    ARTS. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Festival  of  the  Massachusetts  Charitable  Mechanic 
Association,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  October  1,  1851 748 

AGRICULTURAL   EDUCATION. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Dinner  of  the  Hampshire,  Hampden,  and 
Franklin  Agricultural  Society,  at  Northampton,  October  9,  1851     .        .  753 

MASSACHUSETTS   IN   1773. 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Celebration  of  the  Completion  of  a  Monument 
to  Isaac  Davis,  Abner  Hosmer,  and  James  Hayward,  at  Acton,  October 
29, 1851  ...  760 


uirrvjBRsiTr1 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 


AN   ADDRESS,  DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE    NEW    ENGLAND   SOCIETY,   IN   THE 
CITY  OF  NEW  YORK,   DECEMBER  23,  1839. 


Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1558,  about  two  hundred  and 
eighty-one  years  ago,  a  little  more  than  nine  times  the  period 
which  has  been  commonly  assigned  as  the  term  of  a  generation, 
and  only  four  times  the  threescore  years  and  ten  which  have 
been  divinely  allotted  to  the  life  of  man,  a  virgin  Princess 
ascended  the  throne  of  England.  Inheriting,  together  with  the 
throne  itself,  a  full  measure  of  that  haughty  and  overbearing 
spirit  which  characterized  the  royal  race  from  which  she  sprung, 
she  could  not  brook  the  idea  of  any  partition  of  her  power,  or 
of  any  control  over  her  person.  She  seemed  resolved  that  that 
race  should  end  with  her,  and  that  the  crown  which  it  had  so 
nobly  won  on  Bosworth  Field  should  seek  a  new  channel  of 
succession,  rather  than  it  should  be  deprived,  in  her  person,  and 
through  any  accident  of  her  sex,  of  one  jot  or  tittle  of  that  high 
prerogative  which  it  had  now  enjoyed  for  nearly  a  century.  She 
seemed  to  prefer,  not  only  to  hold,  herself,  a  barren  sceptre  —  no 
heir  of  tier's  succeeding  —  but  even  to  let  that  sceptre  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  issue  of  a  hated,  persecuted,  and  finally  mur- 
dered rival,  rather  than  risk  the  certainty  of  wielding  it  herself, 
with  that  free  and  unembarrassed  arm  which  befitted  a  daughter 
of  the  Tudors. 

Accordingly,  no  sooner  had  she  grasped  it,  and  seated  herself 

securely  upon  the  throne  of  her  fathers,  than  she  declared  to  her 

suppliant  Commons  —  who  doubtless  presumed  that  they  could 

approach   a   Queen  of  almost   six-and-twenty,  with  no  more 

1 


2  THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

agreeable  petition,  than  that  she  would  graciously  condescend 
to  select  for  herself  an  help-meet  in  the  management  of  the 
mighty  interests  which  had  just  been  intrusted  to  her  —  that 
England  was  her  husband ;  that  she  had  wedded  it  with  the 
marriage  ring  upon  her  finger,  placed  there  by  herself  with  that 
design  on  the  very  morning  of  her  coronation ;  that  while  a  pri- 
vate person  she  had  always  declined  a  matrimonial  engagement, 
regarding  it  even  then  as  an  incumbrance,  but  that  much  more 
did  she  persist  in  this  opinion  now  that  a  great  kingdom  had 
been  committed  to  her  charge ;  and  that,  for  one,  she  wished  no 
higher  character  or  fairer  remembrance  of  her  should  be  trans- 
mitted to  posterity,  when  she  should  pay  the  last  debt  to  nature, 
than  to  have  this  inscription  engraved  on  her  tombstone:  — 
"  Here  lies  Elizabeth,  who  lived  and  died  a  Maiden  Queen." 

In  the  purpose  thus  emphatically  declared  at  her  accession, 
the  Queen  of  whom  I  speak  persevered  to  her  decease.  Scorn- 
ing the  proverbial  privilege  of  her  sex,  to  change  their  minds  at 
will  upon  such  a  subject,  and  resisting  the  importunities  of  a 
thousand  suitors,  she  realized  that  vision  of  a  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,  which  was  so  exquisitely  unfolded  to  her  by  the 
immortal  Dramatist  of  her  day  : 

"  I  saw, 
Flying  between  the  cold  moon  and  the  earth, 
Cupid  all  arm'd  :  a  certain  aim  he  took 
At  a  fair  Vestal,  throned  by  the  West ; 
And  loosed  his  love-shaft  smartly  from  his  bow, 
As  it  should  pierce  a  hundred  thousand  hearts:  — 
But  I  might  see  young  Cupid's  fiery  shaft 
Quench'd  in  the  chaste  beams  of  the  watery  moon; 
And  the  imperial  vot'ress  passed  on, 
In  maiden  meditation,  fancy-free." 

But  Elizabeth  was  not  quite  content  to  wait  for  a  tombstone, 
on  which  to  inscribe  this  purpose  and  its  fulfilment.  Proclaimed, 
as  it  annually  was,  through  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the 
Old  World,  from  almost  every  corner  of  which  proposals  of  a 
character  to  shake  and  change  it  were  continually  poured  in 
upon  her,  —  she  resolved  to  engrave  it  once  and  forever  upon 
the  New  "World  also,  where  as  yet  there  was  no  civilized  suitor 
to  tease  her  with  his  pretensions,  whose  very  existence  had  been 


THE   PILGRIM  FATHERS.  3 

discovered  less  than  a  century  before  by  Christopher  Columbus, 
and  the  Northern  Continent  of  which  had  been  brought  within 
the  reach  of  her  own  prerogative  by  the  subsequent  discovery  of 
Sebastian  Cabot.  To  that  whole  continent  she  gave  the  name 
of  Virginia  ;  and  at  her  death,  after  a  reign  of  five-and-forty 
years,  that  whole  continent,  through  all  its  yet  unmeasured  lati- 
tudes and  longitudes,  from  the  confines  of  Labrador  to  the 
Mexican  Gulf,  was  known  by  no  other  title,  than  that  which 
thus  marked  it  as  the  dominion  of  a  Maiden  Queen. 

But  it  was  that  Queen's  dominion  only  in  name.  Four 
times,  indeed,  she  had  essayed  to  people  it  and  plant  her  ban- 
ners there.  But  in  vain.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  to  whom  the 
first  patent  for  this  purpose  was  granted,  being  compelled  to 
return  prematurely  to  England  by  the  disasters  he  had  expe- 
rienced on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland,  was  lost  in  a  storm  on 
the  homeward  passage,  and  all  that  survived  of  his  gallant  en- 
terprise, was  that  sublime  exclamation,  as  he  sat  in  the  stern  of 
his  sinking  bark  —  "  It  is  as  near  to  Heaven  by  sea  as  by  land." 
By  the  resolute  and  undaunted  efforts  of  his  illustrious  brother- 
in-law,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  however,  three  separate  companies 
of  colonists  were  afterwards  conducted  to  the  more  southern 
parts  of  the  continent,  and  each  in  succession  commenced  a 
settlement  at  Roanoke  Bay.  But  two  of  them  perished  on  the 
spot,  without  leaving  behind  them  even  so  much  as  the  means 
of  ascertaining  whether  they  had  owed  their  destruction  to  force 
or  to  famine ;  —  while  the  third,  which,  indeed,  was  the  first  in 
order,  within  a  year  from  its  departure,  returned  in  disgust  to 
its  native  land.  And  the  whole  result  of  Virginia  colonization 
and  Virginia  commerce,  upon  which  such  unbounded  hopes  of 
glory  and  of  gain  had  been  hung  by  Raleigh,  and  cherished  by 
the  Queen,  had  hitherto  consisted  in  the  introduction  into  Eng- 
land, by  this  last  named  band  of  emigrants  returning  home  in 
despair,  of  a  few  hundreds  of  tobacco,  and  in  Queen  Elizabeth 
herself  becoming  one  of  Raleigh's  pupils  in  that  most  maidenly 
and  most  queenly  accomplishment,  —  smoking1  a  pipe.  Not  one 
subject  did  Elizabeth  leave  at  her  death  in  that  wide  spread 
continent,  which  she  had  thus  destined  to  the  honor  of  perpetu- 
ating the  memory  of  her  haughty  and  ambitious  virginity. 


4  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

Within  a  year  or  two  past,  a  second  Maiden  Queen  has  as- 
cended the  throne  which  the  first  exchanged  for  a  grave  in  1603. 
And  when  she  casts  her  eye  back,  as  she  can  scarcely  fail  fre- 
quently to  do,  to  the  days  of  her  illustrious  prototype,  and  com- 
pares the  sceptre  which  Elizabeth  so  boldly  swayed  for  nearly 
half  a  century  with  that  which  trembles  in  her  girlish  hand,  she 
may  console  herself  with  the  reflection,  that  if  the  strength  and 
potency  of  her  own  are  greatly  inferior,  its  reach  and  sweep  are, 
practically  at  least,  vastly  more  extended.  She  sees  the  imme- 
diate successor  to  Elizabeth,  uniting  the  crowns  of  England  and 
Scotland,  and  preparing  the  way  for  that  perfect  consolidation 
of  the  two  countries  which  another  century  was  destined  to 
complete.  Ireland,  too,  she  finds  no  longer  held  by  the  tenure 
of  an  almost  annual  conquest,  but  included  in  the  bonds  of  the 
same  great  union.  While  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  Impe- 
rial Homestead,  she  beholds  her  power  bestriding  the  world  like 
a  Colossus,  a  foot  on  either  hemisphere ;  in  one,  military  posts 
and  colonial  possessions  hailing  her  accession  and  acknowledg- 
ing her  sway,  which  were  without  even  a  name  or  local  habita- 
tion in  the  history  of  the  world,  as  Raleigh  wrote  it;  and  in 
the  other,  a  company  of  adventurers  which  Elizabeth  chartered 
a  few  years  before  her  death,  to  try  the  experiment  of  a  trade 
with  the  East  Indies  by  the  newly  discovered  passage  round  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  converted  from  a  petty  mercantile  corpo- 
ration into  a  vast  military  empire,  and  holding  in  her  name 
and  expending  in  her  service  territorial  dominions  and  revenues 
equal  to  those  of  the  most  powerful  independent  monarchies. 

But  where  is  Virginia?  Where  is  the  "  ancient  dominion" 
upon  which  her  great  Exemplar  inscribed  the  substance  of  that 
"  maiden  meditation "  which  even  now,  mayhap,  is  mingled 
with  the  weightier  cares  of  majesty  in  her  own  breast  ?  Have 
all  attempts  to  plant  and  colonize  it  proved  still  unsuccessful  ? 
Is  it  still  unreclaimed  from  original  barbarism  —  still  only  the 
abode  of  wolves  and  wild  men  ?  And  why  is  it  not  found  on 
the  map  of  the  British  possessions  —  why  not  comprised  in  the 
catalogue  of  Her  Majesty's  Colonies?  Two  centuries  and  a 
third  ago  only,  when  Elizabeth  quitted  the  throne,  it  was  there, 
unsettled  indeed,  and  with  not  a  civilized  soul  upon  its  soil,  but 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  6 

opening  its  boundless  territories  to  the  adventure  and  enterprise 
of  the  British  people,  and  destined,  to  all  human  appearances, 
to  be  one  day  counted  among  the  brightest  jewels  in  the  crowns 
of  the  British  princes.  Why  is  it  not  now  seen  sparkling  in 
that  which  encircles  her  own  brow  ? 

If  we  might  imagine  the  youthful  Victoria,  led  along  by  the 
train  of  reflections  which  we  have  thus  suggested,  and  snatch- 
ing a  moment  from  the  anxious  contemplation  of  colonies  which 
she  is  in  immediate  danger  of  losing,  to  search  after  those  which 
have  been  lost  to  her  already,  —  if  we  might  imagine  her  turn- 
ing back  the  page  of  History  to  the  period  of  the  first  Stuart,  to 
discover  what  became  of  the  Virginia  of  Elizabeth  after  her 
death,  how  it  was  finally  planted,  and  how  it  passed  from  be- 
neath the  sceptre  of  her  successors,  —  if  we  might  be  indulged 
in  a  far  less  natural  imagination,  and  fancy  ourselves  admitted 
at  this  moment  to  the  royal  presence,  and,  with  something  more 
even  than  the  ordinary  boldness  of  Yankee  curiosity,  peering 
over  the  royal  shoulder,  as,  impatient  at  the  remembrance  of 
losses  sustained,  and  still  more  so  at  the  prospect  of  like  losses 
impending,  she  hurries  over  the  leaves  on  which  the  fortunes  of 
that  Virginia  are  recorded,  and  the  fortunes  of  all  other  Vir- 
ginias foreshadowed,  what  a  scene  should  we  find  unfolding 
itself  to  her  view ! 

She  sees,  at  a  glance,  a  permanent  settlement  effected  there, 
and  James  the  First,  more  fortunate  than  his  mother's  murderer, 
inscribing  a  name  not  on  a  mere  empty  territory  only,  but  on 
an  organized  and  inhabited  town.  A  page  onward,  she  per- 
ceives a  second  and  entirely  separate  settlement  accomplished 
in  a  widely  distant  quarter  of  the  continent,  and  the  cherished 
title  of  New  England  is  now  presented  to  her  view.  Around 
these  two  original  footholds  of  civilization,  she  sees  a  hardy, 
enterprising,  and  chivalrous  people  rapidly  clustering,  while 
other  settlements  are  simultaneously  established  along  the  terri- 
tory which  divides  them.  Thousands  of  miles  of  coast,  with 
their  parallel  ranges  of  interior  country,  are  soon  seen  thickly 
studded  over  with  populous  and  flourishing  plantations.  The 
population  of  them  all,  which  had  run  up  from  0  to  300,000  by 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  found  advanced  to  more 

^   OF  THR^^\ 

ffffflVBRSITy) 

oar 


6  THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

than  two  millions  by  the  close  of  the  eighteenth.  And  another 
page  displays  to  her  kindling  gaze  thirteen  as  noble  colonies  as 
the  sun  ever  shone  upon,  with  nearly  three  millions  of  inhabit- 
ants, all  acknowledging  their  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown, 
all  contributing  their  unmatched  energies  to  the  support  and 
extension  of  British  commerce,  and  all  claiming,  as  their  most 
valued  birthright,  the  liberties  and  immunities  of  the  British 
Constitution.  Ah !  did  the  volume  but  end  there !  But  she 
perceives,  as  she  proceeds,  that  in  a  rash  hour  those  liberties  and 
immunities  were  denied  them.  Resistance,  War,  Independence, 
in  letters  of  blood,  now  start  up  bewilderingly  to  her  sight.  And 
where  the  Virginia  of  Elizabeth  was,  two  centuries  and  a  third 
ago,  a  waste  and  howling  wilderness  upon  which  civilized  man 
was  as  yet  unable  to  maintain  himself  a  moment,  she  next 
beholds  an  independent  and  united  Nation  of  sixteen  millions 
of  freemen,  with  a  commerce  second  only  to  her  own,  and  with 
a  country,  a  constitution,  an  entire  condition  of  men  and  things, 
which  from  all  previous  experience  in  the  growth  of  nations, 
ought  to  have  been  the  fruit  of  at  least  a  thousand  years,  and 
would  have  been  regarded  as  the  thrifty  produce  of  a  Millen- 
nium well  employed ! 

Gentlemen  of  the  New  England  Society  and  Fellow- Citizens 
of  New  York,  of  this  wonderful  rise  and  progress  of  our  country, 
from  the  merely  nominal  and  embryo  existence  which  it  had 
acquired  at  the  dawn  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  the  mature 
growth,  the  substantial  prosperity,  the  independent  greatness 
and  national  grandeur  in  which  it  is  now  beheld,  we  this  day 
commemorate  a  main,  original  spring.  The  twenty-second  of 
December,  1620,  was  not  the  mere  birthday  of  a  town  or  a 
.colony.  Had  it  depended  for  its  distinction  upon  events  like 
these,  it  would  have  long  ago  ceased  to  be  memorable.  The 
town  which  it  saw  planted,  is  indeed  still  in  existence,  standing 
on  the  very  site  which  the  Pilgrims  selected,  and  containing 
within  its  limits  an  honest,  industrious,  and  virtuous  people,  not 
unworthy  of  the  precious  scenes  and  hallowed  associations  to 
whose  enjoyment  they  have  succeeded.  But  possessing,  as  it 
did  originally,  no  peculiar  advantages,  either  of  soil,  locality,  or 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  7 

climate,  and  outstripped,  as  it  naturally  has  been,  in  wealth, 
size,  population,  and  importance,  by  thousands  of  other  towns 
all  over  the  continent,  it  would  scarcely  suffice  to  perpetuate 
beyond  its  own  immediate  precincts,  the  observance,  or  even  the 
remembrance  of  a  day,  t>f  whose  doings  it  constituted  the  only 
monument;  while  the  colony  of  whose  establishment  that  day 
was  also  the  commencement,  has  long  since  ceased  to  enjoy  any 
separate  political  existence.  As  if  to  rescue  its  founders  from 
the  undeserved  fortune  of  being  only  associated  in  the  memory 
of  posterity  with  the  settlers  of  individual  States,  and  to  insure 
for  them  a  name  and  a  praise  in  all  quarters  of  the  country, 
the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth  never  reached  the  dignity  of  in- 
dependent sovereignty  to  which  almost  all  its  sister  colonies 
were  destined,  and  is  now  known  only  as  the  fraction  of  a 
county  of  a  Commonwealth  which  was  founded  by  other  hands. 
Yes,  the  event  which  occurred  two  hundred  and  nineteen  years 
ago  yesterday,  was  of  wider  import  than  the  confines  of  New 
Plymouth.  The  area  of  New  England,  greater  than  that  of 
Old  England,  has  yet  proved  far  too  contracted  to  comprehend 
all  its  influences.  They  have  been  coextensive  with  our  country. 
They  have  pervaded  our  continent.  They  have  passed  the 
Isthmus.  They  have  climbed  the  farthest  Andes.  They  have 
crossed  the  ocean.  The  seeds  of  the  Mayflower,  wafted  by  the 
winds  of  Heaven,  or  borne  in  the  Eagle's  beak,  have  been  scat- 
tered far  and  wide  over  the  Old  World  as  well  as  over  the  New. 
The  suns  of  France  or  Italy  have  not  scorched  them.  The 
frosts  of  Russia  have  not  nipped  them.  The  fogs  of  Germany 
have  not  blighted  them.  They  have  sprung  up  in  every  lati- 
tude, and  borne  fruit,  some  twenty,  some  fifty,  and  some  an 
hundred  fold.  And  though  so  often  struck  down  and  crushed 
beneath  the  iron  tread  of  arbitrary  power,  they  are  still  inera- 
dicably  imbedded  in  every  soil,  and  their  leaves  are  still  destined 
to  be  for  the  healing  of  all  nations.  O,  could  only  some  one  of 
the  pious  fathers,  whose  wanderings  were  this  day  brought  to 
an  end,  be  permitted  to  enter  once  more  upon  these  earthly 
scenes  ;  could  he,  like  the  pious  father  of  ancient  Rome,  guided 
by  some  guardian  spirit  and  covered  with  a  cloud,  be  conducted, 
I  care  not  to  what  spot  beneath  the  sky,  how  might  he  exclaim, 


8  THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

as  he  gazed,  not  with  tears  of  anguish,  but  of  rapture,  not  on 
some  empty  picture  of  Pilgrim  sorrows  and  Pilgrim  struggles, 
but  upon  the  living  realities  of  Pilgrim  influence  and  Pilgrim 
achievement  —  "  Qins  locus —  Qua  regio  —  What  place,  what 
region  upon  earth  is  there,  which  is  not  full  of  the  products  of 
our  labors!  Where,  where  has  not  some  darkness  been  enlight- 
ened, some  oppression  alleviated,  some  yoke  broken  or  chain 
loosened,  some  better  views  of  God's  worship  or  man's  duty,  of 
divine  law  or  human  rights,  been  imparted  by  our  principles  or 
inspired  by  our  example  !  " 

This  country,  Fellow-Citizens,  has  in  no  respect  more  entirely 
contravened  all  previous  experience  in  human  affairs,  than  in 
affording  materials  for  the  minutest  details  in  the  history  of  its 
earliest  ages.  I  should  rather  say,  of  its  earliest  days,  for  it  has 
had  no  ages,  and  days  have  done  for  it  what  ages  have  been 
demanded  for  elsewhere.  But  whatever  the  periods  of  its  exist- 
ence may  be  termed,  they  are  all  historical  periods.  Its  whole 
birth,  growth,  being,  are  before  us.  We  are  not  compelled  to 
resort  to  cunningly  devised  fables  to  account  either  for  its  origin 
or  advancement.  We  can  trace  back  the  current  of  its  career 
to  the  very  rock  from  which  it  first  gushed. 

Yet  how  like  a  fable  does  it  seem,  how  even  "  stranger  than 
fiction,"  to  speak  of  the  event  which  we  this  day  commemorate, 
as  having  exerted  any  material  influence  on  the  destinies  of  our 
country,  much  more  as  having  in  any  degree  affected  the  exist- 
ing condition  of  the  world!  This  ever-memorable,  ever-glorious 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  how,  where,  by  what  numbers,  under 
what  circumstances,  was  it  made  ?  From  what  invincible  Ar- 
mada did  the  Fathers  of  New  England  disembark  ?  With 
what  array  of  disciplined  armies  did  they  line  the  shore  ? 
Warned  by  the  fate  which  had  so  frequently  befallen  other  colo- 
nists on  the  same  coast,  what  batteries  did  they  bring  to  defend 
them  from  the  incursions  of  a  merciless  foe ;  what  stores  to  pre- 
serve them  from  the  invasions  of  a  not  more  merciful  famine  ? 

In  the  whole  history  of  colonization,  ancient  or  modern,  no 
feebler  company  either  in  point  of  numbers,  armament,  or  sup- 
plies, can  be  found,  than  that  which  landed,  on  the  day  we  com- 
memorate, on   these   American  shores.      Forty-one  men, — of 


THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS.  9 

whom  two,  at  least,- came  over  only  in  the  capacity  of  servants 
to  others,  and  who  manifested  their  title  to  be  counted  among 
the  Fathers  of  New  England  within  a  few  weeks  after  their 
arrival,  by  fighting  with  sword  and  dagger  the  first  duel  which 
stands  recorded  on  the  annals  of  the  New  World,  for  which  they 
were  adjudged  to  be  tied  together  neck  and  heels  and  so  to  lie 
for  four-and-twenty  hours  without  meat  or  drink;  —  forty-one 
men,  —  of  whom  one  more,  at  least,  had  been  shuffled  into  the 
ship's  company  at  London,  nobody  knew  by  whom,  and  who 
even  more  signally  vindicated  his  claim,  no  long  time  after,  to  be 
enumerated  among  this  pious  Pilgrim  band,  by  committing  the 
first  murder  and  gracing  the  first  gallows  of  which  there  is  any 
memorial  in  our  colonial  history;  —  forty-one  men,  all  told, — 
with  about  sixty  women  and  children,  one  of  whom  had  been 
born  during  the  passage,  and  another  in  the  harbor  before  they 
landed,  —  in  a  single  ship,  of  only  one  hundred  and  eighty  tons 
burden,  whose  upper  works  had  proved  so  leaky,  and  whose 
middle  beam  had  been  so  bowed  and  wracked  by  the  cross 
winds  and  fierce  storms  which  they  encountered  during  the  first 
half  of  the  voyage,  that  but  for  "  a  great  iron  screw"  which  one 
of  the  passengers  had  brought  with  him  from  Holland,  and  by 
which  they  were  enabled  to  raise  the  beam  into  its  place  again, 
they  must  have  turned  back  in  despair,  —  conducted,  after  a 
four  months'  passage  upon  the  ocean,  either  by  the  ignorance  or 
the  treachery  of  their  pilot,  to  a  coast  widely  different  from  that 
which  they  had  themselves  selected,  and  entirely  out  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  corporation  from  which  they  had  obtained 
their  charter; — and  landing  at  last,  —  after  a  four  weeks'  search 
along  the  shore  for  a  harbor  in  which  they  could  land  at  all, — 
at  one  moment  wearied  out  with  wading  above  their  knees  in 
the  icy  surf,  at  another  tired  with  travelling  up  and  down  the 
steep  hills  and  valleys  covered  with  snow,  at  a  third,  dashed 
upon  the  breakers  in  a  foundering  shallop  whose  sails,  masts, 
rudder,  had  been  successively  carried  away  in  a  squall,  with  the 
spray  of  the  sea  frozen  on  them  until  their  clothes  looked  as  if 
they  were  glazed  and  felt  like  coats  of  iron,  and  having  in  all 
their  search  seen  little  else  but  graves,  and  received  no  other 
welcome  but  a  shout  of  savages  and  a  shower  of  arrows ;  — 


10  TIIE  PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

landing  at  last,  with  a  scanty  supply  of  provisions  for  imme- 
diate use,  and  with  ten  bushels  of  corn  for  planting  in  the  ensu- 
ing spring,  which  they  had  dug  out  of  the  sand-hills  where  the 
Indians  had  hidden  it,  and  without  which  they  would  have  been 
in  danger  of  perishing,  but  for  which,  it  is  carefully  recorded, 
they  gave  the  owners  entire  content  about  six  months  after ;  — 
landing  at  last,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  with  grievous  colds  and 
coughs,  and  the  seeds  of  those  illnesses  which  quickly  proved 
the  death  of  many,  —  upon  a  bleak  and  storm-beaten  rock — a 
fit  emblem  of  most  of  the  soil  by  which  it  was  surrounded ; 
this,  this  is  a  plain,  unvarnished  story  of  that  day's  transaction  — 
this  was  the  triumphal  entry  of  the  New  England  Fathers  upon 
the  theatre  of  their  glory !  *  What  has  saved  it  from  being  the 
theme  of  ridicule  and  contempt?  What  has  rescued  it  from 
being  handed  down  through  all  history,  as  a  wretched  effort  to 
compass  a  mighty  end  by  paltry  and  utterly  inadequate  means? 
What  has  screened  it  from  being  stigmatized  forever  as  a  Quix- 
otic sally  of  wild  and  hare-brained  enthusiasts  ? 

Follow  this  feeble,  devoted  band,  to  the  spot  which  they  have 
at  length  selected  for  their  habitation.  See  them  felling  a  few 
trees,  sawing  and  carrying  the  timber,  and  building  the  first  New 
England  house,  of  about  twenty  feet  square,  to  receive  them 
and  their  goods  ;  —  and  see  that  house,  the  earliest  product  of 
their  exhausted  energies,  within  a  fortnight  after  it  was  finished, 
and  on  the  very  morning  it  was  for  the  first  time  to  have  been 
the  scene  of  their  wilderness  worship,  burnt  in  an  instant  to  the 
ground. 

They  have  chosen  a  Governor  —  one  whom  of  all  others  they 
respect  and  love  —  but  his  care  and  pains  were  so  great  for  the 
common  good,  as  therewith  it  is  thought  he  oppressed  himself, 
and  shortened  his  days,  and  one  morning,  early  in  the  spring,  he 
came  out  of  the  cornfields,  where  he  had  been  toiling  with  the 
rest,  sick,  and  died.  They  have  elected  another;  but  who  is 
there  now  to  be  governed  ?     They  have  chosen  a  Captain,  too, 


*  In  this  description,  and  in  some  other  of  the  narrative  portions  of  the  Address,  I 
have  employed  phrases  and  paragraphs  gleaned  here  and  there  from  the  writings  of 
Prince,  Morton,  and  others,  without  deeming  it  necessary  to  disfigure  the  pages  by 
too  frequent  a  use  of  the  inverted  commas. 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  11 

and  appointed  military  orders  ;  but  who  is  there  now  to  be 
armed  and  marched  to  battle  ?  At  the  end  of  three  months  a 
full  half  of  the  company  are  dead ;  —  of  one  hundred  persons 
scarce  fifty  remain,  and  of  those,  the  living  are  scarce  able  to 
bury  the  dead,  the  well  not  sufficient  to  tend  the  sick.  Were 
there  no  graves  in  England  that  they  have  thus  come  out  to  die 
in  the  wilderness  ? 

But,  doubtless,  the  diminution  of  their  numbers  has,  at  least, 
saved  them  from  all  fear  of  famine.  Their  little  cornfields  have 
yielded  a  tolerable  crop,  and  the  autumn  finds  such  as  have  sur- 
vived in  comparative  health  and  plenty.  And  now,  the  first 
arrival  of  a  ship  from  England  rejoices  them  not  a  little.  Once 
more  they  are  to  hear  from  home,  from  those  dear  families  and 
friends  which  they  have  left  behind  them,  to  receive  tokens  of 
their  remembrance  in  supplies  sent  to  their  relief,  perhaps  to  be- 
hold some  of  them  face  to  face  coming  over  to  share  in  their 
lonely  exile.  Alas!  one  of  the  best  friends  to  their  enterprise 
has,  indeed,  come  over,  and  brought  five-and-thirty  persons  to 
live  in  their  plantation  ;  but  the  ship  is  so  poorly  furnished 
with  provisions,  that  they  are  forced  to  spare  her  some  of  theirs 
to  carry  her  back,  while  not  her  passengers  only,  but  themselves 
too,  are  soon  threatened  with  starvation.  The  whole  company 
are  forthwith  put  upon  half  allowance ;  but  the  famine,  not- 
withstanding, begins  to  pinch.  They  look  hard  for  a  supply, 
but  none  arrives.  They  spy  a  boat  at  sea  ;  it  is  nearing  the 
shore  ;  it  comes  to  land  ;  it  brings  —  a  letter  ;  it  brings  more  — 
it  brings  seven  passengers  to  join  them ;  more  mouths  to  eat 
but  no  food,  no  hope  of  any.  But  they  have  begged,  at  last,  of 
a  fisherman  at  the  Eastward,  as  much  bread  as  amounts  to  a 
quarter  of  a  pound  per  day  till  harvest,  and  with  that  they  are 
sustained  and  satisfied. 

And  now,  the  Narragansetts,  many  thousands  strong,  begin 
to  breathe  forth  threatenings  and  slaughter  against  them,  mock- 
ing at  their  weakness  and  challenging  them  to  the  contest. 
And  when  they  look  for  the  arrival  of  more  friends  from  Eng- 
land, to  strengthen  them  in  this  hour  of  peril,  they  find  a  dis- 
orderly, unruly  band  of  fifty  or  sixty  worthless  fellows  coming 
amongst  them  to  devour  their  substance,  to  waste  and  steal 


12  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

their  corn,  and  by  their  thefts  and  outrages  upon  the  natives, 
also,  to  excite  them  to  fresh  and  fiercer  hostilities. 

Turn  to  the  fate  of  their  first  mercantile  adventure.  The 
ship  which  arrived  in  their  harbor  next  after  the  Mayflower  had 
departed,  and  which,  as  we  have  seen,  involved  them  in  the 
dangers  and  distresses  of  a  famine,  has  been  laden  with  the  pro- 
ceeds of  their  traffic  with  the  Indians,  and  with  the  fruits  of 
their  own  personal  toil.  The  little  cargo  consists  of  two  hogs- 
heads of  beaver  and  other  skins,  and  good  clapboards  as  full  as 
she  can  hold  —  the  freight  estimated  in  all  at  near  five  hundred 
pounds.  What  emotions  of  pride,  what  expectations  of  profit, 
went  forth  with  that  little  outfit!  And  how  were  they  doomed 
to  be  dashed  and  disappointed  !  Just  as  the  ship  was  approach- 
ing the  English  coast,  she  was  seized  by  a  French  freebooter, 
and  robbed  of  all  she  had  worth  taking ! 

View  them  in  a  happier  hour,  in  a  scene  of  prosperity  and 
success.  They  have  a  gallant  warrior  in  their  company,  whose 
name,  albeit  it  was  the  name  of  a  little  man,  (for  Miles  Stan- 
dish  was  hardly  more  than  five  feet  high,)  has  become  the  very 
synonyme  of  a  great  captain.  An  alarm  has  been  given  of  a 
conspiracy  among  the  natives,  and  he  has  been  empowered  to 
enlist  as  many  men  as  he  thinks  sufficient  to  make  his  party 
good  against  all  the  Indians  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay.  He 
has  done  so,  has  put  an  end  to  the  conspiracy,  and  comes  home 
laden  with  the  spoils  of  an  achievement  which  has  been  styled 
by  his  biographer  his  "  most  capital  exploit."  How  long  a  list 
of  killed  and  wounded,  think  you,  is  reported  as  the  credentials 
of  his  bloody  prowess,  and  how  many  men  does  he  bring  with 
him  to  share  in  the  honors  of  the  triumph?  The  whole  number 
of  Indians  slain  in  this  expedition  was  six,  and  though  the  Pil- 
grim hero  brought  back  with  him  in  safety  every  man  that  he 
carried  out,  the  returning  host  numbered  but  eight  beside  then- 
leader.  He  did  not  take  more  with  him,  we  are  told,  in  order 
to  prevent  that  jealousy  of  military  power  which,  it  seems,  had 
already  found  its  way  to  a  soil  it  has  never  since  left.  But  his 
proceedings,  notwithstanding,  by  no  means  escaped  censure. 
When  the  pious  Robinson  heard  of  this  transaction  in  Holland, 
he  wrote  to  the  Pilgrims  "  to  consider  the  disposition  of  their 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  13 

Captain,  who  was  of  a  warm  temper,"  adding,  however,  this 
beautiful  sentiment  in  relation  to  the  wretched  race  to  which, 
the  victims  of  the  expedition  belonged,  —  "it  would  have  been 
happy,  if  they  had  converted  some  before  they  had  killed  any." 
Inconceivable  Fortune!  Unimaginable  Destiny!  Inscruta- 
ble Providence !  Are  these  the  details  of  an  event  from  which 
such  all-important,  all-pervading  influences  were  to  flow  ? 
Were  these  the  means,  and  these  the  men,  through  which,  not 
New  Plymouth  only  was  to  be  planted,  not  New  England  only 
to  be  founded,  not  our  whole  country  only  to  be  formed  and 
moulded,  but  the  whole  hemisphere  to  be  shaped,  and  the  whole 
world  shaken  ?  Yes,  Fellow- Citizens,  this  was  the  event,  these 
were  the  means,  and  these  the  men,  by  which  these  mighty  im- 
pulses and  momentous  effects  actually  have  been  produced. 
And  inadequate,  unadapted,  impotent,  to  such  ends,  as  to  all 
outward  appearances  they  may  seem,  there  was  a  power  in  them, 
and  a  Power  over  them,  amply  sufficient  for  their  accomplish- 
ment, and  the  only  powers  that  were  thus  sufficient.  The  direct 
and  immediate  influence  of  the  passengers  in  the  Mayflower, 
either  upon  the  destinies  of  our  own  land  or  of  others,  may, 
indeed,  have  been  less  conspicuous  than  that  of  some  of  the 
New  England  colonists  who  followed  them.  But  it  was  the 
bright  and  shining  wake  they  left  upon  the  ^vaves,  it  was  the 
clear  and  brilliant  beacon  they  lighted  upon  the  shores,  that 
caused  them  to  have  any  followers.  They  were  the  pioneers  in 
that  peculiar  path  of  emigration  which  alone  conducted  to  these 
great  results.  They,  as  was  written  to  them  by  their  brethren 
in  the  very  outset  of  their  enterprise, —  they  were  the  instruments 
to  break  the  ice  for  others,  and  theirs  shall  be  the  honor  unto  the 
world's  end! 

When  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  upon  Plymouth  Rock,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  years  had  elapsed  since  the  discovery 
of  the  New  World  by  Columbus.  During  this  long  period,  the 
southern  Continent  of  America  had  been  the  main  scene  of  Eu- 
ropean adventure  and  enterprise.  And  richly  had  it  repaid  the 
exertions  which  had  been  made  to  subdue  and  settle  it.  The 
empires  of  Montezuma  and  the  Incas  had  surrendered  them- 
2 


14  THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

selves  at  the  first  summons  before  the  chivalrous  energies  oi 
Cortes  and  Pizarro,  and  Brazil  had  mingled  her  diamonds 
with  the  gold  and  silver  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  to  deck  the  tri- 
umphs and  crown  the  rapacity  of  the  Spaniard  and  the  Portu- 
guese. 

But  the  northern  Continent  had  been  by  no  means  neglected 
in  the  adventures  of  the  day.  Nor  had  those  adventures  been 
confined  to  the  subjects  of  Portugal  and  Spain.  The  monarchs 
of  those  two  kingdoms,  indeed,  emboldened  by  their  success  at 
the  south,  had  put  forth  pretensions  to  the  sole  jurisdiction  of 
the  whole  New  Hemisphere.  But  Francis  the  First  had  well 
replied,  that  he  should  be  glad  to  see  the  clause  in  Adam's  Will 
which  made  the  northern  Continent  their  exclusive  inheritance, 
and  France,  under  his  lead,  had  set  about  securing  for  herself  a 
share  of  the  spoils.  It  was  under  French  patronage  that  John 
Verazzani  was  sailing  in  1524,  when  the  harbor  of  New  York 
especially  attracted  his  notice  for  its  great  convenience  and 
pleasantness. 

But  England,  also,  —  with  better  right  than  either  of  the 
others,  claiming,  as  she  could,  under  the  Cabots,  —  had  not  been 
inattentive  to  the  opportunity  of  enlarging  her  dominions,  and 
I  have  already  alluded  to  sundry  unsuccessful  attempts  which 
were  made  by  the  English  to  effect  this  object,  during  the  reign 
and  under  the  patronage  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

"Within  a  few  months  previous  to  the  close  of  her  reign  and 
without  her  patronage,  Bartholomew  Gosnold  added  another  to 
the  list  of  these  unavailing  efforts,  having  only  achieved  for 
himself  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  Englishman  that  ever 
trod  what  was  afterwards  known  as  the  New  England  shore, 
and  of  having  given  to  the  point  of  that  shore  upon  which  he 
first  set  foot,  the  homely,  but  now  endeared  and  honored  title  of 
Cape  Cod. 

Only  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  the  Queen,  however, 
these  efforts  were  renewed  with  fresh  zeal.  As  early  as  1606, 
King  James  divided  the  Virginia  of  Elizabeth  into  two  parts, 
and  assigned  the  colonization  of  them  to  two  separate  compa- 
nies, by  one  of  which,  and  especially  by  its  President,  the  Lord 
Chief  Justice  Popham,  an  attempt  was  immediately  made  to 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  15 

settle  the  New  England  coast.  A  colony,  indeed,  was  actually 
planted  under  his  patronage,  and  under  the  personal  lead  of  his 
brother,  at  Sagadahoc,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec  River, 
in  1607.  But  it  remained  there  only  a  single  year,  and  was 
broken  up  under  such  disheartening  circumstances  —  the  colo- 
nists, on  their  return,  branding  the  country  "  as  over  cold  and  not 
habitable  by  our  nation"  —  that  the  Adventurers  gave  up  their 
designs. 

Five  or  six  years  later,  notwithstanding,  in  1614,  the  famous 
Captain  John  Smith,  who  had  already,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
other  of  the  two  companies,  established  what  afterwards  proved 
to  be,  rather  than  really  then  was,  a  permanent  settlement  in 
southern  Virginia,  having  founded  Jamestown  in  1607,  was 
induced  to  visit  and  survey  this  Northern  Virginia  also,  as  it 
was  then  called.  And  after  his  return  home,  Captain  Smith  pre- 
pared and  published  a  detailed  account  of  the  country  with  a 
map,  calling  it  for  the  first  time,  and  as  if  to  secure  for  it  all  the 
favor  which  the  associations  of  a  noble  name  could  bestow,  New 
England,  and  giving  a  most  glowing  description  of  the  riches, 
both  of  soil  and  sea,  of  forests  and  fisheries,  which  awaited  the 
enjoyment  of  the  settler.  "  For  I  am  not  so  simple,"  said  he, 
(fortunate,  fortunate  for  the  foundation  of  the  country  he  was 
describing,  such  simplicity  was  at  length  discovered  !)  "  for  I  am 
not  so  simple  as  to  think  that  ever  any  other  motive  than  wealth, 
will  ever  erect  there  a  common  weal,  or  draw  company  from 
their  ease  and  humors  at  home  to  stay  in  New  England." 

During  the  following  year  this  gallant  and  chivalrous  seaman 
and  soldier  evinced  the  sincerity  of  the  opinion  which  he  had 
thus  publicly  expressed,  as  to  the  inviting  character  of  the  spot, 
by  attempting  a  settlement  there  himself,  and  made  two  succes- 
sive voyages  for  that  purpose.  But  both  of  them  were  con- 
tinued scenes  of  disappointment  and  disaster,  and  he,  too,  for 
whose  lion-hearted  heroism  nothing  had  ever  seemed  too  diffi- 
cult, was  compelled  to  acknowledge  himself  overmatched,  and 
to  abandon  the  undertaking. 

And  where  now  were  the  hopes  of  planting  New  England  ? 
The  friends  to  the  enterprise  were  at  their  wit's  end.  All  that 
the  patronage  of  princes,  all  that  the  combined  energies  of  rich 


16  TIIE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

and  powerful  corporations,  all  that  the  individual  efforts  of  the 
boldest  and  most  experienced  private  adventurers,  stimulated  by 
the  most  glowing  imaginations  of  the  gains  which  awaited  their 
grasp,  could  do,  had  been  done,  and  done  in  vain.  Means  and 
motives  of  this  sort  had  effected  nothing,  indeed,  on  the  whole 
North  American  Continent,  after  more  than  half  a  century  of 
uninterrupted  operation,  but  a  little  settlement  at  one  extremity 
by  the  Spanish,  (St.  Augustine,  in  1565,)  a  couple  of  smaller 
settlements  at  the  other  extremity  by  the  French,  (Port  Royal, 
in  1605,  and  Quebec,  in  1609.)  and  smaller  and  more  precarious 
than  either,  the  Jamestown  settlement,  about  midway  between 
the  two;  this  last  being  the  only  shadow — and  but  a  shadow 
it  was  —  of  English  colonization  on  the  whole  continent. 

But  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  and  especially  that 
part  of  it  which  was  to  be  known  as  New  England,  was  des- 
tined to  date  its  ultimate  occupation  to  something  higher  and 
nobler  than  the  chivalry  of  adventurers,  the  greediness  of  cor- 
porations, or  the  ambition  of  kings.  The  lust  of  new  dominion, 
the  thirst  for  treasure,  the  quest  for  spoil,  had  found  an  ample 
field,  reaped  an  overflowing  harvest,  and  rioted  in  an  almost 
fatal  surfeit  on  the  southern  Continent.  It  might  almost  seem, 
in  view  of  the  lofty  destinies  which  were  in  store  for  the  north- 
ern, in  contemplation  of  the  momentous  influences  it  was  to 
exert  upon  the  welfare  of  mankind  and  the  progress  of  the 
world,  as  if  Providence  had  heaped  those  treasures  and  clustered 
those  jewels  upon  the  soil  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  to  divert  the 
interest,  absorb  the  passions,  cloy  the  appetite  and  glut  the 
rapacity  which  were  naturally  aroused  by  the  discovery  of  a 
New  World.  We  might  almost  imagine  the  guardian  Spirit  of 
the  Pilgrims  commissioned  to  cast  down  this  golden  fruit,  and 
strew  this  Hesperian  harvest  along  the  pathway  of  the  newly 
awakened  enterprise,  to  secure  the  more  certainly  for  the  sub- 
jects of  its  appointed  care,  the  possession  of  their  promised  land 
—  their  dowerless,  but  chosen  Atalanta. 

But  I  am  anticipating  an  idea  which  must  not  be  thus  sum- 
marily dismissed,  and  to  which  I  may  presently  find  an  oppor- 
tunity to  do  better  justice.  Meantime,  however,  let  me  remark, 
that  we  are  not  left  altogether  to  supernatural  agency  for  at  least 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  17 

the  secondary  impulse  under  which  New  England  was  colo- 
nized. Nor  were  the  earthly  princes  and  potentates  of  whom  I 
have  already  spoken, —  Elizabeth,  her  Minister  of  Justice,  and 
her  successor  in  the  throne,  —  though  so  signally  frustrated  in 
all  their  direct  endeavors  to  that  end,  without  a  most  powerful, 
though  wholly  indirect  and  involuntary,  influence  upon  its  final 
accomplishment. 

The  daughter  of  Ann  Bullen  could  not  fail  to  cherish  a  most 
hearty  and  implacable  hatred  towards  that  Church,  in  defiance 
of  whose  thunders  she  was  conceived  and  cradled,  and  in  the 
eye  and  open  declaration  of  which  she  was  a  bastard,  a  heretic, 
an  outlaw,  and  a  usurper.  So  far,  at  any  rate,  Elizabeth  was 
a  friend  to  the  Reformation.  But  she  had  almost  as  little  notion 
as  her  father,  of  any  reformation  which  reached  beyond  releas- 
ing her  dominions  from  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and  esta- 
blishing herself  at  the  head  of  the  Church.  And,  accordingly, 
the  very  first  year  of  her  reign  was  marked  by  the  enactment  of 
laws  exacting,  under  the  severest  penalties,  conformity  to  the 
doctrines  and  discipline  of  the  English  Church  —  a  policy  which 
she  never  relinquished. 

For  a  violation  of  these  laws  and  others  of  subsequent  enact- 
ment, but  of  similar  import,  a  large  number  of  persons  in  her 
kingdom,  whose  minds  had  been  too  thoroughly  inspired  with 
disgust  for  the  masks  and  mummeries  of  Catholic  worship,  to 
be  content  with  a  bare  renunciation  of  the  temporal  or  spiritual 
authority  of  the  Pope,  were  arrested,  imprisoned,  and  treated 
with  all  manner  of  persecution.  At  least  six  of  them  were 
capitally  executed,  and  two  of  these,  as  it  happened,  were  con- 
demned to  death  by  that  very  Lord  Chief  Justice  whom  we 
have  seen  a  few  years  afterwards  at  the  head  of  the  Plymouth 
Company,  engaged  in  so  earnest  but  unavailing  an  effort  to  colo- 
nize the  New  England  coast.  Little  did  he  know  that  his  part 
in  that  work  had  been  already  performed. 

In  an  imaginary  "  dialogue  between  some  young  men  born  in 
New  England,  and  sundry  ancient  men  that  came  out  of  Hol- 
land and  Old  England,"  written  in  1648,  by  Governor  Bradford 
—  a  name  which  before  all  others  should  be  this  day  remembered 
with  veneration  —  the  young  men  are  represented  as  asking  of 

2* 


18  THE   PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

the  old  men,  how  many  Separatists  had  been  executed  ?  "  We 
know  certainly  of  six,"  replied  the  ancient  men,  « that  were  pub- 
licly executed,  besides  such  as  died  in  prisons.  .  .  .  Two  of 
them  were  condemned  by  cruel  Judge  Popham,  whose  counte- 
nance and  carriage  was  very  rough  and  severe  towards  them, 
with  many  sharp  menaces.  But  God  gave  them  courage  to 
bear  it,  and  to  make  this  answer :  — 

"  '  My  Lord,  your  face  we  fear  not, 
And  for  your  threats  we  care  not, 
And  to  come  to  your  read  service  we  dare  not.' " 

Nor  did  King  James  depart  from  the  footsteps  of  his  prede- 
cessor in  the  religious  policy  of  his  administration.  Though 
from  his  Scotch  education  and  connections,  and  from  the  opi- 
nions which  he  had  openly  avowed  before  coming  to  the  Eng- 
lish throne,  he  had  seemed  pledged  to  a  career  of  liberality  and 
toleration,  yet  no  sooner  was  he  fairly  seated  on  that  throne  than 
he,  too,  set  about  vindicating  his  claim  to  his  new  title  of  "  De- 
fender of  the  Faith,"  and  enforcing  conformity  to  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  the  English  Church.  And  he  cut  short  a  confer- 
ence at  Hampton  Court,  between  himself  and  the  Puritan  lead- 
ers, got  up  at  his  own  instigation,  in  the  vainglorious  idea  that 
he  could  vanquish  these  heretics  in  an  argument,  with  this  sum- 
mary and  most  significant  declaration  — "  If  this  be  all  they 
have  to  say,  I  will  make  them  conform,  or  I  ivill  harry  them  out 
of  the  landP 

The  idea  of  banishment  was  full  of  bitterness  to  those  to 
whom  it  was  thus  sternly  held  up.  They  loved  their  native 
land  with  an  affection  which  no  rigor  of  restraint,  no  cruelty  of 
persecution  could  quench.  Death  itself,  to  some  of  them  at 
least,  seemed  to  have  fewer  fears  than  exile.  "  We  crave,"  was 
the  touching  language  of  a  Petition  of  sixty  Separatists,  in 
1592,  who  had  been  committed  unbailable  to  close  prison  in 
London,  where  they  were  allowed  neither  meat,  nor  drink,  nor 
lodging,  and  where  no  one  was  suffered  to  have  access  to  them, 
so  as  no  felons  or  traitors  or  murderers  were  thus  dealt  with,  — 
"  We  crave  for  all  of  us  but  the  liberty  either  to  die  openly  or 
to  live  openly  in  the  land  of  our  nativity.     If  we  deserve  death, 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  19 

it  beseemeth  the  majesty  of  justice  not  to  see  us  closely  mur- 
dered, yea,  starved  to  death  with  hunger  and  cold,  and  stifled  in 
loathsome  dungeons.  If  we  be  guiltless,  we  crave  but  the  bene- 
fit of  our  innocence,  that  we  may  have  peace  to  serve  our  God 
and  our  Prince  in  the  place  of  the  sepulchres  of  our  fathers." 

But  there  were  those  among  them,  notwithstanding,  to  whom 
menaces,  whether  of  banishment  or  of  the  block,  even  uttered 
thus  angrily  by  one,  who,  as  he  once  well  said  of  himself,  "while 
he  held  the  appointment  of  Judges  and  Bishops  in  his  hand, 
could  make  what  law  and  what  gospel  he  chose,"  were  alike 
powerless,  to  prevail  on  them  to  conform  to  modes  and  creeds 
which  they  did  not  of  themselves  approve.  They  heard  a  voice 
higher  and  mightier  than  James's,  calling  to  them  in  the  accents 
of  their  own  consciences,  and  saying,  in  the  express  language 
of  a  volume,  which  it  had  been  the  most  precious  result  of  all 
the  discoveries,  inventions,  and  improvements  of  that  age  of 
wonders  to  unlock  to  them  —  "  Be  ye  not  conformed,  but  be  ye 
transformed"  —  and  that  voice,  summon  it  to  exile,  or  summon 
it  to  the  grave,  they  were  resolved  to  obey. 

Foiled,  therefore,  utterly  in  the  first  of  his  alternatives,  the 
King  resorted  to  the  last.  It  was  more  within  the  compass  of 
his  power,  and  he  did  harry  them  out  of  the  land.  Within  three 
years  after  the  utterance  of  this  threat,  (namely,  in  1607,)  it  is 
recorded  by  the  Chronologist,  that  Messrs.  Clifton's  and  Robin- 
son's church  in  the  north  of  England,  being  extremely  harassed, 
some  cast  into  prison,  some  beset  in  their  houses,  some  forced 
to  leave  their  farms  and  families,  begin  to  fly  over  to  Holland 
for  purity  of  worship  and  liberty  of  conscience. 

Religions,  true  and  false,  have  had  their  Hegiras,  and  institu- 
tions and  empires  have  owed  their  origin  to  the  flight  of  a  child, 
a  man,  or  a  multitude.  Moses  fled  from  the  face  of  Pharaoh  ; 
but  he  returned  to  overwhelm  him  with  the  judgments  of  Jeho- 
vah, and  to  build  up  Israel  into  a  mighty  people.  Mahomet 
with  his  followers  fled  from  the  magistrates  of  Mecca  ;  but  he 
came  back,  with  the  sword  in  one  hand  and  the  Koran  in  the 
other,  and  the  empire  of  the  Saracens  was  soon  second  to  none 
on  the  globe.  "  The  young  child  and  his  mother"  fled  from  the 
fury  of  Herod ;  but  they  returned,  and  the  banner  of  the  Cross 


20  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

was  still  destined  to  go  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer.  The 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  also,  fled  from  the  oppression  of  this  arbitrary 
tyrant,  and,  although  their  return  was  to  a  widely  distant  por- 
tion of  his  dominions,  yet  return  they  did,  and  the  freedom  and 
independence  of  a  great  republic,  delivered  from  the  yoke  of  that 
tyrant's  successors,  date  back  their  origin,  this  day,  to  the  princi- 
ples for  which  they  were  proscribed,  and  to  the  institutions 
which  they  planted. 

But  let  us  follow  them  in  their  eventful  flight.  They  first  set- 
tle at  Amsterdam,  where  they  remain  for  about  a  year,  and  are 
soon  joined  by  the  rest  of  their  brethren.  But  finding  that 
some  contentions  had  arisen  in  a  church  which  was  there  before 
them,  and  fearing  that  they  might  themselves  become  embroiled 
in  them,  though  they  knew  it  would  be  very  much  "  to  the  pre- 
judice of  their  outward  interest"  to  remove,  yet  "valuing  peace 
and  spiritual  comfort  above  all  other  riches "  they  depart  to 
Leyden,  and  there  live  "  in  great  love  and  harmony  both  among 
themselves  and  their  neighbor  citizens  for  above  eleven  years." 

But,  although  during  all  this  time  they  had  been  courteously 
entertained  and  lovingly  respected  by  the  people,  and  had  quietly 
and  sweetly  enjoyed  their  church  liberties  under  the  States,  yet 
finding  that,  owing  to  the  difference  of  their  language,  they 
could  exert  but  little  influence  over  the  Dutch,  and  had  not  yet 
succeeded  in  bringing  them  to  reform  the  neglect  of  observa- 
tion of  the  Lord's  day  as  a  Sabbath,  or  any  other  thing  amiss 
among  them,  —  that  owing,  also,  to  the  licentiousness  of  youth 
in  that  country  and  the  manifold  temptations  of  the  place,  their 
children  were  drawn  away  by  evil  examples  into  extravagant 
and  dangerous  courses,  they  now  begin  to  fear  that  Holland 
would  be  no  place  for  their  church  and  their  posterity  to  con- 
tinue in  comfortably,  and  on  those  accounts  to  think  of  a  re- 
move to  America.  And  having  hesitated  a  while  between 
Guiana  and  Virginia,  as  a  place  of  resort,  and  having  at  last 
resolved  on  the  latter,  they  send  their  agents  to  treat  with  the 
Virginia  Company  for  a  right  within  their  chartered  limits,  and 
to  see  if  the  King  would  give  them  liberty  of  conscience  there. 
The  Company  they  found  ready  enough  to  grant  them  a  patent 
with  ample  privileges,  but  liberty  of  conscience  under  the  broad 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  21 

seal  King  James  could  never  be  brought  to  bestow,  and  the 
most  that  could  be  extorted  from  him,  by  the  most  persevering 
importunity,  was  a  promise  that  he  would  connive  at  them,  and 
not  molest  them,  provided  they  should  carry  themselves  peace- 
ably. 

Notwithstanding  this  discouragement,  however,  they  resolved 
to  venture.  And  after  another  year  of  weary  negotiation  with 
the  merchants  who  were  to  provide  them  with  a  passage,  the 
day  for  their  departure  arrives.  It  had  been  agreed  that  a  part 
of  the  church  should  go  before  their  brethren  to  America  to  pre- 
pare for  the  rest,  and  as  the  major  part  was  to  stay  behind,  it 
was  also  determined  that  their  pastor,  the  beloved  Robinson, 
should  stay  with  them.  Not  only  were  the  Pilgrims  thus  about 
to  leave  "  that  goodly  and  pleasant  city  which  had  been  their 
resting  place  above  eleven  years,"  but  to  leave  behind  them  also 
the  greatest  part  of  those  with  whom  they  had  been  so  long  and 
lovingly  associated  in  a  strange  land,  and  this  —  to  encounter 
all  the  real  and  all  the  imaginary  terrors  which  belonged  to  that 
infancy  of  ocean  navigation,  to  cross  a  sea  of  three  thousand 
miles  in  breadth,  and  to  reach  at  last  a  shore  which  had  hith- 
erto repelled  the  approaches  of  every  civilized  settler !  Who 
can  describe  the  agonies  of  such  a  scene  ?  Their  Memorialist 
has  done  it  in  language  as  satisfactory  as  any  language  can  be, 
but  the  description  still  seems  cold  and  feeble. 

"  And  now  the  time  being  come  when  they  were  to  depart," 
says  he,  "  they  were  accompanied  with  most  of  their  brethren 
out  of  the  city  unto  a  town  called  Delft  Haven,  where  the  ship 
lay  ready  to  receive  them.  .  .  .  One  night  was  spent  with 
little  sleep  with  the  most,  but  with  friendly  entertainment  and 
Christian  discourse,  and  other  real  expressions  of  true  Christian 
love.  The  next  day,  the  wind  being  fair,  the^  went  on  board, 
and  their  friends  with  them,  where  truly  doleful  was  the  sight 
of  that  sad  and  mournful  parting,  to  hear  what  sighs  and  sobs 
and  prayers  did  sound  amongst  them,  what  tears  did  gush  from 
every  eye,  and  pithy  speeches  pierced  each  other's  hearts,  that 
sundry  of  the  Dutch  strangers,  that  stood  on  the  Key  as  specta- 
tors, could  not  refrain  from  tears.  But  the  tide  (which  stays 
for  no  man)  calling  them  away  that  were  thus  loath  to  depart, 


22  THE   PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

their  reverend  pastor  falling  down  on  his  knees,  and  they  all 
with  him,  with  watery  cheeks  commended  them  with  most  fer- 
vent prayers  unto  the  Lord  and  his  blessing;  and  then,  with 
mutual  embraces  and  many  tears,  they  took  their  leave  of  one 
another,  which  proved  to  be  the  last  leave  to  many  of  them." 

Such  was  the  embarkation  of  the  New  England  Fathers ! 
Such  the  commencement  of  that  Pilgrim  voyage,  whose  pro- 
gress during  a  period  of  five  months  I  have  already  described, 
and  whose  termination  we  this  day  commemorate!  Under 
these  auspices,  and  by  these  instruments,  was  at  last  completed 
an  undertaking  which  had  so  long  baffled  the  efforts  of  states- 
men and  heroes,  of  corporations  and  of  kings!  Said  I  not 
rightly  that  the  Pilgrims  had  a  power  within  them,  and  a  Power 
over  them,  which  were  not  only  amply  adequate  to  its  accom- 
plishment, but  which  were  the  only  powers  that  were  thus  ade- 
quate ?  And  who  requires  to  be  reminded  what  those  powers 
were  ? 

I  fear  not  to  be  charged  with  New  England  bigotry  or  Puri- 
tan fanaticism  in  alluding  to  the  Power  which  was  over  the  Pil- 
grims in  their  humble  but  heroic  enterprise.  If  Washington,  in 
reviewing  the  events  of  our  Revolutionary  history,  could  say  to 
the  American  armies,  as  he  quitted  their  command,  that  "  the 
singular  interpositions  of  Providence  in  our  feeble  condition 
were  such  as  could  scarcely  escape  the  attention  of  the  most  un- 
observing,"  and  again  to  the  American  Congress,  on  first  assum- 
ing the  administration  of  the  Union,  that  "  every  step  by  which 
the  people  of  the  United  States  had  advanced  to  the  character 
of  an  independent  nation,  seemed  to  have  been  distinguished 
by  some  token  of  Providential  agency,"  how  much  less  can  any 
one  be  in  danger  of  subjecting  himself  to  the  imputation  of 
indulging  in  a  wjjd  conceit,  or  yielding  to  a  weak  superstition, 
by  acknowledging,  by  asserting,  a  Divine  intervention  in  the 
history  of  New  England  colonization.  It  were  easy,  it  is  true, 
to  convey  the  same  sentiment  in  more  fashionable  phraseology 
—  to  disguise  an  allusion  to  a  wonder-working  Providence  un- 
der the  name  of  an  extraordinary  fortune,  or  to  cloak  the  idea 
of  a  Divine  appointment  under  the  title  of  a  lucky  accident. 
But  I  should  feel  that  I  dishonored  the  memory  of  our  New 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  23 

England  sires,  and  deserved  the  rebuke  of  their  assembled  sons, 
were  I,  on  an  occasion  like  the  present,  to  resort  to  such  misera- 
ble paltering. 

No  —  I  see  something  more  than  mere  fortunate  accidents  or 
extraordinary  coincidences  in  the  whole  discovery  and  coloniza- 
tion of  our  country,  —  in  the  age  at  which  these  events  took 
place,  in  the  people  by  whom  they  were  effected,  and  more  es- 
pecially in  the  circumstances  by  which  they  were  attended ;  and 
may  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth  if  ever  I  am 
ashamed  to  say  so! 

When  I  reflect  that  this  entire  hemisphere  of  ours  remained 
so  long  in  a  condition  of  primeval  barbarism,  —  that  the  very 
existence  of  its  vast  continents  was  so  long  concealed  from  the 
knowledge  of  civilized  man,  —  that  these  colossal  mountains  so 
long  lifted  their  summits  to  the  sky  and  cast  their  shadows 
across  the  earth,  —  that  these  gigantic  rivers  so  long  poured  their 
mighty,  matchless  waters  to  the  sea,  —  that  these  magnificent 
forests  so  long  waved  their  unrivalled  foliage  to  the  winds,  and 
these  luxuriant  fields  and  prairies  so  long  spread  out  their  virgin 
sods  before  the  sun,  —  without  a  single  intelligent  human  being 
to  enjoy,  to  admire,  or  even  to  behold  them :  — 

When  I  reflect  to  what  heights  of  civilization,  ambition,  and 
power,  so  many  of  the  nations  of  the  Old  World  were  succes- 
sively advanced,  reaching  a  perfection  in  some  branches  of  art 
and  of  science  which  has  destined  their  very  ruins  to  be  the 
wonder,  the  delight,  the  study,  and  the  models  of  mankind  for 
ever,  and  pushing  their  commerce  and  their  conquests  over  sea 
and  shore  with  an  energy  so  seemingly  indomitable  and  illimit- 
able, and  yet  that  these  seas  and  these  shores,  reserved  for  other 
Argonauts  than  those  of  Greece,  and  other  Eagles  than  those 
of  Rome,  were  protected  alike  from  the  reach  of  their  arts  and  of 
their  arms,  from  their  rage  for  glory  and  their  lust  for  spoils  :  — 

When  I  reflect  that  all  the  varieties  of  roaming  tribes  which, 
up  to  the  period  of  the  events  of  which  I  speak,  had  found  their 
way,  nobody  knows  when  or  from  whence,  to  this  northern  Con- 
tinent at  least,  were  so  mysteriously  endowed  with  a  nature, 
not  merely  to  make  no  progress  in  improvement  and  settlement 
of  themselves,  but  even  to  resist  and  defy  every  influence  which 


24  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them  by  others,  except  such  as 
tended  to  their  own  extirpation  and  overthrow,  —  how  they 
shrank  at  the  approach  of  the  civilized  settler,  melting  away  as 
they  retired,  and  marking  the  trail  of  their  retreat,  I  had  almost 
said,  by  the  scent  of  their  own  graves ;  —  or,  if  some  stragglers 
of  a  race  less  barbarous,  at  some  uncertain  epoch,  were  brought 
unknowingly  upon  our  shores,  that,  instead  of  stamping  the 
Rock  upon  which  they  landed  with  the  unequivocal  foot-prints 
of  the  fathers  of  a  mighty  nation,  they  only  scratched  upon  its 
surface  a  few  illegible  characters,  to  puzzle  the  future  antiquary 
to  decide  whether  they  were  of  Scandinavian  or  of  Carthagi- 
nian, of  Runic  or  of  Punic  origin,  and  to  prove  only  this  dis- 
tinctly, —  that  their  authors  were  not  destined  to  be  the  settlers, 
or  even  the  discoverers,  in  any  true  sense  of  that  term,  of  the 
country  upon  which  they  had  thus  prematurely  stumbled  :  — * 

When  I  reflect  upon  the  momentous  changes  in  the  institu- 
tions of  society,  and  in  the  instruments  of  human  power,  which 
were  crowded  within  the  period  which  was  ultimately  signalized 
by  this  discovery  and  this  settlement ;  the  press,  by  its  magic 
enginery,  breaking  down  every  barrier,  and  annihilating  every 
monopoly  in  the  paths  of  knowledge,  and  proclaiming  all  men 
equal  in  the  arts  of  peace ;  gunpowder,  by  its  tremendous  pro- 
perties, undermining  the  moated  castles  and  rending  asunder  the 
plaited  mail  of  the  lordly  chieftains,  and  making  all  men  equal 
on  the  field  of  battle ;  the  Bible,  rescued  from  its  unknown 
tongues,  its  unauthorized  interpretations,  and  its  unworthy  per- 
versions, opened  at  length  in  its  original  simplicity  and  purity  to 
the  world,  and  proving  that  all  men  were  born  equal  in  the  eye  of 
God  ;  —  when  I  see  learning  reviving  from  its  lethargy  of  centu- 
ries, religion  reasserting  its  native  majesty,  and  liberty  —  Liberty 
itself — thus  armed  and  thus  attended,  starting  up  anew  to  its. 
long  suspended  career,  and  exclaiming,  as  it  were,  in  the  confi- 
dence of  its  new  instruments  and  its  new  auxiliaries  — "  Give 

*  Von  Mnllcr,  in  his  Universal  History,  speaks  of  "  the  monument  apparently 
Punic,  which  was  found  some  years  ago  in  the  forests  behind  Boston,"  and  adds,  "it 
is  possible  that  some  Tyrians  or  Carthaginians,  thrown  by  storms  upon  unknown 
coasts,  uncertain  if  ever  the  same  tracts  might  be  again  discovered,  chose  to  leave  this 
monument  of  their  adventures."  He  refers,  without  doubt,  to  the  same  Rock  at  Pigh- 
ton,  which  the  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries  in  Denmark  claim  as  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  the  discovery  of  America  by  the  Scandinavians. 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  25 

me  now  a  place  to  stand  upon  —  a  place  free  from  the  inter- 
ference of  established  power,  free  from  the  embarrassment  of 
ancient  abuses,  free  from  the  paralyzing  influence  of  a  jealous 
and  overbearing  prerogative — give  me  but  a  place  to  stand  upon, 
and  I  will  move  the  world"  —  I  cannot  consider  it,  I  cannot  call 
it,  a  mere  fortunate  coincidence,  that  then,  at  that  very  instant, 
the  veil  of  waters  was  lifted  up,  that  place  revealed,  and  the 
world  moved! 

When  I  reflect,  too,  on  the  nation  under  whose  reluctant 
auspices  this  revelation  was  finally  vouchsafed  to  the  longing 
vision  of  the  intrepid  Admiral ;  how  deeply  it  was  already 
plunged  in  the  grossest  superstitions  and  sensualities ;  how 
darkly  it  was  already  shadowed  by  the  impending  horrors  of  its 
dread  tribunal,  and  how  soon  it  was  to  lose  the  transient  lustre 
which  might  be  reflected  upon  it  from  the  virtues  of  an  Isabella 
or  the  genius  of  a  Charles  V.,  and  to  sink  into  a  long  and  ray- 
less  night  of  ignorance  and  oppression  :  — 

When  I  look  back  upon  its  sister  kingdom  of  the  Peninsula, 
also,  which  shared  with  it  in  reaping  the  teeming  first-fruits  of 
the  new-found  world,  and  find  them  matching  each  other  not 
more  nearly  in  the  boldness  of  their  maritime  enterprise,  than 
in  the  sternness  of  their  religious  bigotry  and  in  the  degrada- 
tion of  their  approaching  doom  :  — 

When  I  remember  how  both  of  these  kingdoms,  from  any 
colonies  of  whose  planting  there  could  have  been  so  poor  a 
hope  of  any  early  or  permanent  advancement  to  the  cause  of 
human  freedom,  were  attracted  and  absorbed  by  the  mineral 
and  vegetable  treasures  of  the  tropical  islands  and  territories, 
and  by  the  gorgeous  empires  which  spirits  of  congenial  gross- 
ness  and  sensuality  had  already  established  there,  while  this 
precise  portion  of  America,  these  noble  harbors,  these  glorious 
hills,  these  exhaustless  valleys  and  matchless  lakes,  presenting  a 
combination  of  climate  and  of  soil,  of  land  course  and  water 
course,  marked  and  quoted,  as  it  were,  by  nature  herself,,  for  the 
abode  of  a  great,  united,  and  prosperous  republic,  —  the  rock- 
bound  region  of  New  England  not  excepted  from  the  category, 
which,  though  it  can  boast  of  nothing  nearer  akin  to  gold  or 
diamonds  than  the  sparkling  mica  of  its  granite  or  the  glittering 
3 


26  THE   PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

crystals  of  its  ice,  was  yet  framed  to  produce  a  wealth  richer  than 
gold,  and  whose  price  is  above  rubies,  —  the  intelligent  and  vir- 
tuous industry  of  a  free  people;  —  when  I  remember,  I  say, 
how  this  exact  portion  of  the  new  world  was  held  back  for 
more  than  a  century  after  its  discovery,  and  reserved  for  the 
occupation  and  settlement  of  the  only  nation  under  the  sun 
able  to  furnish  the  founders  of  such  a  republic  and  the  pro- 
genitors of  such  a  people  —  the  very  nation  in  which  the  re- 
forms and  inventions  of  the  day  had  wrought  incomparably  the 
most  important  results,  and  human  improvement  and  human 
liberty  had  made  incalculably  the  largest  advance,  —  I  cannot 
regard  it,  I  cannot  speak  of  it,  as  a  mere  lucky  accident,  that 
this  Atlantic  seaboard  was  settled  by  colonies  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race! 

And  when,  lastly,  I  reflect  on  the  circumstances  under  which 
this  settlement  was  in  the  end  effected,  on  that  part  of  the  coast, 
more  especially,  which  exerted  a  paramount  influence  on  the 
early  destinies  of  the  Continent,  and  gave  the  first  unequivocal 
assurance  that  virtue  and  industry  and  freedom  were  here  to 
find  a  refuge  and  here  to  found  themselves  an  empire:  — 

"When  I  behold  a  feeble  company  of  exiles,  quitting  the 
strange  land  to  which  persecution  had  forced  them  to  flee ;  enter- 
ing with  so  many  sighs  and  sobs  and  partings  and  prayers  on  a 
voyage  so  full  of  perils  at  the  best,  but  rendered  a  hundred-fold 
more  perilous  by  the  unusual  severities  of  the  season  and  the 
absolute  unseaworthiness  of  their  ship ;  arriving  in  the  depth  of 
winter  on  a  coast  to  which  even  their  pilot  was  a  perfect 
stranger,  and  where  "  they  had  no  friends  to  welcome  them,  no 
inns  to  entertain  them,  no  houses,  much  less  towns,  to  repair  unto 
for  succor,"  but  where,  —  instead  of  friends,  shelter,  or  refresh- 
ment,—  famine,  exposure,  the  wolf,  the  savage,  disease,  and  death, 
seemed  waiting  for  them  ;  and  yet  accomplishing  an  end  which 
royalty  and  patronage,  the  love  of  dominion  and  of  gold,  indi- 
vidual adventure  and  corporate  enterprise  had  so  long  essayed 
in  vain,  and  founding  a  colony  which  was  to  defy  alike  the 
machinations  and  the  menaces  of  tyranny,  in  all  periods  of  its 
history,  —  it  needs  not,  it  needs  not,  that  I  should  find  the  coral 
pathway  of  the  sea  laid  bare,  and  its  waves   a   wall  on  the 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  27 

right  hand  and  on  the  left,  and  the  crazed  chariot  wheels  of  the 
oppressor  floating  in  fragments  upon  its  closing  floods,  to  feel, 
to  realize,  that  higher  than  human  was  the  Power  which  pre- 
sided over  the  Exodus  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers! 

Was  it  not  something  more  than  the  ignorance  or  the  self- 
will  of  an  earthly  and  visible  pilot,  which,  instead  of  conducting 
them  to  the  spot  which  they  had  deliberately  selected,  —  the 
very  spot  on  which  we  are  now  assembled,  the  banks  of  your 
own  beautiful  Hudson,  of  which  they  had  heard  so  much  dur- 
ing their  sojourn  in  Holland,  but  which  were  then  swarming  with 
a  host  of  horrible  savages,  —  guided  them  to  a  coast  which, 
though  bleaker  and  far  less  hospitable  in  its  outward  aspect, 
had  yet,  by  an  extraordinary  epidemic,  but  a  short  time  previous, 
been  almost  completely  cleared  of  its  barbarous  tenants?  Was 
it  not  something  more,  also,  than  mere  mortal  error  or  human 
mistake,  which,  instead  of  bringing  them  within  the  limits  pre- 
scribed in  the  patent  they  had  procured  in  England,  directed 
them  to  a  shore  on  which  they  were  to  land  upon  their  own 
responsibility  and  under  their  own  authority,  and  thus  com- 
pelled them  to  an  act,  which  has  rendered  Cape  Cod  more  me- 
morable than  Runnymede,  and  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  than 
the  proudest  hall  of  ancient  charter  or  modern  constitution, — 
the  execution  of  the  first  written  original  contract  of  Democratic 
Self-Government  which  is  found  in  the  annals  of  the  world  ? 

But  the  Pilgrims,  I  have  said,  had  a  power  within  them  also. 
If  God  was  not  seen  among  them  in  the  fire  of  a  Horeb,  in  the 
earthquake  of  a  Sinai,  or  in  the  wind  cleaving  asunder  the  waves 
of  the  sea  they  were  to  cross,  He  was  with  them,  at  least,  in  the 
still,  small  voice.  Conscience,  conscience,  was  the  nearest  to 
an  earthly  power  which  the  Pilgrims  possessed,  and  the  freedom 
of  conscience  the  nearest  to  an  earthly  motive  which  prompted 
their  career.  It  was  conscience  which  "  weaned  them  from  the 
delicate  milk  of  their  mother  country,  and  inured  them  to  the 
difficulties  of  a  strange  land."  It  was  conscience  which  made 
them  "  not  as  other  men,  whom  small  things  could  discourage, 
or  small  discontentments  cause  to  wish  themselves  at  home 
again."  It  was  conscience  —  that  "  robur  et  ces  triplex  circa 
pectus"  —  which  emboldened  them  to  launch  their  fragile  bark 


28  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

upon  a  merciless  ocean,  fearless  of  the  fighting  winds  and  low- 
ering storms.  It  was  conscience  which  stiffened  them  to  brave 
the  perils,  endure  the  hardships,  undergo  the  privations  of  a 
howling,  houseless,  hopeless  desolation.  And  thus,  almost  in 
the  very  age  when  the  Great  Master  of  human  nature  was  put- 
ting into  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  most  interesting  and  philo- 
sophical characters,  that  well-remembered  conclusion  of  a  cele- 
brated soliloquy,  — 

"  Thus  conscience  does  make  cowards  of  us  all ; 
And  thus  the  native  hue  of  resolution 
Is  sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought ; 
And  enterprises  of  great  pith  and  moment 
With  this  regard,  their  currents  turn  awry, 
And  lose  the  name  of  action,"  — 

this  very  conscience,  a  clog  and  an  obstacle,  indeed^  to  its  foes, 
but  the  surest  strength  and  sharpest  spur  of  its  friends,  was 
inspiring  a  courage,  confirming  a  resolution,  and  accomplishing 
an  enterprise,  to  which  the  records  of  the  world  will  be  searched 
in  vain  to  find  a  parallel.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  it  was 
conscience,  and  that,  not  intrenched  behind  broad  seals,  but  en- 
shrined in  brave  souls,  which  carried  through  and  completed  the 
long-baffled  undertaking  of  settling  the  New  England  coast. 

But  conscience  did  more  than  this.  It  was  that  same  still, 
small  voice,  which,  under  God,  and  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  Pilgrims,  pronounced  the  very  fiat  of  light  in  the  crea- 
tion of  civilized  society  on  this  whole  northern  Continent  of 
America ;  exerting  an  influence  in  the  process  of  that  creation, 
compared  with  which  all  previous  influences  were  but  so  many 
movings  on  the  face  of  the  waters. 

Let  me  not  be  thought,  in  this  allusion  and  others  like  it,  in 
which  I  have  already  indulged,  to  slight  the  claims  of  the  Vir- 
ginia colony,  or  to  do  designed  injustice  to  its  original  settlers. 
There  are  laurels  enough  growing  wild  upon  the  graves  of  Ply- 
mouth, without  tearing  a  leaf  from  those  of  Jamestown.  New 
England  does  not  require  to  have  other  parts  of  the  country 
cast  into  shade,  in  order  that  the  brightness  of  her  own  early 
days  may  be  seen  and  admired.  Least  of  all,  would  any  son 
of  New  England  be  found  uttering  a  word  in  wanton  disparage- 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  29 

merit  of  "  our  noble,  patriotic,  sister  colony,  Virginia,"  as  she 
was  once  justly  termed  by  the  patriots  of  Faneuil  Hall.  There 
are  circumstances  of  peculiar  and  beautiful  correspondence  in 
the  careers  of  Virginia  and  New  England,  which  must  ever 
constitute  a  bond  of  sympathy,  affection,  and  pride  between 
their  children.  Not  only  did  they  form  respectively  the  great 
northern  and  southern  rallying-points  of  civilization  on  this  con- 
tinent ;  not  only  was  the  most  friendly  competition,  or  the  most 
cordial  cooperation,  as  circumstances  allowed,  kept  up  between 
them  during  their  early  colonial  existence;  but  who  forgets  the 
generous  emulation,  the  noble  rivalry,  with  which  they  contin- 
ually challenged  and  seconded  each  other  in  resisting  the  first 
beginnings  of  British  aggression,  in  the  persons  of  their  James 
Otises  and  Patrick  Henrys  ?  "Who  forgets  that,  while  that  resist- 
ance was  first  brought  to  a  practical  test  in  New  England, 
at  Lexington,  and  Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill,  —  fortune,  as  if 
resolved  to  restore  the  balance  of  renown  between  the  two, 
reserved  for  the  Yorktown  of  Virginia  the  last  crowning  victory  of 
Independence  ?  Who  forgets  that,  while  the  hand  by  which  the 
original  Declaration  of  that  Independence  was  drafted,  was  fur- 
nished by  Virginia,  the  tongue  by  which  the  adoption  of  that 
instrument  was  defended  and  secured,  was  supplied  by  New 
England  —  a  bond  of  common  glory,  upon  which  not  death  alone 
seemed  to  set  his  seal,  but  Deity,  I  had  almost  said,  to  affix 
an  immortal  sanction,  when  the  spirits  by  which  that  hand  and 
that  tongue  were  moved,  were  caught  up  together  to  the  clouds 
on  the  same  great  day  of  the  nation's  jubilee.  Nor  let  me  omit 
to  allude  to  a  peculiar  distinction  which  belongs  to  Virginia 
alone.  It  is  her  preeminent  honor  and  pride,  that  the  name 
which  the  whole  country  acknowledges  as  that  of  a  father,  she  can 
claim  as  that  of  a  son  —  a  name  at  which  comparison  ceases  — 
to  which  there  is  nothing  similar,  nothing  second — a  name 
combining  in  its  associations  all  that  was  most  pure  and  godly 
in  the  nature  of  the  Pilgrims,  with  all  that  was  most  brave  and 
manly  in  the  character  of  the  Patriots  —  a  name  above  every 
name  in  the  annals  of  human  liberty ! 

But   I  cannot  refrain  from  adding,  that  not  more  does  the 
fame  of  Washington  surpass  that  of  every  other  public  charac- 
3* 


30  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. 

ter  which  America,  or  the  world  at  large,  has  yet  produced,  than 
the  New  England  colony,  in  its  origin  and  its  influences,  its 
objects  and  its  results,  excels  that  from  which  Washington  was 
destined  to  proceed. 

In  one  point,  indeed,  and  that,  it  is  true,  a  point  of  no  incon- 
siderable moment,  the  colonies  of  Jamestown  and  Plymouth 
were  alike.  Both  were  colonies  of  Englishmen; — and  in  run- 
ning down  the  history  of  our  country  from  its  first  colonization 
to  the  present  hour,  I  need  hardly  say  that  no  single  circum- 
stance can  be  found,  which  has  exercised  a  more  propitious  and 
elevating  influence  upon  its  fortunes,  than  the  English  origin  of 
its  settlers.  Not  to  take  up  time  in  discussing  either  the  ab- 
stract adaptation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  character  to  the  circum- 
stances of  a  new  country,  or  its  relative  capacity  for  the  esta- 
blishment and  enjoyment  of  free  institutions,  —  the  most  cursory 
glance  at  the  comparative  condition,  past  or  present,  of  those 
portions  of  the  New  World,  which  were  planted  by  other  na- 
tions, is  amply  sufficient  to  illustrate  this  idea.  Indeed,  our 
own  continent  affords  an  illustration  of  it,  impressed  upon  us 
anew  by  recent  events  in  the  Canadian  colonies,  which  renders 
any  reference  to  the  other  entirely  superfluous.  The  contrast 
between  the  social,  moral,  and  intellectual  state  of  the  two  parts 
of  North  America  which  were  peopled  respectively  by  English- 
men and  Frenchmen,  has  been  often  alluded  to.  But  a  com- 
parison of  their  political  conditions  exhibits  differences  still 
more  striking. 

Go  back  to  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  Stamp  Act, 
and  survey  the  circumstances  of  the  two  portions  of  country,  as 
they  then  existed.  Both  are  in  a  state  of  colonial  dependence 
on  Great  Britain.  But  the  one  has  just  been  reduced  to  that 
state  by  force  of  arms.  Its  fields  and  villages  have  just  been 
the  scenes  of  the  pillage  and  plunder  which  always  march  in 
the  train  of  conquest.  The  allegiance  of  their  owners  has  been 
violently  transferred  to  new  masters,  as  the  penalty  of  defeat. 
And  to  keep  alive  the  more  certainly  the  vindictive  feelings 
which  belong  to  the  bosoms  of  a  vanquished  people,  and  to 
frustrate  the  more  entirely  the  natural  influences  of  time  and 
custom  in  healing  up  the  wounds  which  such  a  subjugation  has 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  31 

inflicted,  the  laws  of  their  conquerors  are  enacted  and  adminis- 
tered in  a  strange  tongue,  and  one  which  continually  reminds 
them  that  the  yoke  under  which  they  have  passed,  is  that  of  a 
nation  towards  which  they  have  an  hereditary  hatred.  The 
people  of  the  other  portion,  on  the  contrary,  owe  their  relation 
to  the  common  sovereign  of  them  both,  to  nothing  but  their 
own  natural  and  voluntary  choice,  —  feel  towards  the  nation 
over  which  he  presides  nothing  but  the  attachment  and  venera- 
tion of  children  towards  the  parent  of  their  pride,  and  are  bound 
to  it  by  the  powerful  ties  of  a  common  history,  a  common  lan- 
guage, and  a  common  blood.  Tell  me,  now,  which  of  the  two 
will  soonest  grow  impatient  of  its  colonial  restraint,  soonest 
throw  off  its  foreign  subordination,  and  soonest  assert  itself  free 
and  independent? 

And  what  other  solution  can  any  one  suggest  to  the  problem 
presented  by  the  fact  as  it  exists — the  very  reverse  of  that 
which  would  thus  have  been  predicted,  —  what  other  clew  can 
any  one  offer  to  the  mystery,  that  the  French  colonies  should 
have  remained,  not  entirely  quietly,  indeed,  but  with  only  occa- 
sional returns  of  ineffectual  throes  and  spasms,  up  to  this  very 
hour,  in  a  political  condition  which  every  thing  would  seem  to 
have  conspired  to  render  loathsome  and  abhorrent,  while  the 
English  colonies,  snapping  alike  every  link  either  of  love  or  of 
power,  breaking  every  bond  both  of  affection  and  authority, 
resolved  themselves  into  an  independent  nation  half  a  century 
ago,  —  what  other  explanation,  I  repeat,  can  any  one  give  to 
this  paradox  fulfilled,  than  that  which  springs  from  a  considera- 
tion of  the  comparative  capacities  for  self-improvement  and 
self-government  of  the  races  by  which  they  were  planted  ?  A 
common  history,  a  common  language,  a  common  blood,  were, 
indeed,  links  of  no  ordinary  strength,  between  the  Atlantic  colo- 
nies and  the  mother  country.  But  that  language  was  the  lan- 
guage in  which  Milton  had  sung,  Pym  pleaded,  and  Locke  rea- 
soned ;  that  blood  was  the  blood  which  Hampden  had  poured 
out  on  the  plain  of  Chalgrove,  and  in  which  Sidney  and  Rus- 
sell had  weltered  on  the  block  of  martyrdom  ;  and  that  history 
had  been  the  history  of  toiling,  struggling,  but  still-advancing 
liberty  for  a  thousand  years.     Such  links  could  only  unite  the 


>*   OF  TUTS     x 

cnriYEEsiTy] 


1 u  * 


32  THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

free.  They  lost  their  tenacity  in  a  moment,  when  attempted  to 
be  recast  on  the  forge  of  despotism  and  employed  in  the  service 
of  oppression.  Nay,  the  brittle  fragments  into  which  they  were 
broken  in  such  a  process,  were  soon  moulded  and  tempered  and 
sharpened  into  the  very  blades  of  a  triumphant  resistance. 
What  more  effective  instruments,  what  more  powerful  incite- 
ments, did  our  fathers  enjoy,  in  their  revolutionary  struggle,  than 
the  lessons  afforded  them  in  the  language,  the  examples  held  up 
to  them  in  the  history,  the  principles,  opinions,  sensibilities,  im- 
pulses, flowing  from  the  hearts  and  vibrating  through  the  veins, 
which  they  inherited  from  the  very  nation  against  which  they 
were  contending!  Yes,  let  us  not  omit,  even  on  this  day,  when 
we  commemorate  the  foundation  of  a  colony  which  dates  back 
its  origin  to  British  bigotry  and  British  persecution,  even  in  this 
connection,  too,  when  we  are  speaking  of  that  contest  for  liberty 
which  owed  its  commencement  to  British  oppression  and  Bri- 
tish despotism,  —  let  us  not  omit  to  express  our  gratitude  to 
God,  that  old  England  was  still  our  mother  country,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge our  obligations  to  our  British  ancestors  for  the  glo- 
rious capabilities  and  instincts  which  they  bequeathed  us. 

But,  with  the  single  exception  that  both  emigrated  from  Eng- 
land, the  colonies  of  Jamestown  and  Plymouth  had  nothing  in 
common,  and,  to  all  outward  appearances,  the  former  enjoyed 
every  advantage.  The  two  companies,  as  it  happened,  though 
so  long  an  interval  elapsed  between  their  reaching  America,  left 
their  native  land  within  about  a  year  of  each  other ;  but  under 
what  widely  different  circumstances  did  they  embark!  The 
former  set  sail  from  the  port  of  the  Metropolis,  in  a  squadron  of 
three  vessels,  under  an  experienced  commander,  under  the  pa- 
tronage of  a  wealthy  and  powerful  corporation,  and  with  an 
ample  patent  from  the  Crown.  The  latter  betook  themselves  to 
their  solitary  bark,  by  stealth,  under  cover  of  the  night,  and 
from  a  bleak  and  desert  heath  in  Lincolnshire,  while  a  band  of 
armed  horsemen,  rushing  down  upon  them  before  the  embarka- 
tion was  completed,  made  prisoners  of  all  who  were  not  already 
on  board,  and  condemned  husbands  and  wives,  and  parents  and 
children,  to  a  cruel  and  almost  hopeless  separation. 

Nor  did  their  respective  arrivals   on  the   American  shores, 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  33 

though  divided  by  a  period  of  thirteen  years,  present  a  less  sig- 
nal contrast.  The  Virginia  colony  entered  the  harbor  of  James- 
town about  the  middle  of  May,  and  never  could  that  lovely 
Queen  of  Spring  have  seemed  lovelier,  than  when  she  put  on  her 
flowery  kirtle  and  her  wreath  of  clusters,  to  welcome  those  ad- 
miring strangers  to  the  enjoyment  of  her  luxuriant  vegetation. 
But  there  were  no  May-flowers  for  the  Pilgrims,  save  the  name 
written,  as  in  mockery,  on  the  stern  of  their  treacherous  ship. 
They  entered  the  harbor  of  Plymouth  on  the  shortest  day  in  the 
year,  in  this  last  quarter  of  December,  —  and  when  could  the 
rigid  Winter-King  have  looked  more  repulsive  than  when, 
shrouded  with  snow  and  crowned  with  ice,  he  admitted  those 
shivering  wanderers  within  the  realms  of  his  dreary  domination? 

But  mark  the  sequel.  From  a  soil  teeming  with  every  variety 
of  production  for  food,  for  fragrance,  for  beauty,  for  profit,  the 
Jamestown  colonists  reaped  only  disappointment,  discord,  wretch- 
edness. Having  failed  in  the  great  object  of  their  adventure  — 
the  discovery  of  gold  —  they  soon  grew  weary  of  their  condi- 
tion, and  within  three  years  after  their  arrival  are  found  on  the 
point  of  abandoning  the  country.  Indeed,  they  are  actually 
embarked,  one  and  all,  with  this  intent,  and  are  already  at  the 
mouth  of  the  River,  wThen,  falling  in  with  new  hands  and  fresh 
supplies  which  have  been  sent  to  their  relief,  they  are  induced 
to  return  once  more  to  their  deserted  village. 

But  even  up  to  the  very  year  in  which  the  Pilgrims  landed, 
ten  years  after  this  renewal  of  their  designs,  they  "  had  hardly 
become  settled  in  their  minds,"  had  hardly  abandoned  the  pur- 
pose of  ultimately  returning  to  England ;  and  their  condition 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact,  that  in  1619,  and  again  in  1621, 
cargoes  of  young  women,  (a  commodity  of  which  there  was 
scarcely  a  sample  in  the  whole  plantation  —  and  would  to  Hea- 
ven, that  all  the  traffic  in  human  flesh  on  the  Virginian  coast, 
even  at  this  early  period,  had  been  as  innocent  in  itself  and  as 
beneficial  in  its  results!)  were  sent  out  by  the  corporation  in 
London  and  sold  to  the  planters  for  wives,  at  from  one  hundred 
and  twenty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco  apiece ! 

Nor  was  the  political  condition  of  the  Jamestown  colony 
much  in  advance  of  its  social  state.     The  charter,  under  which 


34  THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

they  came  out,  contained  not  a  single  element  of  popular  liberty, 
and  secured  not  a  single  right  or  franchise  to  those  who  lived 
under  it.  And,  though  a  gleam  of  freedom  seemed  to  dawn 
upon  them  in  1619,  when  they  instituted  a  Colonial  Assembly 
and  introduced  the  representative  system  for  the  first  time  into 
the  New  World,  the  precarious  character  of  their  popular  insti- 
tutions and  the  slender  foundation  of  their  popular  liberties  at 
a  much  later  period,  even  as  far  down  as  1671,  may  be  under- 
stood from  that  extraordinary  declaration  of  Sir  William  Berke- 
ley, then  Governor  of  Virginia,  to  the  Lords  Commissioners: — ' 
"I  thank  God,  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing  —  and  I 
hope  we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years  ;  —  for  learning  has 
brought  disobedience,  and  heresy,  and  sects  into  the  world;  and 
printing  has  divulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  govern- 
ment.    God  keep  us  from  both." 

But  how  was  it  with  the  Pilgrims  ?  From  a  soil  of  com- 
parative barrenness,  they  gathered  a  rich  harvest  of  content- 
ment, harmony,  and  happiness.  Coming  to  it  for  no  purpose  of 
commerce  or  adventure,  they  found  all  that  they  sought  —  reli- 
gious freedom;  and  that  made  the  wilderness  to  them  like 
Eden,  and  the  desert  as  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  Of  quitting 
it,  from  the  very  hour  of  their  arrival,  they  seem  never  once  to 
have  entertained,  or  even  conceived,  a  thought.  The  first  foot 
that  leapt  gently  but  fearlessly  on  Plymouth  Rock  was  a  pledge 
that  there  would  be  no  retreating,  —  tradition  tells  us  that  it  was 
the  foot  of  Mary  Chilton.*  They  have  brought  their  wives 
and  their  little  ones  with  them,  and  what  other  assurance  could 
they  give  that  they  have  come  to  their  home?  And  accord- 
ingly they  proceed  at  once  to  invest  it  with  all  the  attributes  of 
home,  and  to  make  it  a  free  and  a  happy  home.  The  compact 
of  their  own  adoption  under  which  they  landed,  remained  the 
sole  guide  of  their  government  for  nine  years,  and  though  it 

*  The  distinction  of  being  the  first  person  that  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock  has 
been  claimed  for  others  beside  Mary  Chilton,  and  particularly  for  John  Alden.  But  I 
could  not  resist  the  remark  of  Judge  Davis  on  this  point,  in  one  of  his  notes  to  Mor- 
ton's Memorial.  After  quoting  the  language  of  another,  that  "  for  the  purposes  of  the 
arts  a  female  figure,  typical  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  is  well  adapted,"  —  he  observes 
that,  "  as  there  is  a  great  degree  of  uncertainty  on  this  subject,  it  is  not  only  grateful, 
but  allowable,  to  indulge  the  imagination,  and  we  may  expect  from  the  friends  of  John 
Alden,  that  they  should  give  place  to  the  lady." 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  35 

was  then  superseded  by  a  charter  from  the  Corporation  within 
whose  limits  they  had  fallen,  it  was  a  charter  of  a  liberal  and 
comprehensive  character,  and  under  its  provisions  they  conti- 
nued to  lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  civil  freedom. 
The  trial  by  jury  was  established  by  the  Pilgrims  within  three 
years  after  their  arrival,  and  constitutes  the  appropriate  opening 
to  the  first  chapter  of  their  legislation.  The  education  of  their 
children,  as  we  have  seen,  was  one  of  their  main  motives  for 
leaving  Holland,  and  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  it  was 
among  the  earliest  subjects  of  their  attention ;  while  the  plant- 
ers of  Massachusetts,  who  need  not  be  distinguished  from  the 
planters  of  Plymouth  for  any  purposes  of  this  comparison, 
founded  the  college  at  Cambridge  in  1636 ;  set  up  a  printing 
press  at  the  same  place  in  1639,  which  "  divulged,"  in  its  first 
workings  at  least,  nothing  more  libellous  or  heretical  than  a 
Psalm  book  and  an  Almanac ;  and  as  early  as  1647  had  insti- 
tuted, by  an  ever-memorable  statute,  that  noble  system  of  New 
England  free  schools,  which  constitutes  at  this  moment  the  best 
security  of  liberty,  wherever  liberty  exists,  and  its  best  hope, 
wherever  it  is  still  to  be  established. 

It  would  carry  me  far  beyond  the  allowable  limits  of  this 
Address,  if,  indeed,  I  have  not  already  exceeded  them,  to  con- 
trast, in  detail,  the  respective  influences  upon  our  country,  and, 
through  it,  upon  the  world,  of  these  two  original  colonies.  The 
elements  for  such  a  contrast  I  have  already  suggested,  and  I 
shall  content  myself  with  only  adding  further  upon  this  point, 
the  recent  and  very  remarkable  testimony  of  two  most  intelli- 
gent French  travellers,  whose  writings  upon  the  United  States 
have  justly  received  such  distinguished  notice  on  both  sides  the 
Atlantic. 

"  I  have  already  observed,"  says  De  Tocqueville,  that  "  the 
origin  of  the  American  settlements  may  be  looked  upon  as  the 
first  and  most  efficacious  cause,  to  which  the  present  prosperity 
of  the  United  States  may  be  attributed.  .  .  .  When  I 
reflect  upon  the  consequences  of  this  primary  circumstance, 
methinks,  I  see  the  destiny  of  America  embodied  in  the  first 
Puritan  who  landed  on  these  shores,  just  as  the  human  race 
was  represented  by  the  first  man." 


36  THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

"  If  we  wished,"  says  Chevalier,  "  to  form  a  single  type,  repre- 
senting the  American  character  of  the  present  moment  as  a  sin- 
gle whole,  it  would  be  necessary  to  take  at  least  three  fourths  of 
the  Yankee  race  and  to  mix  it  with  hardly  one  fourth  of  the 
Virginian." 

But  the  Virginia  type  was  not  complete  when  it  first  appeared 
on  the  coast  of  Jamestown,  and  I  must  not  omit,  before  bring- 
ing these  remarks  to  a  conclusion,  to  allude  to  one  other  element 
of  any  just  comparison  between  the  two  colonies.  The  year 
1620  was  unquestionably  the  great  epoch  of  American  destinies. 
Within  its  latter  half  were  included  the  two  events  which  have 
exercised  incomparably  the  most  controlling  influence  on  the 
character  and  fortunes  of  our  country.  At  the  very  time  the 
Mayflower,  with  its  precious  burden,  was  engaged  in  its  peril- 
ous voyage  to  Plymouth,  another  ship,  far  otherwise  laden,  was 
approaching  the  harbor  of  Virginia.  It  was  a  Dutch  man-of- 
war,  and  its  cargo  consisted  in  part  of  twenty  slaves,  which 
were  subjected  to  sale  on  their  arrival,  and  with  which  the 
foundations  of  domestic  slavery  in  North  America  were  laid. 

I  see  those  two  fate-freighted  vessels,  laboring  under  the 
divided  destinies  of  the  same  nation,  and  striving  against  the 
billows  of  the  same  sea,  like  the  principles  of  good  and  evil 
advancing  side  by  side  on  the  same  great  ocean  of  human  life. 
I  hear  from  the  one  the  sighs  of  wretchedness,  the  groans  of 
despair,  the  curses  and  clankings  of  struggling  captivity,  sound- 
ing and  swelling  on  the  same  gale,  which  bears  only  from  the 
other  the  pleasant  voices  of  prayer  and  praise,  the  cheerful 
melody  of  contentment  and  happiness,  the  glad,  the  glorious 
"  anthem  of  the  free."  O,  could  some  angel  arm,  like  that 
which  seems  to  guide  and  guard  the  Pilgrim  bark,  be  now  inter- 
posed to  arrest,  avert,  dash  down,  and  overwhelm  its  accursed 
compeer!  But  it  may  not  be.  They  have  both  reached  in 
safety  the  place  of  their  destination.  Freedom  and  Slavery,  in' 
one  and  the  same  year,  have  landed  on  these  American  shores. 
And  American  liberty,  like  the  Victor  of  ancient  Rome,  is 
doomed,  let  us  hope  not  forever,  to  endure  the  presence  of  a 
fettered  captive  as  a  companion  in  her  Car  of  Triumph ! 


THE   PILGRIM   FATHERS.  37 

Gentlemen  of  the  New  England  Society  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  —  I  must  detain  you  no  longer.     In  preparing  to  discharge 
the  duty,  which  you  have  done  me  the  unmerited  honor  to  as- 
sign me  in  the  celebration  of  this  hallowed  Anniversary,  I  was 
more  than  once  tempted  to  quit  the  narrow  track  of  remark 
which  I  have  now  pursued,  and  to  indulge  in  speculations  or  dis- 
cussions of  a  more   immediate  and  general  interest.      But  it 
seemed  to  me,  that  if  there  was  any  day  in  the  year  which  be- 
longed of  right  to  the  past  and  the  dead,  this  was  that  day,  and 
to  the  past  and  the  dead  I  resolved  to  devote  my  exclusive  atten- 
tion.    But  though  I  have  fulfilled  that  resolution,  as  you  will 
bear  me  witness,  with  undeviating  fidelity,  many  of  the  topics 
which  I  had  proposed  to  myself  seem  hardly  to  have  been  en- 
tered upon,  —  some  of  them  scarcely  approached.     The  princi- 
ples of  the  Pilgrims,  the  virtues  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  faults  of 
the  Pilgrims  —  alas !  there  are  enough   always  ready  to  make 
the  most  of  these :  —  the  personal  characters  of  their  brave  and 
pious  leaders,  Bradford,  Brewster,  Carver,  Win  slow,  Alden,  Al- 
lerton,  Standish,  —  the  day  shall  not  pass   away  without  their 
names  being  once  at  least  audibly  and  honorably  pronounced  :  — 
the  gradual  rise  and  progress  of  the  colony  they  planted,  and  of 
the  old  Commonwealth  with  which  it  was  early  incorporated :  — 
the  origin  and  growth  of  the  other  colonies,  Rhode  Island,  Con- 
necticut, New  Hampshire,  and  the  rest,  which  were  afterwards 
included  within  the  limits  of  New  England,  and  many  of  the 
sons  of  all  of  which  are  doubtless  present  here  this  day :  —  the 
history  of  New  England  as  a  whole,  its  great  deeds  and  great 
men,  its   schools  and  scholars,  its  heroes  and  battle-fields,  its 
ingenuity  and  industry,  its  soil,  —  hard  and  stony,  indeed,  but  of 
inestimable  richness  in  repelling  from  its  culture  the  idle,  the 
ignorant,  and  the  enslaved,  and  in  developing  the  energies  of  free, 
intelligent,  independent  labor:  —  the  influences   of  New  Eng- 
land abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  its  emigration,  ever  onward, 
with  the  axe  in  one  hand  and  the  Bible  in  the  other,  clearing 
out  the  wild  growth  of  buckeye  and  hickory,  and  planting  the 
trees  of  knowledge  and  of  life,  driving  the  buffalo  from  forest 
to  lake,  from  lake  to  prairie,  and  from  prairie  to  the  sea,  till 
the  very  memory  of  its  existence  would  seem  likely  to  be  lost, 
4 


38  THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

but  for  the  noble  City  which  its  pursuers,  pausing  for  an  instant 
on  their  track,  have  called  by  its  name,  and  founded  on  its 
favorite  haunt: — these  and  a  hundred  other  themes  of  interest- 
ing and  appropriate  discussion,  have,  I  am  sensible,  been  quite 
omitted.  But  I  have  already  exhausted  your  patience,  or  cer- 
tainly my  own  strength,  and  I  hasten  to  relieve  them  both. 

It  has  been  suggested,  Gentlemen,  by  one  of  the  French  tra- 
vellers, whose  opinions  I  have  just  cited,  that,  though  the  Yan- 
kee has  set  his  mark  on  the  United  States  during  the  last  half 
century,  and  though  "  he  still  rules  the  nation,"  that  yet,  the 
physical  labor  of  civilization  is  now  nearly  brought  to  an  end, 
the  physical  basis  of  society  entirely  laid,  and  that  other  influ- 
ences are  soon  about  to  predominate  in  rearing  up  the  social 
superstructure  of  our  nation.  I  hail  the  existence  of  this  Asso- 
ciation, and  of  others  like  it  in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  bound 
together  by  the  golden  cords  of  "  friendship,  charity,  and  mutual 
assistance,"  as  a  pledge  that  New  England  principles,  whether  in 
ascendency  or  under  depression  in  the  nation  at  large,  will  never 
stand  in  need  of  warm  hearts  and  bold  tongues  to  cherish  and 
vindicate  them.  But,  at  any  rate,  let  us  rejoice  that  they  have  so 
long  pervaded  the  country  and  so  long  prevailed  in  her  institu- 
tions. Let  us  rejoice  that  the  basis  of  her  society  has  been  laid 
by  Yankee  arms.  Let  us  rejoice  that  the  corner-stone  of  our 
republican  edifice  was  hewn  out  from  the  old,  original,  primitive, 
Plymouth  quarry.  In  what  remains  to  be  done,  either  in  finishing 
or  in  ornamenting  that  edifice,  softer  and  more  pliable  materials 
may,  perhaps,  be  preferred,  —  the  New  England  granite  may  be 
thought  too  rough  and  unwieldy,  —  the  architects  may  condemn 
it,  —  the  builders  may  reject  it,  —  but  still,  still,  it  will  remain 
the  deep  and  enduring  foundation,  not  to  be  removed  without 
undermining  the  whole  fabric.  And  should  that  fabric  be  des- 
tined to  stand,  even  when  bad  government  shall  descend  upon 
it  like  the  rains,  and  corruption  come  round  about  it  like  the 
floods,  and  faction,  discord,  disunion,  and  anarchy  blow  and 
beat  upon  it  like  the  winds, —  as  God  grant  it  may  stand  for- 
ever !  —  it  will  still  owe  its  stability  to  no  more  effective  earthly 
influence,  than,  that  it  was  founded  on  pilgrim  rock. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  COMMERCE. 


AN  ADDRESS,  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  BOSTON  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY 
ASSOCIATION,  ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THEIR  TWENTY-FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY, 
OCTOBER  15,  1845. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  op  the  Mercantile  Library  Association, — 

I  am  greatly  honored  by  the  part  which  you  have  assigned  me 
on  this  occasion,  and  by  thus  being  permitted  to  add  my  name 
to  the  list  of  distinguished  persons  who  have  addressed  you  at 
your  anniversary  celebrations.  John  Davis,  George  Putnam, 
Rums  Choate,  Edward  Everett,  —  I  need  name  no  more  of 
them  to  justify  me  in  saying,  that  any  one  may  feel  proud  at 
being  called  on  to  follow  in  such  footsteps.  I  need  name  no 
more  of  them,  certainly,  to  warrant  me  in  adding,  that  no  one 
can  fail  to  feel  some  touches,  also,  of  a  less  welcome  and  less 
inspiriting  emotion  than  that  of  pride,  as  he  finds  himself  rising 
to  tread  in  such  tracks,  and  begins  to  realize,  by  something  of  a 
practical  experiment,  the  full  measure  of  the  strides  before  him. 
It  is  grateful  to  remember  at  such  a  moment,  that  I  am  any 
thing  but  a  volunteer  in  your  service,  and  that  there  are  those 
present  who  can  bear  witness,  how  gladly  I  would  have  been 
excused  again,  as  more  than  once  in  years  past,  from  encounter- 
ing its  perilous  contrasts.  And  now,  in  complying  at  last  with 
your  kind  solicitations,  I  propose  to  enter  upon  no  labored  dis- 
cussion of  formal  topics,  but  rather  conforming  myself  to  the 
spirit  of  an  anniversary  and  an  introductory  address,  as  well  as 
to  what  I  understand  to  be  your  own  expectations  and  wishes 
this  evening,  to  find  the  subject  of  my  remarks  in  the  circum- 


40  THE  INFLUENCE  OF    COMMERCE. 

stances  of  the  occasion,  and  in  the  character  of  the  institution 
before  me. 

You  have  arrived,  Gentlemen,  at  a  marked  epoch  in  your  his- 
tory. You  are  assembled  to  commemorate  your  Twenty- Fifth 
Anniversary.  A  quarter  of  a  century  has  passed  away  since,  at 
a  little  meeting  held  at  the  Commercial  Coffee  House  in  this 
city,  under  the  lead  of  a  gentleman,  whose  name  has  been 
honorably  connected  with  more  than  one  of  our  most  valued 
institutions,  as  well  as  with  repeated  terms  of  popular  and  effi- 
cient administration  of  the  chief  magistracy  of  our  city,  (Mr. 
Theodore  Lyman,)  your  association  took  its  rise.  Your  progress 
was  for  many  years  slow.  The  excellent  report  of  your  last 
board  of  directors  exhibits  a  record  of  early  trials  and  struggles, 
such  as  no  institution,  not  founded  upon  the  rock  of  true  prin- 
ciple and  real  merit,  could  have  survived.  It  points,  indeed,  to 
more  than  one  period  in  your  history,  when  you  found  it  all  but 
impossible  to  maintain  your  organization,  and  when  you  had 
little  more  than  a  name  to  live.  The  persevering  energy  of 
some  of  your  early  members,  however,  has  not  been  unrewarded 
in  the  end.  Within  a  few  years  past  all  obstacles  to  your  ad- 
vancement have  been  overcome.  Large  additions  have  been 
made  to  your  funds,  to  your  library,  and  to  your  numbers,  now 
amounting  to  nearly  eight  hundred  ;  and  you  have  given  a  fresh 
pledge,  within  a  few  months  past,  that  your  institution  shall  be 
sustained  and  perpetuated,  by  asking  and  accepting  a  charter 
from  the  Commonwealth.  At  the  close,  then,  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  since  the  date  of  your  original  organization,  you  have 
assembled  here  to-night,  in  the  enjoyment  of  every  circumstance, 
both  of  prosperity  for  the  present  and  of  hope  for  the  future,  and 
in  the  presence  of  this  crowded  company  of  patrons  and  friends, 
to  celebrate  your  first  anniversary  as  an  incorporated  associa- 
tion. 

I  congratulate  you,  gentlemen,  most  cordially  on  this  consum- 
mation. I  congratulate  this  community,  that  your  association 
has  outlived  the  discouragements  and  embarrassments  of  its 
infancy,  and  has  at  length  taken  its  place  among  the  public  and 
permanent  institutions  of  our  city.  A  legislative  charter  has  of 
itself,  indeed,  added  little  to  your  claims  to  consideration.     In 


THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  41 

some  quarters,  it  may  rather  be  thought  to  have  rendered  you 
an  object  of  suspicion,  jealousy,  and  odium ;  though  I  think  it 
would  puzzle  the  sturdiest  decrier  of  corporations  to  put  his 
finger  upon  the  clause  in  your  charter,  which  clothes  you  with 
powers  formidable  to  any  thing,  but  idleness,  ignorance,  and 
vice.     But  it  has  certainly  furnished  you  with  facilities  for  self- 
government,  and  for  the  management  and  transmission  of  pro- 
perty, and  for  setting  a  just  limit  to  the  responsibility  of  your 
members,  and  for  securing  a  just  accountability  for  the  bounty 
of  your  benefactors,  which  cannot  fail  to  exert  a  most  auspi- 
cious influence  on  your  future  condition  and  progress.     And 
may  it  not  be  hoped,  as  among  its  incidental  advantages,  that  it 
may  have  armed  you  thus  early  against  prejudices,  which  may, 
at  any  time  or  under  any  influences,  seek  to  get  possession  of 
your  minds,  in  reference  to  a  species  of  social  machinery,  which 
has  been,  in  my  judgment,  more  potent  than  power-loom  or 
steam-engine,  in  advancing  the  best  interests  of  society  ?     May 
it  not  be  hoped,  that  your  early  enlistment  in  the  ranks  of  a 
chartered  company,  may  impress  you  indelibly  with  the  true 
idea,  that  though,  according  to  the  musty  and  moth-eaten  maxim 
of  the  law,  corporations  may  have  no  souls,  those  who  consti- 
tute them  have;  and  that  they  are  entitled  to  be  judged,  in  their 
corporate  as  well  as  in  their  individual  capacity,  by  their  de- 
signs, their  objects,  and  their  acts  ? 

Your  designs,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  are  inscribed,  in 
brief  but  comprehensive  terms,  on  the  face  of  your  charter. 
You  have  been  made  a  corporation  "  for  the  purpose  of  diffusing 
and  promoting  knowledge  among  young  men,  (including  all 
from  fourteen  years  of  age  upwards,)  now  engaged  in,  or  des- 
tined for,  the  mercantile  profession ; "  and  while  you  are  faith- 
ful to  such  ends,  you  cannot  fail  to  meet  with  the  respect,  the 
encouragement,  the  cordial  approbation  and  support  of  all  good 
men.  For  myself,  certainly,  in  whatever  light  I  look  at  such  an 
association,  whether  in  regard  to  the  present  circumstances  or 
the  future  pursuits  of  those  who  compose  it,  its  interest  and  im- 
portance seem  hardly  susceptible  of  exaggeration. 

I  see  in  it,  in  the  first  place,  an  instrument  of  unspeakable 
profit  and  preservation  —  intellectual  profit  and  moral  preserva- 
4* 


42  THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

tion  —  to  vast  numbers  of  young'  men,  who  in  successive  yeare 
shall  be  enrolled  among  its  members.  I  see  gathered  nightly  in 
its  halls,  within  well-stored  alcoves,  and  around  tables  spread 
with  whatever  can  nourish  the  intellect  or  stimulate  the  soul  of 
man  —  a  feast  "  which,  after,  no  repenting  draws  "  —  those  who 
might  otherwise  be  led  away  by  the  temptations  of  profligacy 
or  crime.  The  fresh  and  unstained  country  boy,  sent  out  in  the 
first  flush  of  his  young  heart  from  the  parental  home,  to  en- 
counter the  contaminations  of  a  great  city  as  he  may,  with  a 
hope  which  has  no  horizon  short  of  gaining  the  whole  world, 
but  without  a  thought  of  the  peril  of  losing  his  own  soul ;  the 
young  lad  of  yet  sadder  fortune,  to  whom,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  there  remains  no  parental  home,  no  precious  influence  of 
a  father's  or  a  mother's  eye,  beneath  which  he  may  shelter  him- 
self after  the  toil  of  to-day  is  over,  and  gather  fresh  strength  for 
the  trials  and  temptations  of  to-morrow ;  and  those  whom  a 
hundred  other  nameless  peculiarities  of  condition  or  of  temper- 
ament may  render  the  ready  victims  of  the  snares  that  lie  con- 
cealed, or  of  the  pitfalls  that  gape  openly,  at  the  corners  of  every 
street  of  a  crowded  metropolis  like  this  ;  —  I  see  them  all,  not 
merely  drawn  off  from  their  exposure  to  evil,  but  provided  with 
the  means  of  innocent  recreation  and  valuable  improvement. 

If  there  be  a  class  of  institutions  more  important  than  any  or 
all  others,  to  the  moral  character  of  our  community,  it  is  that 
which  furnishes  entertainment  and  employment  during  the  even- 
ings—  the  long  winter,  and  the  short  summer  evenings,  too  — 
for  young  men  ;  and  more  especially  for  those,  who  either  have 
no  homes  to  which  they  may  resort,  or  for  whom  the  influences 
of  the  paternal  roof  have  been  in  any  way  paralyzed.  Libra- 
ries and  reading-rooms  for  the  merchants'  clerks  and  the  me- 
chanics' apprentices  of  our  city,  numerous  enough  and  spacious 
enough  to  accommodate  them  all,  and  furnished  with  every 
temptation  which  the  amplest  endowments  can  supply;  —  these 
are  among  the  most  effective  instruments  which  can  be  devised, 
for  advancing  our  highest  moral  and  social  interests,  and  are 
entitled  to  the  most  liberal  encouragement  of  all  true  philan- 
thropists. It  is  not  enough,  that  the  tippling-shops  and  gam- 
bling-tables  are    broken    up.      There   is   mischief  still  for  idle 


THE   INFLUENCE    OF    COMMERCE.  43 

minds  to  devise,  and  for  idle  hands  to  do.  Innocent  entertain- 
ment and  useful  occupation  must  be  supplied,  and  supplied 
with  some  circumstance  of  interest  and  attraction  and  fascina- 
tion, if  possible,  or  you  have  only  driven  dissipation  and  vice 
from  the  public  haunt  to  the  private  hiding  place,  where  they 
will  lose  nothing  of  their  grossness  or  their  guilt,  by  losing  all 
their  apprehension  of  exposure.  And  when  the  cheering  spec- 
tacle is  exhibited  of  the  young  men  of  the  city,  associating 
themselves  for  this  great  end  of  their  own  self-defence ;  organiz- 
ing themselves,  not  into  a  company,  like  that  recently  instituted 
by  the  merchants'  clerks  of  London,  for  making  up  to  their  em- 
ployers out  of  a  common  stock,  the  losses  which  may  result 
from  their  own  annual,  ascertained,  average  of  fraud  and 
roguery,  but  into  a  company  to  insure  themselves  against  the 
vices  and  immoralities  and  idleness  from  which  those  losses  and 
those  frauds  flow  as  from  their  fountain,  —  what  heart  can 
refuse  them  its  sincerest  sympathy,  what  tongue  its  most  en- 
couraging word,  what  hand  its  most  efficient  aid ! 

If  there  be  an  appeal  for  sympathy  and  encouragement  which 
no  patriotic  or  philanthropic  breast  can  resist,  it  is  that  of  young 
men  struggling  against  the  temptations  which  beset  their  path, 
and  striving  to  prepare  themselves,  intellectually  and  morally, 
for  discharging  the  duties  which  are  about  to  devolve  on  their 
maturer  life.  And  if  there  be  a  spectacle  calculated  to  fill  every 
such  breast  with  joy,  and  to  reward  a  thousand-fold  those  who 
may  have  contributed  in  any  way  to  the  result,  it  is  that  of 
young  men  who  have  thus  striven  and  struggled  with  success. 
There  is  a  name  in  history.  It  is  associated  with  some  of  the 
proudest  achievements  of  the  proudest  empire  in  the  world.  It 
has  been  shouted  along  the  chariot  ways  of  imperial  Rome  on 
occasions  of  her  most  magnificent  triumphs.  Whole  volumes 
have  been  filled  with  the  brilliant  acts  which  have  illustrated 
that  name  in  three  successive  generations.  But  there  is  a  little 
incident  which  takes  up  hardly  ten  lines  on  the  historic  page, 
which  has  invested  it  with  a  charm  higher  and  nobler  than  all 
these.  The  Sybils,  we  are  told,  had  prophesied  that  the  Bona 
Dea  should  be  introduced  into  Rome  by  the  best  man  among 
the  Romans.     The  Senate  was  accordingly  busied  to  pass  judg- 


44  THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

ment  who  was  the  best  man  in  the  city.  And  it  is  no  small 
tribute  to  the  Roman  virtue  of  that  day,  that  all  men  are  said 
to  have  been  more  ambitious  to  get  the  victory  in  that  dispute, 
than  if  they  had  stood  to  be  elected  to  the  highest  and  most 
lucrative  offices  and  honors  within  the  gift  of  the  Senate  or  the 
people.  The  Senate  at  last  selected  Publius  Scipio  ;  of  whom 
the  only  record  is,  that  he  was  the  nephew  of  Cneus,  who  was 
killed  in  Spain,  and  that  he  was  a  young  man,  who  had  never 
attained  to  that  lowest  of  all  the  public  honors  of  the  empire, 
for  which  it  was  only  necessary  for  him  to  have  reached  the  age 
of  two-and-twenty  years.  We  may  admire  —  we  must  admire 
—  the  resistless  energy,  the  matchless  heroism,  of  those  two 
thunderbolts  of  war  —  Scipio,  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal,  and 
Scipio,  the  destroyer  of  Carthage.  But  who  does  not  feel  that 
this  little  story  has  thrown  around  that  name  a  halo  of  peerless 
brilliancy ;  yes,  one 

Which  shall  new  lustre  boast, 
When  victors'  wreaths  and  monarchs'  gems 
Shall  blend  in  common  dust ! 

But  I  proposed  to  speak  of  your  Institution  in  its  relations 
rather  to  the  future  pursuits,  than  to  the  present  circumstances, 
of  those  of  whom  it  is  composed.  I  see  before  me  and  around 
me,  as  its  members,  the  future  merchants  of  Boston ;  those,  who 
in  the  progress  of  time,  are  to  take  the  places  of  the  intelligent, 
the  enterprising,  the  wealthy  and  honorable  men,  who  now  carry 
on  the  vast  foreign  and  domestic  trade  of  this  great  commercial 
emporium.  To  take  the  places  which  have  been  filled  by  the 
past  and  present  merchants  of  Boston !  How  much,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, is  included  in  this  idea  !  How  much  of  solemn  responsi- 
bility for  you  and  your  associates ;  how  much  of  deep  concern 
and  momentous  import  to  the  prosperity  and  honor  of  our 
beloved  city !  Let  us  pause,  before  passing  to  less  local  and 
limited  views,  and  reflect  for  a  few  moments  on  the  influence 
which  has  been  exerted  by  commerce,  and  by  those  who  have 
been  engaged  in  commerce,  on  the  fortunes  and  character  of  the 
pleasant  place,  in  which  we  all  thank  God  this  night  and  every 
night  of  our  lives,  I  trust,  that  our  lots  have  been  cast. 


THE   INFLUENCE    OF    COMMERCE.  45 

The  site  of  our  City  seems  originally  to  have  been  selected 
with  no  particular  reference  to  commercial  advantages.  Other 
thoughts  than  those  of  trade  engrossed  the  attention  of  the  first 
settlers  of  Boston.  They  sought  security  from  the  mingled 
political  and  ecclesiastical  oppressions  of  the  old  world,  and  a 
refuge  for  the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  These 
they  could  find  nowhere  but  in  the  wilderness  of  this  new  Hemi- 
sphere ;  but  having  sought  them  and  found  them  here,  all  other 
matters  were,  at  the  outset,  certainly,  comparatively  indifferent 
to  them.  On  what  precise  spot  of  this  vast  solitude, —  "all 
before  them,  where  to  choose,"  —  they  should  plant  themselves, 
mattered  little,  save  as  their  immediate  safety  and  sustenance 
and  quiet  might  be  affected  ;  and  by  these  considerations,  far 
more  than  by  any  larger  views  of  future  advantage  or  aggran- 
dizement to  themselves  or  their  posterity,  they  seem  to  have  been 
governed  in  the  selection  of  that  spot. 

They  desired  safety  from  the  assaults  of  merciless  savages. 
Hence  they  would  not  go  far  into  the  interior,  where  they  might 
be  surrounded  and  cut  off.  They  desired  to  be  as  near  as  three 
thousand  miles  of  perilous  and  pitiless  ocean  would  allow  them 
to  be,  to  the  dear  friends  and  families  from  whom  they  had  just 
been  sadly  separated  in  England  ;  to  be  where  they  could  readily 
receive  and  welcome  and  embrace  those  who  might  still  be 
moved  to  come  over  and  join  them,  and  where  they  might  hear 
as  often  and  as  early  as  possible  from  those  who  might  continue 
to  stay  behind.  The  many  necessities  of  food  and  clothing, 
too,  which  must  still  be  supplied  them  from  abroad,  would  add 
a  yet  stronger  link  to  the  considerations  which  thus  chained 
them  to  the  coast. 

There  were  some  necessaries  of  life,  however,  which  must  be 
furnished  on  the  spot,  or  not  at  all.  One  of  these  was  fresh 
water  to  drink.  And  strange  as  it  strikes  us  in  these  days,  when 
it  would  seem  impossible  —  nay,  when  it  is  impossible  —  for 
the  thirst  of  our  people  to  be  palatably  or  wholesomely  slaked 
from  day  to  day,  unless  Long  Pond,  or  Spot  Pond,  or  Charles 
River,  be  brought  bodily  into  our  midst,  and  when  we  are  likely 
to  suffer  the  tortures  of  Tantalus  until  conflicting  interests  and 
discordant  opinions  have  fought  themselves  into  a  state  of  recon- 


46  THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

ciliation  or  compromise,  —  strange,  I  say,  as  it  appears  at  such 
a  moment,  it  was  the  fresh  water,  and  not  the  salt  water,  advan- 
tages of  the  situation,  which  determined  the  locality  of  our  city. 
"  An  excellent  spring  of  water  "  is  recorded  —  and  I  cannot  but 
wish  that  it  still  existed  somewhere  else  than  on  the  ancient 
records  —  as  among  the  most  prominent  causes  for  planting 
Boston  upon  this  peninsula ;  while  not  a  word  is  said  of  yon- 
der capacious  and  noble  harbor. 

Other  views,  more  or  less  capricious,  entered  into  the  choice 
of  a  location.  "  Governor  Winthrop,  (we  are  informed  by  Cap- 
tain Clap,)  purposed  to  set  down  his  station  about  Cambridge,  or 
somewhere  on  the  river ;  but  viewing  the  place,  he  liked  that 
plain  neck,  that  was  then  called  Blackstone's  neck."  And  Wood, 
in  his  New  England  Prospect,  would  seem  to  imply  that  our 
fathers  might  have  been  influenced  by  their  desire  to  obtain 
security  from  other  foes  besides  the  Indians,  —  when  he  enume- 
rates, with  so  felicitous  an  example  of  the  climax,  among  the 
principal  recommendations  of  this  "  plain  neck,"  its  singular 
exemption  from  those  three  great  annoyances,  "  wolves,  rattle- 
snakes, and  mosquitos ! " 

At  any  rate,  the  idea  of  founding  a  great  commercial  metro- 
polis was  not  in  all  the  thoughts  of  the  first  planters  of  Boston. 
And  yet  within  a  very  few  years  from  its  original  settlement 
the  commercial  destiny  of  the  place  was  shaped  and  deter- 
mined. Indeed,  I  can  hardly  consider  as  any  thing  less  than  a 
clear  foreshadowing  of  that  destiny,  —  if  rather  it  were  not  the 
first  step  in  its  fulfilment,  —  the  building  and  launching  on  the 
Mystic  river,  by  Governor  Winthrop  himself,  in  1631,  within 
one  year  from  the  day  from  which  the  existence  of  oar  city 
bears  date,  of  the  first  Boston  vessel.  A  little  bark  of  only 
thirty  tons  though  it  was,  yet  called  the  Blessing  of  the  Bay, 
and  launched  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  it  seems  a  beautiful 
archetype  of  those  countless  blessings  of  the  Bay,  which  were 
to  be  witnessed  and  enjoyed  here,  when  the  commerce  of  Boston 
should  have  had  time  to  establish  and  expand  itself,  and  when 
another  and  more  memorable,  far  distant  but  even  then  inevita- 
ble and  almost  foreseen,  Fourth  of  July,  should  have  thrown 
over   that   commerce, —  never,  1  trust,  to  be  furled  or  rent  in 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  47 

twain,  —  the  glorious  banner  of  a  free,  independent,  and  united 
Republic ! 

Certainly,  Gentlemen,  almost  from  that  early  day,  the  history 
of  the  rise  and  progress  of  our  city  is  the  history  of  the  rise  and 
progress  of  its  commerce.  For  the  first  few  years,  indeed,  the 
trade  of  the  place  was  confined  principally  to  a  little  barter  with 
the  natives  for  furs  and  skins.  And  for  some  years  afterwards, 
the  records  of  mere  mercantile  transactions  are  overlaid  by  the 
more  important  registration  of  the  establishment  of  towns  and 
churches  and  schools,  of  fundamental  laws,  and  the  tribunals  for 
their  administration  and  execution.  As  early  as  1633,  however, 
we  find  mention  of  the  building  of  another  ship  of  twice  the 
burden  of  the  first ;  and  in  1634  we  hear  of  John  Cogan  set- 
ting up  the  first  shop  on  the  peninsula,  who  thus,  perhaps,  may 
be  entitled  to  be  remembered  as  the  first  Boston  merchant.  In 
1639,  we  learn  that  the  ship-builders  and  fishermen  of  this  and 
the  neighboring  settlements  of  the  colony,  had  become  so  nume- 
rous and  of  such  importance  in  the  estimation  of  the  people,  as 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  a  special  exemption  from  what  our 
fathers,  in  their  ignorant  simplicity,  considered  as  among  the 
most  imperative  of  their  civil  and  Christian  duties  —  military 
trainings.  And  in  the  same  year,  we  catch  another  most  inter- 
esting glimpse  of  the  operations  of  our  growing  trade,  in  a  com- 
plaint solemnly  considered  by  the  General  Court,  against  alleged 
oppression  in  the  sale  of  foreign  commodities  ;  when  Mr.  Robert 
Keayne,  who  kept  a  shop  in  Boston, —  (who  will  be  remembered, 
perhaps,  as  the  first  commander  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company,  and  who  has  secured  for  himself  a  less 
enviable  notoriety  as  the  author  of  a  Will  which  occupies  no 
less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  pages  on  our  Probate 
records,)  —  having  been  convicted  of  taking  in  some  cases 
above  sixpence  in  the  shilling  profit,  in  some  above  eight-pence, 
and  in  some  small  things  above  two  for  one,  was  adjudged  to 
pay  a  penalty  of  two  hundred  dollars ! 

On  this  occasion,  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  State,  has  left  re- 
cord of  its  views  of  commercial  matters.  Not  only  was  Captain 
Keayne  subjected  to  the  censure  of  the  ecclesiastical  synod,  but 
Mr.  Cotton,  the  ever-honored  pastor  from  whose  residence  at 


48  THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  our  city  derived  its  name,  laid  open  in 
the  most  solemn  form,  on  the  next  lecture  day,  the  error  of  the 
principles  upon  which  Captain  Keayne  had  attempted  to  justify 
his  extortion,  and  gave  sundry  special  directions  for  the  con- 
scientious conducting  of  mercantile  business.  The  most  import- 
ant principle  of  commercial  dealing  which  was  condemned  from 
the  pulpit  on  that  occasion  as  false,  was,  "  that  a  man  might 
sell  as  dear  as  he  can,  and  buy  as  cheap  as  he  can ; "  while  it  was 
prescribed  as  one  of  the  positive  rules  of  trade,  that  "  where  a 
man  loseth  by  casualty  of  sea,  it  is  a  loss  cast  upon  himself  by 
Providence,  and  he  may  not  ease  himself  by  casting  it  on  ano- 
ther ;  for  so  a  man  should  seem  to  provide  against  all  providen- 
ces, so  that  he  should  never  lose."  The  first  of  the  preacher's 
doctrines  soon  after  received  a  practical  illustration  and  enforce- 
ment, in  the  case  of  a  mechanic,  who  for  asking  an  excessive  price 
for  a  pair  of  stocks  which  he  had  been  hired  to  frame  for  the  pur- 
poses of  justice,  had  the  honor  to  sit  in  them  the  first  hour  himself! 

I  need  not  say,  Mr.  President,  that  it  could  not  have  been 
by  'recking  the  rede'  of  that  day's  lecture,  that  the  commerce  of 
Boston  continued  to  advance.  But  most  rapid  progress  it  cer- 
tainly made,  as  we  find  ample  evidence  in  the  facts,  that  before 
the  year  1645,  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  a  ship  of  over 
400  tons  was  no  stranger  to  our  shipwrights ;  and  that  in  the 
course  of  this  single  year  we  hear  of  the  arrival  of  twelve  or 
fourteen  large  ships  bringing  stores  of  linens,  woollens  and  other 
commodities  from  London,  and  carrying  back  in  part  payment, 
more  than  20,000  bushels  of  corn.  Concurrent  testimony  is 
found,  also,  in  the  quaint  but  significant  expressions  of  Edward 
Johnson,  who  tells  us,  in  his  Wonder- Working  Providence,  that 
"  our  maritan  towns  began  to  increase  roundly,  especially  Boston, 
the  which  of  a  poor  country  village,  in  twice  seven  years  is  be- 
come like  unto  a  small  city,  and  is  in  election  to  become  mayor 
town  suddenly,  chiefly  increased  by  trade  by  sea." 

I  may  not  take  up  more  time  in  describing  the  gradual  stages 
by  which  our  city  has  advanced  to  the  condition  in  which  we 
now  find  it.  Nor  is  any  such  description  necessary  to  substantiate 
the  well-understood  fact,  that  in  all  periods  of  its  history,  com- 
merce has  been  the  grand  and  leading  element  of  its  prosperity 


THE   INFLUENCE    OF   COMMERCE.  49 

and  progress.  Indeed,  if  there  were  no  historical  records  to 
appeal  to,  it  would  require  but  a  glance  at  Boston  as  it  was,  to 
convince  any  one,  that  nothing  but  the  most  judicious,  enter- 
prising, and  fortunate  improvement  of  commercial  advantages 
could  have  made  it  what  it  is.  What  but  Commerce,  gathering 
about  itself  those  mechanic  arts  which  are  its  indispensable  and 
honored  handmaids,  could  have  converted  into  such  a  crowded 
scene  of  life  and  labor  as  we  see  around  us,  that  old  plain 
neck,  which  was  but  six  hundred  acres  in  extent,  when  it  was 
purchased  of  William  Blackstone  for  thirty  pounds,  and  which 
even  now,  when  as  many  more  acres  have  been  redeemed  from 
the  sea  and  added  to  its  dimensions,  is  still  hardly  larger  than 
an  ordinary  Western  farm !  Agriculture,  it  is  plain,  could  have 
found  no  elbow-room  for  swinging  a  scythe  here ;  while  as  to 
maufactures,  the  only  motive  power  to  turn  a  spinning-wheel, 
within  the  reach  or  the  knowledge  of  our  fathers,  was  one, 
which,  without  any  disparagement  to  its  magic  influence  either 
in  that  day  or  this,  whether  in  a  glass  slipper  or  a  prunella  boot, 
could  scarcely  have  rocked  out  the  destiny  of  a  great  city. 

There  is  little  risk  in  asserting,  though  I  have  not  been  able 
precisely  to  verify  the  fact,  that  in  territorial  dimensions,  Boston 
is  one  of  the  very  smallest  incorporated  cities  in  the  world.  In 
the  order  of  population,  there  are  nearly  a  hundred  cities  which 
stand  before  it.  What  place  it  holds  on  the  scale  of  intelligence 
and  influence  and  reputation  and  honor  at  home  and  abroad,  it 
may  not  become  us  to  pronounce.  It  is  a  city  set  on  a  hill  — 
yes,  on  three  hills ;  it  cannot  be  hid.  Let  others  praise  us  and 
not  our  own  mouths,  —  strangers,  and  not  our  own  lips.  Yet 
we  may  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  in  view  of  its  mer- 
cantile relations,  it  is  already  the  second  city  on  the  American 
continent,  and  hardly  below  the  fourth,  certainly  not  below  the 
fifth,  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Nor  may  we  be  blind  to  the 
operation  of  commercial  causes,  which,  if  not  frustrated  by  want 
of  intelligence  and  enterprise,  seem  to  promise,  that  the  rapidity 
of  its  progress  in  time  past,  shall  bear  but  the  same  proportion 
to  that  in  time  to  come,  which  the  velocity  of  the  creaking  and 
trundling  wagons  which  were  so  lately  its  only  vehicles  of  inland 
transportation,  bears  to  that  of  the  gigantic  enginery,  which  is> 

5 


50  TIIE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

now  shooting  along  our  highways  at  every  hour  of  the  day  and 
from  every  quarter  of  the  compass,  with  a  whistle,  like  that  of 
Roderick  Dhu,  and  with  a  tramp  heavier  than  that  of  any  host 
of  armed  men  which  that  whistle  ever  mustered  either  to  the 
feast  or  to  the  fray ! 

In  preparing  yourselves,  then,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen, 
to  take  the  places  of  the  merchants  of  Boston,  you  are  preparing 
yourselves  to  carry  on  that  great  business  which  has  made  our 
city  almost  all  that  it  is,  and  which  must  make  it  all  that  it  is  to 
be.  Upon  your  intelligence  and  information,  upon  your  energy 
and  enterprise,  upon  your  integrity  and  honor,  it  will  in  no  small 
degree,  under  God,  depend,  —  whether  its  course  shall  still  be 
onward  and  upward,  or  whether,  when  the  present  generation 
shall  have  passed  away,  it  shall  begin  to  follow  the  fortunes  of 
other  commercial  cities,  once  the  renowned  of  the  world,  whose 
merchants  were  princes  and  their  traffickers  the  honorable  of 
the  earth,  but  which  have  now  a  name  and  a  place  only  in 
history. 

But  I  have  alluded  thus  far,  Mr.  President,  to  the  least  and 
most  inconsiderable  part  of  what  is  implied  in  the  idea  of  taking 
the  places  of  the  past  and  present  merchants  of  Boston.  You 
are  to  take  their  places  not  merely  as  merchants,  but  as  men ; 
not  merely  in  conducting  commerce,  but  in  sustaining  character; 
not  merely  in  accumulating  the  aggregate  wealth  which  is  to 
swell  the  importance  of  Boston  in  the  columns  of  a  statistical 
table,  but  in  the  possession  and  use  of  that  individual  wealth 
of  which  this  aggregate  is  made  up,  and  on  the  manner  of 
whose  employment  the  truest  glory  of  our  city  must  always  in 
so  great  a  degree  depend.  What  has  given  us  our  noblest  dis- 
tinction as  a  community  in  time  past  ?  To  what  page  of  our 
history  do  we  point  with  the  liveliest  and  justest  pride  ?  By 
what  record  would  we  be  most  willing  to  be  judged  this  night, 
of  men  or  of  angels  ?  That,  beyond  all  question,  which  con- 
tains the  account  current  of  our  public  and  private  charities. 
That,  beyond  all  question,  so  recently  and  admirably  summed 
up  by  a  late  distinguished  mayor  of  our  city,  (Mr.  Eliot,)  which 
exhibits  the  long  catalogue  of  those  munificent  donations  by 


THE  INFLUENCE   OP   COMMERCE.  51 

which  the  great  interests  of  education,  morality,  and  religion 
have  been  sustained  and  promoted  at  home  and  abroad ;  by 
which  almost  every  want  of  suffering  humanity  is  supplied  or 
alleviated  ;  by  which,  in  all  but  the  miraculous  sense  which  may 
be  attributed  to  God  alone,  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  the 
lame  walk,  the  deaf  hear,  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached 
unto  them. 

And  from  whence  has  this  munificence  proceeded  ?  From 
whom  have  these  princely  endowments  come  ?  To  what  pro- 
fession or  calling  in  life  belonged,  or  still  belong,  the  great 
majority  of  those  whose  names  are  inscribed  on  so  many  of  our 
halls  and  hospitals  and  asylums  and  athenaeums  and  chapels, — 
on  the  professorships  of  our  colleges,  the  lectures  of  our  insti- 
tutes, the  prizes  of  our  common  schools  ?  Who  was  that  Peter 
Faneuil,  whose  name  is  written  where  it  will  be  remembered, 
if  not  as  long  as  the  sun  and  the  moon  shall  endure,  yet  cer- 
tainly as  long  as  a  single  star  of  our  own  constellation  shall  be 
left,  to  guide  the  worshippers  of  American  liberty  to  its  cradle  ? 
Who  were  John  McLean,  Samuel  Eliot,  James  Perkins,  Israel 
Thorndike,  Samuel  Parkman,  John  Lowell,  Jr.,  John  Parker, 
Benjamin  Bussey,  Israel  Munson,  and  a  host  of  others  among 
the  dead  ?  I  may  not  violate  the  proprieties  of  such  an  occa- 
sion, by  asking  in  what  profession  are  enrolled  the  names  of  men 
no  less  distinguished  by  their  munificence,  but  still  living  in  our 
midst,  and  some  of  them  present  here  with  us  to-night.  Yet 
you  would  not  forgive  me,  gentlemen,  nor  could  I  excuse  it  to 
myself,  were  I  to  omit  a  more  distinct  allusion  to  the  latest  and 
largest  benefactor  of  your  own  association ;  one,  whose  liberality 
within  the  past  year  has  more  than  doubled  your  pecuniary 
resources ;  one,  by  whose  encouragement  you  are  now  cherish- 
ing the  hope,  that  those  resources  may  soon  be  relieved  from  the 
exhausting  load  of  a  large  annual  rent,  and  that  no  distant  day 
may  find  you  engaged,  as  your  sister  association, of  Philadelphia 
has  but  now  been,  in  dedicating  a  hall  of  your  own.  Thomas 
Handasyd  Perkins,  however,  I  need  not  say,  depends  on  no  acts 
of  liberality  or  words  of  encouragement  to  this  association,  for 
his  title  to  the  affection  and  admiration  of  us  all.  To  a  long 
life  of  unsurpassed   commercial  enterprise  and  honor,  he  has 


52  THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

seemed  to  add  a  second  life  of  equally  unsurpassed  benevolence 
and  munificence. 

"  For  his  bounty, 
There  is  no  winter  in 't;  an  autumn  'tis 
That  grows  the  more  by  reaping." 

You  will  all  join  me  in  wishing,  that  he  may  have  a  safe  and 
speedy  voyage  on  his  return  to  his  native  land  ;  and  that  he  may 
still  live  long  to  enjoy  the  respect  and  veneration  he  has  so  richly 
earned. 

I  would  not  be  understood,  Mr.  President,  in  any  spirit  of 
indiscriminate  eulogy,  to  ascribe  to  the  merchants  of  Boston, 
past,  present,  or  to  come,  an  undivided  and  exclusive  possession 
of  that  most  excellent  gift  of  charity.  They  would  scorn  to  lay 
claim  to  any  monopoly  of  benevolence.  The  charity  of  the 
heart,  they  remember,  as  we  all  do,  is  not  to  be  measured  by 
moneyed  contributions.  They  do  not  forget  who  pronounced  the 
widow's  mite  to  be  more  than  all  the  gifts  of  the  rich  men. 
They  do  not  forget  where  it  is  implied,  that  a  man  may  bestow 
all  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  yet  have  not  charity.  They  would 
be  the  last  to  deny  that  their  brethren  of  all  other  occupations, 
and  their  sisters  too,  have  contributed,  always  according  to  their 
means,  to  every  object  which  has  justly  appealed  to  the  general 
sympathy  and  succor.  But  we  all  know,  that  the  full  hand 
must  be  united  with  the  generous  heart,  that  an  ample  fortune 
must  be  combined  with  benevolent  impulses,  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  those  signal  acts  of  humanity  which  have  given  a 
character  to  our  community.  And  for  this  union  of  disposition 
and  ability,  for  this  rare  combination  of  wealth  and  will,  it 
seems  plain  to  me,  that  we  must  look  in  time  to  come,  as  we 
have  done  in  time  past,  to  the  successful  merchants  of  our  city. 

Indeed,  whether  we  are  to  judge  by  the  experience  of  the 
past,  or  by  the  nature  of  things,  it  may  be  safely  said,  that  the 
great  private  fortunes  of  our  country  are  to  be  almost  entirely 
the  fruit  of  mercantile  enterprise.  Agriculture  may  always  look 
with  confidence  for  an  honorable  remuneration  for  its  toils.  It 
may  thank  God,  that  to  it  has  been  granted  the  blessing  for 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  53 

which  the  pious  man  prayed,  —  neither  poverty  nor  riches.  It 
may  read,  we  may  all  read,  something  more  and  better  than  a 
curse,  in  the  doom  which  has  declared  to  the  tiller  of  the  soil  — 
f  in  the  sweat  of  thy  brow,  thou  shalt  eat  bread."  The  honest 
yeoman  of  our  land,  indeed,  can  find  no  fitter  terms  for  his  song 
of  joy,  as  he  goes  forth  to  his  labor  in  the  morning,  or  plods  his 
wearier  way  homeward  at  night,  than  those  well-remembered 
words  of  Poor  Richard : 


He  that  by  the  plough  would  thrive, 
Himself  must  either  hold  or  drive." 


He  may  rejoice — we  may  all  rejoice,  that  so  little  temptation 
is  held  out  to  accumulated  capital  to  turn  to  agriculture  for 
profit;  to  add  acre  to  acre,  and  field  to  field,  for  mere  invest- 
ment; and  thus  to  break  up  that  system  of  small,  subdivided 
proprietorship,  which  constitutes  at  once  the  true  independence 
of  our  farmers,  and  the  best  security  for  our  freedom. 

The  Mechanic  Arts  will  not  fail  of  "  a  fair  day's  wage  for  a 
fair  day's  work,"  as  long  as  our  government  shall  not  repudiate 
one  of  its  great  original  debts,  by  being  false  to  the  protection 
of  its  own  industry. 

The  larger  Manufactures  of  modern  times,  may,  for  a  few 
years  longer,  now  and  then,  by  fits  and  starts,  make  dividends 
large  enough  to  be  a  nine  days'  wonder,  and  to  provoke  the  jea- 
lousy of  those  who  can  see  nothing  but  their  own  losses  in  other 
people's  gains,  or  who  do  not  scruple  to  avow  a  deeper  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  Old  England,  than  of  New,  —  of  Manchester 
and  Liverpool,  than  of  Boston  and  Lowell.  But  when  once 
permanently  established,  and  placed  beyond  the  peradventure  of 
Presidential  elections  and  Congressional  majorities,  the  common 
laws  of  supply  and  demand,  and  the  levelling  influences  of  an 
unrestricted  domestic  competition,  will  leave  little  margin  in  the 
balance  of  their  accounts,  for  the  notes  of  exclamation  either  of 
envy  or  of  wonder. 

To  commercial  pursuits  alone,  seem  to  belong  permanently 
those  elements  of  enterprise,  adventure,  and  speculation,  which 
furnish  opportunities  for  great  gains,  —  those  tides,  "  which  taken 

5* 


54  THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

at  the  flood  lead  on  to  fortune."  The  merchant  has,  indeed,  no 
Midas  touch.  The  same  course  of  trade  which  enriched  one 
man  to-day,  may  ruin  another  to-morrow.  A  few  dollars,  earned 
on  a  Commencement  day,  by  ferrying  passengers  over  Charles 
River  when  there  was  no  bridge,  shipped  to  Lisbon  in  the  shape 
of  fish,  and  from  thence  to  London  in  the  shape  of  fruit,  and 
from  thence  brought  home  to  be  reinvested  in  fish,  and  to  be 
reentered  upon  the  same  triangular  circuit  of  trade,  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  largest  fortune  of  the  day,  a  hundred  years 
ago.  Yet  many  a  man  has  plied  a  ferryboat  over  Charles  River, 
before  and  since,  and  died  without  an  obohts  to  discharge  his 
own  fare  over  the  Styx.  Great  losses,  as  well  as  great  gains, 
may  await  the  best  concerted  schemes  of  foreign  or  domestic 
trade ;  and  more  of  you,  my  young  friends,  will  be  called  on  to 
endure  the  reverses,  than  to  improve  the  successes  of  mercantile 
life.  It  has  been  calculated,  that  out  of  every  hundred  persons 
who  have  engaged  in  mercantile  business  in  our  own  city,  not 
less  than  ninety-five  have  failed  at  least  once,  during  a  term  of 
forty  years.  And  noble  examples  are  within  the  remembrance 
of  us  all,  of  the  manner  in  which  such  reverses  should  be  met ; 
examples,  which  have  recently  shed  a  fresh  lustre  over  the  mer- 
cantile character  of  our  city  ;  examples,  beneath  whose  brilliant 
light,  it  may  be  hoped  that  any  spirit  of  fraud  or  concealment 
which  may  still  be  lurking  in  any  breast  within  the  reach  of  its 
rays,  may  be  changed  and  purified,  before  the  touch  of  misfor- 
tune shall  have  revealed  it,  and 

"  Like  the  stained  web,  which  whitens  in  the  sun, 
Grow  pure  by  being  purely  shone  upon ! " 

But  the  remark  is  still  true,  Mr.  President,  that  the  great  pri- 
vate fortunes  of  the  country  are  to  be  hereafter,  as  they  certainly 
have  been  heretofore,  the  fruit  of  successful  commerce ;  and  that 
the  influences  of  accumulated  wealth  are  to  be  wielded,  in  most 
cases,  by  members  of  the  mercantile  profession.  Yes,  gentlemen, 
in  succeeding  to  the  places  of  the  merchants  of  Boston,  you  are 
to  become  responsible  for  the  exercise  of  that  vast  social  power, 
on  which  the  comfort  and  happiness  and  prosperity  and  even 
bread  of  so  many  thousands  of  your  fellow-citizens  will  depend. 


THE  INFLUENCE   OP  COMMERCE.  55 

It  will  be  yours,  especially,  to  decide,  whether  that  stream  of 
public  and  private  charity,  which  has  so  long  made  glad  and  glo- 
rious the  city  of  our  pride,  shall  flow  on  in  its  beauty  and  its 
strength  for  another  generation ;  or  whether  it  shall  presently  be 
absorbed  in  the  stagnant  pool  of  avarice,  or  be  diverted  into  the 
even  more  poisonous  channel  of  a  profligate  luxury.  Well  may 
you  prepare  yourselves  for  the  discharge  of  this  high  responsibi- 
lity. Well  may  we  all  take  an  interest  in  your  preparation. 
Well  may  all  good  men  aid  and  encourage  you  in  your  efforts  to 
acquire  those  enlightened  views,  those  enlarged  and  liberal  senti- 
ments, that  refined  and  elevated  intelligence,  that  strong,  clear, 
deep  sense  of  moral  and  religious  obligation,  which  good  books, 
and  well-spent  evenings,  and  grave  deliberations,  and  able  and 
eloquent  discourses,  are  calculated  to  impart ;  which  shall  lead 
you  to  regard  wealth  as  mainly  valuable  as  an  instrument  of 
philanthropy ;  which  shall  teach  you  the  unworthiness  of  all  other 
luxury  compared  With  the  "  luxury  of  doing  good ; "  which  shall 
enable  you  to  catch,  if  possible,  something  of  the  spirit  of  that 
great  Athenian  philosopher  —  himself,  as  we  are  told,  a  merchant 
in  his  youth — who  regarded  the  hoarded  treasures  and  gorgeous 
trappings  of  a  Monarch  whose  name  has  come  down  to  us  as 
the  very  synonyme  of  unbounded  wealth,  as  not  to  be  named  in 
comparison  either  with  the  patriotism  of  a  humble  citizen,  who 
lived  for  his  children  and  died  for  his  country,  or  with  the  piety 
of  those  heroic  young  men,  who,  rather  than  the  religion  of  their 
country  should  lack  any  of  its  appointed  rites,  hesitated  not  to 
put  their  own  necks  to  the  yoke,  and  to  drag  their  priestess 
mother  a  distance  of  five  and  forty  stadia  to  the  temple,  only  to 
lay  down  their  exhausted  lives  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  and  to 
mingle  their  expiring  breath  with  a  mother's  prayers,  in  one 
sweet  sacrifice  to  the  gods  whom  they  ignorantly  worshipped !  * 

I  pass,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  from  these  local  topics, 
to  a  brief  consideration  of  the  pursuits  for  which  you  are  prepar- 
ing, in  their  larger  and  more  comprehensive  relations. 

*  There  are  few  more  charming  passages  in  ancient  or  modern  history,  than  that 
in  which  Herodotus  describes  the  interview  between  Solon  and  Croesus,  and  in  which 
the  philosopher,  on  being  asked  by  the  Monarch  who  was  the  most  enviable  person  he 
had  ever  known,  is  represented  as  having  named,  first,  Tellus  the  Athenian,  and  next, 
the  young  Cleobis  and  Biton. 


56  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  COMMERCE. 

If  one  were  called  on  to  say,  what,  upon  the  whole,  was  the 
most  distinctive  and  characterizing  feature  of  the  age  in  which 
we  live,  I  think  he  might  reply,  that  it  was  the  rapid  and  steady 
progress  of  the  influence  of  Commerce  upon  the  social  and  poli- 
tical condition  of  man.  The  policy  of  the  civilized  world  is  now 
everywhere  and  eminently  a  commercial  policy.  No  longer  do 
the  nations  of  the  earth  measure  their  relative  consequence  by 
the  number  and  discipline  of  their  armies  upon  the  land,  or  their 
armadas  upon  the  sea.  The  tables  of  their  imports  and  exports, 
the  tonnage  of  their  commercial  marines,  the  value  and  variety  of 
their  home  trade,  the  sum  total  of  their  mercantile  exchanges,  — 
these  furnish  the  standards  by  which  national  power  and  national 
importance  are  now  marked  and  measured.  Even  extent  of 
territorial  dominion  is  valued  little,  save  as  it  gives  scope  and 
verge  for  mercantile  transactions ;  and  the  great  use  of  colonies 
is  what  Lord  Sheffield  declared  it  to  be  half  a  century  ago,  "  the 
monopoly  of  their  consumption,  and  the  carriage  of  their  pro- 
duce." 

Look  to  the  domestic  administration,  or  the  foreign  negotia- 
tion of  our  own,  or  any  other  civilized  country.  Listen  to  the 
debates  of  the  two  houses  of  the  Imperial  Parliament.  What 
are  the  subjects  of  their  gravest  and  most  frequent  discussions? 
The  succession  of  families  ?  The  marriage  of  princes  ?  The  con- 
quest of  provinces?  The  balance  of  power? — No;  the  balance 
of  trade,  the  sliding  scale,  corn,  cotton,  sugar,  timber,  —  these 
furnish  now  the  homespun  threads  upon  which  the  statesmen 
of  modern  days  are  obliged  to  string  the  pearls  of  their  parlia- 
mentary rhetoric.  Nay,  the  Prime  Minister  himself  is  heard 
discoursing  upon  the  duties  to  be  levied  upon  the  seed  of  a  cer- 
tain savory  vegetable  —  the  use  of  which  not  even  Parisian  au- 
thority has  rendered  quite  genteel  upon  a  fair  day — as  gravely, 
as  if  it  were  as  true  in  regard  to  the  complaints  against  the  tariff 
of  Great  Britain,  as  some  of  us  think  it  is  true  in  reference  to 
the  murmurs  against  our  own  American  tariff,  that  "all  the  tears 
which  should  water  this  sorrow,  live  in  an  onion  !  " 

Cross  over  to  the  continent.  What  is  the  great  fact  of  the 
day  in  that  quarter?  Lo,  a  convention  of  delegates  from  ten  of 
the  independent  States  of  Germany,  forgetting  their  old  political 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  57 

rivalries  and  social  feuds,  flinging  to  the  winds  all  the  fears  and 
jealousies  which  have  so  long  sown  dragon's  teeth  along  the 
borders  of  neighboring  States  of  disproportioned  strength  and 
different  forms  of  government, — the  lamb  lying  down  with  the 
lion,  —  the  little  city  of  Frankfort  with  the  proud  kingdom  of 
Prussia,  —  and  all  entering  into  a  solemn  league  to  regulate  com- 
merce and  secure  markets  !  What  occupies  the  thoughts  of  the 
diplomatists,  the  Guizots,  and  Aberdeens,  and  Metternichs  ? 
Reciprocal  treaties  of  commerce  and  navigation  ;  —  treaties  to 
advance  an  honest  trade,  or  sometimes  (I  thank  Heaven!)  to 
abolish  an  infamous  and  accursed  traffic; — these  are  the  engross- 
ing topics  of  their  protocols  and  ultimatums.  Even  wars,  when 
they  have  occurred,  or  when  they  have  been  rumored,  for  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  past,  how  almost  uniformly  has  the  real  motive, 
whether  of  the  menace  or  of  the  hostile  act,  proved  to  be  —  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  pretence  —  not,  as  aforetime,  to  destroy, 
but  to  secure,  the  sources  of  commercial  wealth.  Algiers,  AfT- 
ghanistan,  China,  Texas,  Oregon,  all  point  more  or  less  directly, 
to  one  and  the  same  pervading  policy  throughout  the  world, — 
the  policy  of  opening  new  markets,  securing  new  ports,  and 
extending  commerce  and  navigation  over  new  lands  and  new 
seas. 

But,  Mr.  President,  the  most  signal  and  most  gratifying  illus- 
tration of  the  predominating  influence  of  commerce  in  the  affairs 
of  the  world,  is  to  be  drawn  not  from  the  consideration  of  wars, 
but  of  peace.  It  is  a  common  form  of  remark,  that  the  pro- 
tracted and  general  peace,  which  the  world  has  of  late  enjoyed, 
has  been  the  cause  of  that  vast  extension  of  commerce  which  is 
everywhere  witnessed.  And  doubtless,  there  is  much  truth  in 
the  idea  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  it.  Certainly,  too,  there 
has  been,  and  always  will  be,  much  of  action  and  reaction  in 
these  coinciding  circumstances,  and  much  to  account  for  various 
readings  in  the  assignment  of  cause  and  consequence.  Yet  I 
cannot  but  think  that  the  time  has  at  length  fully  come,  when 
the  mode  of  stating  the  relations  between  these  great  interests, 
should  be  changed ;  and  when  Commerce  may  fairly  be  consi- 
dered as  having  substantiated  its  claim  to  that  highest  of  all 
titles,  the  great  Conservator  of  the  world's  peace,  instead  of  being 


58  THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

represented  as  a  helpless  dependent  on  peace  for  the  liberty  of 
prosecuting  its  own  pursuits. 

Indeed,  Commerce  has,  in  all  ages,  been  the  most  formidable 
antagonist  of  war.  That  great  struggle  for  the  mastery,  which 
has  been  going  on,  almost  from  the  earliest  syllable  of  recorded 
time,  upon  the  theatre  of  human  life,  and  which  has  been  vari- 
ously described  and  denominated,  according  to  the  aspect  in 
which  it  has  been  regarded,  or  the  object  with  which  it  was  dis- 
cussed—  now  as  a  struggle  between  aristocracy  and  democracy, 
and  now  as  between  the  few  and  the  many  —  has  been  little 
more  than  a  struggle  between  the  mercantile  and  the  martial 
spirit. 

For  centuries,  and  cycles  of  centuries,  the  martial  spirit  has 
prevailed.  The  written  history  of  the  world  is  one  long  bloody 
record  of  its  triumph.  And  it  cannot  have  escaped  any  one, 
that,  during  the  periods  of  its  sternest  struggles,  it  has  singled 
out  the  commercial  spirit  as  its  most  formidable  foe.  Look  at 
ancient  Sparta,  for  example ;  the  state  which,  more  than  any 
other,  was  organized  upon  a  purely  war  principle ;  though,  to 
the  credit  of  its  founder  be  it  spoken,  with  the  view  of  defend- 
ing its  own  territories,  and  not  of  encroaching  upon  the  domi- 
nions of  others,  What  was  the  first  great  stroke  of  policy 
adopted  by  the  Lacedaemonian  lawgiver  to  secure  the  supre- 
macy of  the  martial  spirit  ?  What  did  he  primarily  aim  to  ac- 
complish by  his  extraordinary  enactments  in  relation  to  food, 
currency,  education,  honesty,  and  labor  of  all  sorts  ?  A  Lace- 
daemonian happening  to  be  at  Athens  when  the  court  was  sit- 
ting, was  informed  of  a  man  who  had  just  been  fined  for  idle- 
ness. "  Let  me  see  the  person,"  exclaimed  he,  "  who  has  been 
condemned  for  keeping  up  his  dignity  !"  What  was  the  philo- 
sophy of  the  black  broth,  the  iron  money,  the  consummate  vir- 
tue of  successful  theft,  the  sublime  dignity  of  idleness?  It  was 
the  war  system,  entrenching  itself,  where  alone  it  could  be  safe, 
on  the  ruins  of  commerce !  The  annihilation  of  trade,  and  all 
its  inducements,  and  all  its  incidents,  — the  extermination  of  the 
mercantile  spirit,  root  and  branch,  —  this  was  the  only  mode 
which  the  sagacious  Lycurgus  could  devise  for  maintaining  the 
martial  character  of  Sparta. 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  59 

Plato,  who  knew  something  of  the  practical  value  of  com- 
merce, if  it  be  true  that  it  was  by  selling  oil  in  Egypt,  that  he 
was  enabled  to  defray  the  expenses  of  those  travels  and  studies, 
by  which  he  prepared  himself  to  be  one  of  the  great  lights  of 
the  world,  bore  witness  to  the  wise  adaptation  of  this  policy  to 
the  end  to  be  accomplished,  when  he  declared  that  in  a  well- 
regulated  commonwealth,  the  citizens  should  not  engage  in 
commerce,  because  they  would  be  accustomed  to  find  pretexts 
for  justifying  conduct  so  inconsistent  with  what  was  manly  and 
becoming,  as  would  relax  the  strictness  of  the  military  spirit; 
adding,  that  it  had  been  better  for  the  Athenians  to  have  con- 
tinued to  send  annually  the  sons  of  seven  of  their  principal 
citizens  to  be  devoured  by  the  Minotaur,  than  to  have  changed 
their  ancient  manners,  and  become  a  maritime  power. 

It  is  this  irreconcilable  hostility  between  the  mercantile  and 
the  martial  spirit,  which  has  led  heroes,  in  all  ages,  to  despise 
and  deride  the  pursuits  of  trade,  —  from  the  heroes  of  the  Ho- 
meric age  of  ancient  Greece,  with  whom  a  pirate  is  said  to 
have  been  a  more  respected  character  than  a  merchant,  to  him 
of  modern  France,  who  could  find  no  severer  sarcasm  for  his 
most  hated  foes,  than  to  call  them  "a  nation  of  shopkeepers." 

The  madman  of  Macedonia,  as  he  is  sometimes  called,  but 
to  whom,  by  one  having  occasion  for  military  talents,  might 
well  have  been  applied  the  remark  of  George  the  Second,  in 
reference  to  General  Wolfe,  that  he  wished,  if  Wolfe  were  mad, 
he  could  have  bitten  some  of  the  rest  of  his  generals,  —  after  he 
had  overrun  almost  the  whole  habitable  earth,  did  indeed,  in 
despair  of  finding  any  more  dominions  on  the  land  to  conquer, 
turn  to  the  sea,  to  obtain  fresh  opportunity  for  gratifying  his 
insatiate  ambition.^  lie  projected  a  voyage  for  his  fleet,  from 
the  Indus  to  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates.  Commercial  views 
are  sometimes  regarded  as  having  mingled  with  the  ambition 
which  prompted  this  undertaking.  It  has  been  called  the  first 
event  of  general  importance  to  mankind  in  the  history  of  com- 
merce and  navigation,  and  has  been  thought  worthy  of  being 
commemorated  on  the  page  of  its  learned  historian,  by  a  me- 
dallion, on  which  the  head  of  its  heroic  projector  is  illuminated 
by  the  proud  inscription,  "  aperiam  terras  gentibusP 


GO  THE   INFLUENCE   OF  COMMERCE. 

Let  us  transport  ourselves,  Gentlemen,  for  an  instant,  to  a 
region  recently  rendered  familiar  by  the  events  of  Affghanistan 
and  Scinde,  and,  turning  back  the  page  of  history  for  a  little 
more  than  two  thousand  years,  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  character 
and  circumstances  of  this  memorable  voyage. 

Alexander,  it  seems,  is  at  first  sorely  puzzled  to  find  any  one 
willing  to  assume  the  hazardous  dignity  of  leading  such  an 
expedition.  At  length,  Nearchus,  a  Cretan,  is  pressed  into  the 
service,  and  is  duly  installed  as  admiral  of  the  fleet.  Two  thou- 
sand transports,  and  eighty  galleys,  of  thirty  oars  each,  are  labo- 
riously fitted  out,  and  the  hero  accompanies  them  in  person, 
in  a  perilous  passage,  down  the  Indus  to  the  ocean.  He  ap- 
proaches the  mighty  element  not  in  that  mood  of  antic  and 
insolent  presumption,  which  other  madmen  before  and  since 
have  displayed  on  similar  occasions.  He  throws  no  chains 
upon  it,  as  Xerxes  is  narrated  to  have  done,  a  century  and  a 
half  earlier.  He  orders  no  host  of  spearmen  to  charge  upon  it, 
as  Caligula  did,  three  or  four  centuries  afterwards.  He  does 
not  even  venture  to  try  the  effect  of  his  imperial  voice,  in  hush- 
ing its  stormy  billows,  and  bidding  its  proud  waves  to  stay 
themselves  at  his  feet,  as  Canute  did,  still  a  thousand  years  later. 
On  the  contrary,  he  humbles  himself  before  its  sublime  presence, 
—  he  offers  splendid  sacrifices,  and  pours  out  rich  libations  to 
its  divinities,  and  puts  up. fervent  prayers  for  the  success  and 
safety  of  his  fleet. 

Nearchus  is  then  directed  to  wait  two  months  for  a  favorable 
monsoon.  But  a  revolt  of  certain  savage  tribes  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, compels  him  to  anticipate  its  arrival,  and  he  embarks  and 
enters  upon  his  voyage.  At  the  end  of  six  days,  two  of  which, 
however,  were  passed  at  anchor,  the  fleet  had  advanced  rather 
more  than  nine  miles !  After  digging  away  a  bar  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Indus,  a  little  more  progress  is  made,  and  a  sandy  Island 
reached,  on  which  all  hands  are  indulged  with  a  day's  rest. 
Again  the  anchors  are  weighed,  but  soon  again  the  violence 
of  the  winds  suspends  all  operations;  the  whole  host  are  a 
second  time  landed,  and  remain  upon  shore  for  four-and-twenty 
days.  Once  more  the  voyage  is  renewed ;  but  once  more  the 
winds  rage  furiously;  two  of  the  galleys  and  a  transport  are 


THE   INFLUENCE    OF   COMMERCE.  61 

sunk  in  the  gale,  and  their  crews  are  seen  swimming  for  their 
lives.  A  third  time  all  hands  disembark  and  fortify  a  camp. 
The  long-expected  monsoon  at  length  sets  in,  and  they  start 
afresh,  and  with  such  accelerated  speed,  as  to  accomplish  thirty- 
one  miles  in  the  first  twenty-four  hours.  But  then,  a  four  days' 
battle  with  the  natives,  far  more  than  counterbalances  this 
unlooked-for  speed.  Soon  after,  however,  a  pilot  is  fallen  in 
with,  who  engages  to  conduct  them  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  Under 
his  auspices,  they  venture  for  the  first  time  to  sail  by  night, 
when  they  can  have  the  benefit  of  the  land  breeze,  and  when 
the  rowers,  relieved  from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  can  exert  them- 
selves to  better  advantage.  And  now  they  are  making  almost 
twice  as  many  miles  in  the  twenty -four  hours  as  before,  when 
lo!  a  new  trouble  arrests  their  course.  Strange  columns  of  water 
are  seen  thrown  up  into  the  air  before  them.  The  explanation 
of  the  pilot,  that  they  are  but  the  sportful  spoutings  of  a  huge 
fish,  only  adds  to  their  alarm.  If  such  be  his  sport,  what  must 
his  wrath  be?  All  hands  drop  their  oars  in  a  panic!  The 
admiral,  however,  exhorts  them  to  dismiss  their  fears,  and  directs 
them,  when  a  whale  advances  towards  them,  to  bear  down  upon 
it  bravely,  and  scare  it  from  their  path  with  shouts,  and  dashing 
of  oars,  and  sounding  of  trumpets !  The  entrance  of  the  Per- 
sian Gulf,  a  distance  of  about  six  hundred  miles,  is  at  length 
reached ;  the  first  and  most  difficult  stage  of  the  enterprise  is 
accomplished ;  and  the  admiral,  having  hauled  all  his  vessels 
ashore,  and  fortified  them  by  a  double  intrenchment,  proceeds 
to  communicate  the  joyful  tidings  to  his  imperial  master,  who 
has  kept  along  at  no  great  distance  from  him  on  the  coast,  and 
they  unite  in  offering  the  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  to  Jupiter, 
Apollo,  Hercules,  Neptune,  and  I  know  not  how  many  other 
deities  of  land,  air,  and  ocean ! 

Such,  Mr.  President,  is  a  summary  sketch  of  this  first  event 
of  general  importance  to  mankind  in  the  history  of  navigation  ; 
an  event  which,  though  its  details  may  excite  the  laughter  of  a 
Nantucket  or  New  Bedford  whaleman,  or  even  of  a  Marblehead 
or  Barnstable  sailor  boy,  was  counted  among  the  gravest  and 
grandest  exploits  of  that  unrivalled  hero  of  antiquity,  wTho  took 
Achilles  for  his  model,  and  who  could  not  sleep  without  Aristotle's 

6 


62  THE  INFLUENCE   OF  COMMERCE. 

copy  of  the  Iliad  under  his  pillow.  If  any  commercial  views 
are  justly  ascribed  to  the  projector  of  such  an  expedition,  it 
furnishes  an  early  and  striking  illustration  of  the  idea,  which  the 
general  current  of  history  has  since  confirmed,  that  the  mercan- 
tile and  martial  spirits  were  never  to  be  the  subjects  of  recon- 
ciliation and  compromise,  nor  commerce  destined  to  be  seen 
yoked  to  the  car,  and  decorating  the  triumph  of  military  ambi- 
tion. At  all  events,  it  supplies  an  amusing  picture  of  the  navi- 
gation of  those  early  days,  and  shows  how  poorly  provided  and 
appointed  was  the  mercantile  spirit  of  antiquity  for  its  great 
mission  of  civilization  and  peace.  Transports  and  triaconters, 
skimming  along  the  coast  without  a  compass,  and  propelled  by 
oarsmen  who  were  panic-stricken  at  the  spouting  of  a  whale, 
were  not  the  enginery  by  which  commerce  was  to  achieve  its 
world-wide  triumphs.  And  it  was  another  Admiral  than  Near- 
chus,  not  yielding  himself  reluctantly  to  the  call  of  an  imperious 
sovereign,  but  prompted  by  the  heroic  impulses  of  his  own- 
breast,  and  offering  up  his  prayers  and  oblations  at  another 
shrine  than  that  of  Jupiter  or  Neptune,  who,  in  a  still  far  distant 
age,  was  to  open  the  world  to  the  nations,  give  the  commercial 
spirit  sea-room,  and  lend  the  original  impulse  to  those  great 
movements  of  navigation  and  trade  by  which  the  whole  face  of 
society  has  been  transformed. 

"Well  might  the  mail-clad  monarchs  of  the  earth  refuse  their 
countenance  to  Columbus,  and  reward  his  matchless  exploit 
with  beggary  and  chains.  He  projected,  he  accomplished  that, 
which,  in  its  ultimate  and  inevitable  consequences,  was  to  wrest 
from  their  hands  the  implements  of  their  ferocious  sport,  —  to 
break  their  bow  and  knap  their  spear  in  sunder,  and  all  but  to 
extinguish  the  source  of  their  proudest  and  most  absolute  prero- 
gative. 

"  No  kingly  conqueror,  since  time  began 
The  long  career  of  ages,  hath  to  man 
A  scope  so  ample  given  for  Trade's  bold  range, 
Or  caused  on  earth's  wide  stage  such  rapid,  mighty  change." 

From  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  the  mercantile  spirit  has 
been  rapidly  gaining  upon  its  old  antagonist;  and  the  establish- 


THE  INFLUENCE   OF  COMMERCE.  63 

merit  upon  these  shores  of  our  own  Republic,  whose  Union  was 
the  immediate  result  of  commercial  necessities,  whose  Independ- 
ence found  its  original  impulse  in  commercial  oppressions,  and 
of  whose  Constitution  the  regulation  of  commerce  was  the  first 
leading  idea,  may  be  regarded  as  the  epoch  at  which  the  mar- 
tial spirit  finally  lost  a  supremacy  which,  it  is  believed  and 
trusted,  it  can  never  again  acquire. 

Yes,  Mr.  President,  it  is  Commerce  which  is  fast  exorcising 
the  fell  spirit  of  war  from  nations  which  it  has  so  long  been 
tearing  and  rending.  The  merchant  may,  indeed,  almost  be  seen 
at  this  moment  summoning  the  rulers  of  the  earth  to  his  count- 
ing desk,  and  putting  them  under  bonds  to  keep  the  peace! 
Upon  what  do  we  ourselves  rely,  to  counteract  the  influence  of 
the  close  approximation  of  yonder  flaming  planet  to  our  sphere  ? 
Let  me  rather  say,  (for  it  is  not  in  our  stars,  but  in  ourselves, 
that  we  are  to  look  for  the  causes  which  have  brought  the  appre- 
hensions of  war  once  more  home  to  our  hearts,)  upon  what  do 
we  rely,  to  save  us  from  the  bloody  arbitrement  of  questions  of 
mere  territory  and  boundary,  into  which  our  own  arbitrary  and 
ambitious  views  would  plunge  us  ?  To  what  do  we  look  to 
prevent  a  protracted  strife  with  Mexico,  if  not  to  arrest  even  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities,  but  to  the  unwillingness  of  the  great 
commercial  powers,  that  the  trade  of  the  West  Indies  and  of  the 
Gulf  should  be  interrupted  ?  Why  is  it  so  confidently  pro- 
nounced, that  Great  Britain  will  never  go  to  war  with  the  United 
States  for  Oregon?  Why,  but  that  trade  has  created  such  a 
Siamese  ligament  between  the  two  countries,  that  every  blow 
which  England  could  inflict  upon  us,  would  be  but  as  a  blow  of 
the  right  arm  upon  the  left.  Why,  but  that  in  the  smoke-pipe 
of  every  steamer  which  brings  her  merchandise  to  our  ports,  we 
see  a  calumet  of  Peace,  which  her  war-chiefs  dare  not  extinguish. 
Commerce,  has,  indeed,  almost  realized  ideas  which  the  poet, 
in  his  wildest  fancies,  assumed  as  the  very  standard  of  impos- 
sibility. We  may  not  "charm  ache  with  air,  or  agony  with 
words  ; "  but  may  we  not  "  fetter  strong  madness  with  a  cotton 
thread  ?  "  Yes,  that  little  fibre,  which  was  not  known  as  a 
product  of  the  North  American  soil,  when  our  old  colonial 
union  with  Great  Britain  was  dissolved,  has  already  been  spun 


64  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  COMMERCE. 

by  the  ocean-moved  power-loom  of  international  commerce, 
into  a  thread  which  may  fetter  forever  the  strong  madness  of 
war. 

Yet  let  us  not, — let  us  not  experiment  upon  its  tension  too  far. 
Neither  the  influences  of  Commerce,  nor  any  other  influences, 
have  yet  brought  about  the  day,  (if  indeed  such  a  day  is  ever  to 
be  enjoyed  before  the  second  coming  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,) 
when  we  may  regard  all  danger  of  war  at  an  end,  and  when  we 
may  fearlessly  sport  with  the  firebrands  which  have  heretofore 
kindled  it,  or  throw  down  the  firearms  by  which  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  defend  ourselves  against  it.  Preparation,  I  will 
not  say,  for  war,  but  against  war,  is  still  the  dictate  of  common 
prudence.  And  while  I  would  always  contend  first,  for  that 
preparation  of  an  honest,  equitable,  inoffensive,  and  unaggressive 
policy  towards  all  other  nations,  which  would  secure  us,  in  every 
event,  the  triple  armor  of  a  just  cause,  I  am  not  ready  to  aban- 
don those  other  preparations  for  which  our  constitution  and  laws 
have  made  provision.  Nor  do  I  justify  such  preparations  only 
on  any  narrow  views  of  state  necessity  and  worldly  policy.  I 
know  no  policy,  as  a  statesman,  which  I  may  not  pursue  as  a 
Christian.  I  can  advocate  no  system  before  men,  which  I  may 
not  justify  to  my  own  conscience,  or  which  I  shrink  from  holding 
up  in  humble  trust  before  my  God. 

This  is  not  the  time  or  the  place,  however,  for  discussing  the 
policy  or  the  principle  of  military  defences.  I  have  only  alluded 
to  the  subject,  lest,  in  paying  a  heartfelt  tribute  to  the  pacific 
influences  of  commerce,  I  might  seem  to  sympathize  with  views 
which  would  call  upon  Congress,  at  their  coming  session,  to  dis- 
band our  army  and  militia,  and  dismantle  our  fortifications  and 
ships  of  war,  while  Mexico  is  still  mustering  her  forces  upon 
the  Rio  Grande;  while  England  may  be  concentrating  her 
fleets  upon  the  Columbia ;  and  while  Cherokees,  and  Seminoles, 
and  Camanches,  burning  with  hereditary  hatred,  and  smarting 
under  immediate  wrongs,  are  ready  to  pounce  upon  the  power- 
less wherever  they  can  find  them. 

I  honor  the  advocates  of  peace  wherever  they  may  be  found  ; 
and  gladly  would  I  hail  the  day,  when  their  transcendent  princi- 
ples shall  be  consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  those  organized 


THE  INFLUENCE   OP  COMMERCE.  65 

societies  which  are  so  clearly  of  Divine  original  and  sanction  ; 
the  day,  when 

"  All  crimes  shall  cease,  and  ancient  fraud  shall  fail. 
Returning  Justice  lift  aloft  her  scale ; 
Peace  o'er  the  world  her  olive  wand  extend, 
And  white-rob'd  Innocence  from  Heaven  descend." 

In  the  mean  time,  let  us  rejoice  that  the  great  interests  of  in- 
ternational commerce  are  effecting  practically,  what  these  sublime 
principles  aim  at  theoretically.  It  is  easy,  I  know,  to  deride 
these  interests  as  sordid,  selfish,  dollar-and-cent  influences,  ema- 
nating from  the  pocket,  instead  of  from  the  heart  or  the  con- 
science. But  an  enlightened  and  regulated  pursuit  of  real  inte- 
rests, is  no  unworthy  policy,  either  on  the  part  of  individuals  or 
nations,  and  a  far-sighted  selfishness  is  not  only  consistent  with, 
but  is  often  itself,  the  truest  philanthropy.  Commandments  of 
not  inferior  authority  to  the  Decalogue,  teach  us,  that  the  love  of 
our  neighbor,  a  duty  second  only  in  obligation  to  the  love  of  God, 
is  to  find  its  measure  in  that  love  of  self,  which  has  been  im- 
planted in  our  nature  for  no  unwise  or  unwarrantable  ends.  Yet, 
Gentlemen,  while  I  would  vindicate  the  commercial  spirit  from 
the  reproaches  which  are  too  often  cast  upon  it,  and  hail  its  tri- 
umphant progress  over  the  world  as  the  harbinger  of  freedom, 
civilization,  and  peace,  I  would  by  no  means  intimate  an  opi- 
nion, that  it  is  not  itself  susceptible  of  improvement,  —  that  it 
does  not  itself  demand  regulation  and  restraint.  The  bigotry  of 
the  ancient  Canonists  regarded  trade  as  inconsistent  with  Christ- 
ianity, and  the  Council  of  Melfi,  under  Pope  Urban  the  Second, 
decreed  that  it  was  impossible  to  exercise  any  traffic,  or  even  to 
follow  the  profession  of  the  law,  with  a  safe  conscience.  God 
forbid,  that  while  we  scoff  at  the  doctrine  which  would  excom- 
municate commerce  from  the  pale  of  Christianity,  we  should 
embrace  the  far  more  fatal  doctrine,  which  should  regard  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity  as  having  no  place,  and  no  authority  in 
the  pursuits  of  commerce !  The  commercial  spirit  has  rendered 
noble  service  to  mankind.  Its  influence  in  promoting  domestic 
order,  in  stimulating  individual  industry,  in  establishing  and 
developing  the  great  principle  of  the  division  of  labor ;  its  ap- 
6* 


66  THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

propriation  of  the  surplus  products  of  all  mechanical  and  all 
agricultural  industry  for  its  cargoes;  its  demand  upon  the  high- 
est exercise  of  invention  and  skill  for  its  vehicles ;  its  appeal  to 
the  sublimest  science  for  its  guidance  over  the  deep  ;  its  impe- 
rative requisition  of  the  strictest  public  faith  and  private  inte- 
grity ;  its  indirect,  but  not  less  powerful  operation  in  diffusing 
knowledge,  civilization,  and  freedom  over  the  world ;  —  all  con- 
spire with  that  noble  conquest  over  the  spirit  of  war  which  I 
have  described,  in  commending  it  to  the  gratitude  of  man,  and 
in  stamping  it  with  the  crown-mark  of  a  divinely  appointed 
instrument  for  good.  As  long  as  the  existing  state  of  humanity 
is  unchanged,  as  long  as  man  is  bound  to  man  by  wants  and 
weaknesses  and  mutual  dependencies,  the  voice  which  would 
cast  out  this  spirit,  will  come  from  the  cloistered  cells  of  super- 
stition, and  not  from  the  temples  of  a  true  religion.  But  that  it 
requires  to  be  tempered,  and  chastened,  and  refined,  and  elevated, 
and  purified,  and  Christianized,  examples  gross  as  earth  and 
glaring  as  the  sun,  exhort  us  on  every  side. 

Commerce  diffuses  knowledge ;  but  there  is  a  knowledge  of 
evil  as  well  as  of  good.  Commerce  spreads  civilization;  but 
civilization  has  its  vices  as  well  as  its  virtues.  And  is  there  not 
too  much  ground  for  the  charge,  that  most  of  the  trade  with  the 
savage  tribes  the  world  over,  is  carried  on  in  a  manner  and  by 
means  calculated  only  to  corrupt  and  degrade  them,  and  even 
where  it  makes  nominal  proselytes  to  Christianity,  to  make  them 
tenfold  more  the  children  of  perdition  than  before  ?  I  look  to 
the  influence  of  associations  like  that  before  me,  to  aid  in  arrest- 
ing this  abuse,  by  elevating  the  views  of  those  who  are  prepar- 
ing to  engage  in  mercantile  business,  above  the  mere  pursuit  of 
gain ;  and  by  impressing  upon  their  hearts,  while  they  are  still 
open  to  impression,  a  deeper  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  con- 
duct of  civilized  man,  in  those  relations  towards  these  ignorant 
and  wretched  beings  which  commercial  intercourse  creates.  It 
cannot  fail  to  have  given  joy  to  every  benevolent  bosom,  to  find 
the  historian  of  the  late  Exploring  Expedition,  bearing  such 
unqualified  testimony  to  the  character  and  services  of  the  Ame- 
rican Missionaries  in  the  various  savage  islands  which  he  visited ; 
and  it  may  be  hoped,  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant,  when  the 


THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  67 

American  merchant  will  be  found  everywhere  cooperating  in 
the  noble  efforts  by  which  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  are  yet  to 
encircle  the  earth ! 

There  is  another  stain  upon  the  commercial  spirit,  of  even 
deeper  dye.  I  need  not,  in  this  presence,  do  more  than  name 
the  African  slave  trade.  Gentlemen,  this  flagitious  traffic  is 
still  extensively  prosecuted.  Recent  debates  in  the  British 
Parliament  would  seem  to  show  that  it  has  of  late  been  largely 
on  the  increase ;  and  that  the  number  of  slaves  now  annually 
taken  from  the  coast  of  Africa,  is  more  than  twice  as  great  as  it 
was  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  century.  Recent 
developments  at  Brazil,  too,  would  seem  to  implicate  our  own 
American  commerce,  and  even  our  own  New  England  shipping, 
in  "  the  deep  damnation  of  this  taking  off."  It  is,  certainly, 
quite  too  well  understood,  that  American  vessels,  sailing  under 
the  American  flag,  are  the  favorite  vehicles  of  the  slave  trader. 
No  force  of  language,  no  array  of  epithets,  can  add  to  the  sense 
of  shame  and  humiliation  which  the  simplest  statement  of 
such  facts  must  excite  in  every  true  American  heart. 

Gentlemen,  we  naturally  look  to  the  organized  forces  of  our 
National  Government  to  suppress  these  abuses  of  our  shipping 
and  our  flag,  and  we  all  rejoice  in  the  recent  negotiation  of  a 
treaty,  in  the  highest  degree  honorable  to  our  great  Massachu- 
setts statesman,  by  which  their  suppression  will  be  facilitated. 
But  neither  the  combined  navies  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  nor  of  the  world,  can  accomplish  this  work  with- 
out other  aid.  The  cooperation  of  commercial  men  ;  the  gene- 
ral combination  and  conspiracy,  if  I  may  so  speak,  of  all  who  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  or  are  in  any  degree  connected  with 
business  on  the  great  waters,  —  the  merchants  and  merchants' 
clerks,  the  consignors  and  consignees,  the  captains,  the  super- 
cargoes, the  mates,  and  the  common  sailors  alike ;  —  these  must 
come  in  aid  of  our  armed  squadrons,  or  the  slave  trade  will  still 
leave  a  stain  upon  commerce,  which  "  not  all  great  Neptune's 
ocean  will  wash  clean,"  but  which  will  rather  "  the  multitudi- 
nous seas  incarnadine ! "  If  a  New  England  or  an  American 
vessel  be  concerned  in  that  traffic,  there  should  be  at  least  no 
Boston  breast,  and  no  Massachusetts  breast,  capable  of  contain- 


68  THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE. 

ing  the  guilty  secret.  The  commercial  character,  the  moral 
character,  of  our  City  and  of  our  Commonwealth  should  be  vin- 
dicated on  such  an  occasion,  as  they  were  just  two  hundred 
years  ago,  when  one  Thomas  Keyser  and  one  James  Smith, 
(the  latter  a  member  of  the  church  of  Boston,)  first  involved 
these  colonies  in  the  iniquity  of  participating  in  the  slave  trade ; 
and  when,  under  the  lead  of  Richard  Saltonstall,  (the  ancestor 
of  the  late  honored  and  lamented  Leverett  Saltonstall,)  a  cry 
was  raised  against  them  as  malefactors  and  murderers ;  —  a  cry 
which  could  not  be  hushed,  until  the  culprits  had  been  "  laid 
hold  on,"  and  their  wretched  victims  wrested  from  their  clutches 
and  remitted  to  their  native  shore.  I  charge  you,  young  men, 
to  commit  yourselves  early  to  this  cause,  and  to  make  it  a  prin- 
ciple of  your  association,  not  merely  that  you  will  never  parti- 
cipate directly  or  indirectly  in  such  an  ignominious  traffic, — 
but  that  you  will  omit  no  opportunity  which  either  any  effort  or 
any  accident  in  after  life  may  afford  you,  of  exposing  any  one 
who  may  be  concerned  in  it,  to  the  public  scorn  and  legal  chas- 
tisement which  he  so  richly  merits. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  I  may  detain  you  and  this  dis- 
tinguished audience  no  longer.  I  have  endeavored  to  say  some- 
thing which  should  impress  you  with  a  deeper  sense  of  the 
dignity  of  the  profession  which  you  have  chosen,  and  of  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  which  belong  to  it.  I  have  desired, 
also,  to  suggest  some  views  which  should  impress  upon  the 
community  a  just  sense  of  the  value  of  your  institution,  and  of 
the  importance  of  sustaining  and  encouraging  it.  May  your 
brightest  prospects  be  realized,  and  your  best  hopes  fulfilled. 
May  the  liberality  of  your  patrons  and  friends  soon  supply  you 
with  a  Hall  of  your  own,  arranged  with  every  reasonable  refer- 
ence to  your  accommodation  in  pursuing  the  preparation  for 
which  you  are  associated.  Let  it  be  supplied  with  a  Library, 
which  shall  leave  you  nothing  to  desire  in  the  way  of  useful 
knowledge  or  profitable  entertainment.  Let  it  be  adorned,  from 
time  to  time,  with  the  portraits  of  those  whose  examples  are 
worthy  of  your  imitation ;  the  Merchant- Patriots,  who  have 
written  their  own  names  upon  the  title-deeds  of  our  Liberty ; 


THE  INFLUENCE   OF   COMMERCE.  69 

and  the  Merchant-Philanthropists,  whose  names  have  been 
inscribed,  by  a  grateful  community,  on  the  institutions  by  which 
that  liberty  is  best  supported  and  most  worthily  illustrated.  Let 
it  be  dedicated  to  the  cause  of  Freedom,  Civilization,  and  Peace. 
But  let  each  one  who  enjoys  its  opportunities  and  privileges 
remember,  that  halls,  and  libraries,  and  decorations,  and  dedica- 
tions, are  no  substitute  for  his  own  individual  efforts.  Let  him 
remember,  that  he  has  chosen  a  vocation  which,  in  its  highest 
branches,  is  a  Science,  with  principles  worthy  of  the  deepest  and 
most  devoted  study ;  and  which,  in  all  its  branches,  will  reward 
the  best  preparation  both  of  the  intellect  and  of  the  heart.  And 
may  you  all  be  inspired  with  the  ambition,  of  securing  for  our 
own  country  and  for  our  own  city,  so  far  as  in  you  lies,  some 
share  in  that  noble  tribute  which  was  paid  by  the  celebrated 
Montesquieu,  a  century  ago,  to  the  land  of  our  Fathers :  — 
"  They  know  (said  he,  speaking  of  the  people  of  England)  bet- 
ter than  any  other  people  upon  earth,  how  to  value,  at  the  same 
time,  these  three  great  advantages,  Religion,  Commerce,  and 
Liberty ! " 


^V       OF  THE  *^^ 


NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO  WASHINGTON. 


AN  ORATION  DELIVERED  AT  THE  SEAT  OF  GOVERNMENT,  ON  THE  OCCASION 
OF  LAYING  THE  CORNER-STONE  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO  WASH- 
INGTON, JULY  4,  184S. 


Fellow-Citizens  of  the  United  States, — 

We  are  assembled  to  take  the  first  step  towards  the  fulfilment 
of  a  long-deferred  obligation.  In  this  eight-and-fortieth  year 
since  his  death,  we  have  come  together  to  lay  the  corner-stone 
of  a  National  Monument  to  Washington. 

Other  monuments  to  this  illustrious  person  have  long  ago  been 
erected.  By  not  a  few  of  the  great  States  of  our  Union,  by  not 
a  few  of  the  great  cities  of  our  States,  the  chiselled  statue  or  the 
lofty  column  has  been  set  up  in  his  honor.  The  highest  art  of 
the  Old  World,  —  of  France,  of  Italy,  and  of  England,  succes- 
sively, —  has  been  put  in  requisition  for  the  purpose.  Houdon 
for  Virginia,  Canova  for  North  Carolina,  Sir  Francis  Chantrey 
for  Massachusetts,  have  severally  signalized  their  genius  by  por- 
traying and  perpetuating  the  form  and  features  of  the  Father  of 
his  Country. 

Nor  has  the  Congress  of  the  nation  altogether  failed  of  its 
duty  in  this  respect.  The  massive  and  majestic  figure  which 
presides  over  the  precincts  of  the  Capitol,  and  which  seems  almost 
in  the  act  of  challenging  a  new  vow  of  allegiance  to  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  Union  from  every  one  who  approaches  it,  is  a 
visible  testimony,  —  and  one  not  the  less  grateful  to  an  American 
eye,  as  being  the  masterly  production  of  a  native  artist,  *  —  that 

*  Horatio  Greenough. 


NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO  WASHINGTON.  71 

the  government  of  the  country  has  not  been  unmindful  of  what 
it  owes  to  Washington. 

One  tribute  to  his  memory  is  left  to  be  rendered.  One  monu- 
ment remains  to  be  reared.  A  monument  which  shall  bespeak 
the  gratitude,  not  of  States,  or  of  cities,  or  of  governments ;  not 
of  separate  communities,  or  of  official  bodies;  but  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  whole  people  of  the  nation ;  —  a  National  Monument, 
erected  by  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

Of  such  a  monument  we  have  come  to  lay  the  corner-stone 
here  and  now.  On  this  day,  on  this  spot,  in  this  presence,  and 
at  this  precise  epoch  in  the  history  of  our  country  and  of  the 
world,  we  are  about  to  commence  this  crowning  work  of  com- 
memoration. 

The  day,  the  place,  the  witnesses,  the  period  in  the  world's 
history  and  in  our  own  history  —  all,  all  are  most  appropriate  to 
the  occasion. 

The  day  is  appropriate.  On  this  4th  day  of  July  —  emphati- 
cally the  people's  day  —  we  come  most  fitly  to  acknowledge  the 
people's  debt  to  their  first  and  greatest  benefactor. 

Washington,  indeed,  had  no  immediate  connection  with  the 
immortal  act  of  the  4th  of  July,  1776.  His  signature  did  not 
attest  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  But  the  sword  by 
which  that  independence  was  to  be  achieved,  was  already  at  his 
side,  and  already  had  he  struck  the  blow  which  rendered  that 
declaration  inevitable. 

"Hostibus  primo  fugatis,  Bostonium  recuperatum"  is  the  in- 
scription on  the  medal  which  commemorates  Washington's  ear- 
liest triumph.  And  when  the  British  forces  were  compelled  to 
evacuate  Boston,  on  the  17th  day  of  March,  1776,  bloodless 
though  the  victory  was,  the  question  was  irrevocably  settled, 
that  Independence,  and  not  the  mere  redress  of  grievances,  was 
to  be  the  momentous  stake  of  our  colonial  struggle. 

Without  the  event  of  the  4th  of  July,  it  is  true,  Washington 
would  have  found  no  adequate  opening  for  that  full  career  of 
military  and  civil  glory  which  has  rendered  him  illustrious  for- 
ever. But  it  is  equally  true,  that  without  Washington,  this  day 
could  never  have  acquired  that  renown  in  the  history  of  human 
liberty,  which  now,  above  all  other  days,  it  enjoys.     We  may 


72  NATIONAL  MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON. 

not  say  that  the  man  made  the  day,  or  the  day  the  man ;  but 
we  may  say  that,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  they  were  made  for 
each  other,  and  both  for  the  highest  and  most  enduring  good  of 
America  and  of  the  world. 

The  place  is  appropriate.  We  are  on  the  banks  of  his  own 
beloved  and  beautiful  Potomac.  On  one  side  of  us,  within  a 
few  hours'  sail,  are  the  hallowed  scenes  amid  which  Washington 
spent  all  of  his  mature  life,  which  was  not  devoted  to  the  public 
service  of  the  country,  and  where  still  repose,  in  their  original 
resting-place,  all  that  remained  of  him  when  life  was  over.  On 
the  other  side,  and  within  our  more  immediate  view,  is  the 
Capitol  of  the  Republic,  standing  on  the  site  selected  by  himself, 
and  within  whose  walls  the  rights  which  he  vindicated,  the  prin- 
ciples which  he  established,  the  institutions  which  he  founded, 
have  been,  and  are  still  to  be,  maintained,  developed,  and  ad- 
vanced. 

The  witnesses  are  appropriate,  and  such  as  eminently  befit  the 
occasion. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  is  here ;  and  feels,  I  am 
persuaded,  that  the  official  distinction  which  he  lends  to  the 
scene  has  no  higher  personal  charm,  if  any  higher  public  dignity, 
than  that  which  it  derives  from  its  associations  with  his  earliest 
and  most  illustrious  predecessor.  "  I  hold  the  place  which 
Washington  held,"  must  be  a  reflection  capable  of  sustaining  a 
Chief  Magistrate  under  any  and  every  weight  of  responsibility 
and  care,  and  of  elevating  him  to  the  pursuit  of  the  purest  and 
loftiest  ends. 

Representatives  of  foreign  nations  are  here ;  ready  to  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  priceless  example  which  America  has  given  to  the 
world,  in  the  character  of  him,  whose  fame  has  long  since  ceased 
to  be  the  property  of  any  country  or  of  any  age. 

The  Vice-President  and  Senate ;  the  Heads  of  Departments ; 
the  Judiciary;  the  Authorities  of  the  City  and  District;  the 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy  and  marines,  from  many  a  field 
and  many  a  flood  of  earlier  and  of  later  fame ;  veterans  of  the 
line  and  volunteers,  fresh  from  the  scenes  of  trial  and  of  triumph, 
with  swords  already  wreathed  with  myrtles,  which  every  patriot 
prays  may  prove  as  unfading  as  the  laurels  with  which  their 


NATIONAL   MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON.  73 

brows  are  bound ;  —  all  are  here ;  eager  to  attest  their  reverence  for 
the  memory  of  one,  whom  statesmen  and  soldiers  have  con- 
spired in  pronouncing  to  have  been  first  alike  in  peace  and  in 
war. 

The  Representatives  of  the  People  are  here ;  and  it  is  only  as 
their  organ  that  I  have  felt  it  incumbent  on  me,  in  the  midst  of 
cares  and  duties  which  would  have  formed  an  ample  apology 
for  declining  any  other  service,  to  say  a  few  words  on  this  occa- 
sion. Coming  here  in  no  official  capacity,  I  yet  feel  that  I  bring 
with  me  the  sanction  not  merely  of  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  but  of  the  people  themselves,  for  all  that  I  can  say,  and 
for  much  more  than  I  can  say,  in  honor  of  Washington. 

And,  indeed,  the  People  themselves  are  here  ;  in  masses  such 
as  never  before  were  seen  within  the  shadows  of  the  Capitol,  — 
a  cloud  of  witnesses  —  to  bring  their  own  heartfelt  testimony  to 
the  occasion.  From  all  the  States  of  the  Union  ;  from  all  poli- 
tical parties ;  from  all  professions  and  occupations ;  men  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions,  and  those  before  whom  men  of  all  sorts  and 
conditions  bow,  as  lending  the  chief  ornament  and  grace  to  every 
scene  of  life ;  the  People,  —  as  individual  citizens,  and  in  every 
variety  of  association,  military  and  masonic,  moral,  collegiate, 
and  charitable,  Rechabites  and  Red  Men,  Sons  of  Temperance 
and  Firemen,  United  Brothers  and  Odd  Fellows,  —  the  People 
have  come  up  this  day  to  the  temple  gates  of  a  common  and 
glorious  republic,  to  fraternize  with  each  other  in  a  fresh  act  of 
homage  to  the  memory  of  the  man,  who  was,  and  is,  and  will 
forever  be,  u  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen ! "  Welcome, 
welcome,  Americans  all!  "  The  name  of  American,  which  be- 
longs to  you  in  your  national  capacity,  (I  borrow  the  words  of 
Washington  himself,)  must  always  exalt  the  just  pride  of  patri- 
otism more  than  any  appellation  derived  from  local  discrimina- 
tions." 

Nor  can  I  feel,  fellow-citizens,  that  I  have  yet  made  mention 
of  all  who  are  with  us  at  this  hour.  Which  of  us  does  not  real- 
ize that  unseen  witnesses  are  around  us  ?  Think  ye,  that  the 
little  band,  whose  feeble  forms  are  spared  to  bless  our  sight  once 
more,  are  all  of  the  army  of  Washington,  who  are  uniting  with 
us  in  this  tribute  of  reverence  for  his  memory  ?  Think  ye,  that 
7 


74  NATIONAL    MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON. 

the  patriot  soldiers  or  the  patriot  statesmen,  who  stood  around 
him  in  war  and  in  peace,  are  altogether  absent  from  a  scene  like 
this?  Adams  and  Jefferson,  joint  authors  of  the  Declaration, 
by  whose  lives  and  deaths  this  day  has  been  doubly  hallowed ; 
Hamilton  and  Madison,  joint  framers  of  the  Constitution,  present, 
visibly  present,  in  the  venerated  persons  of  those  nearest  and  dear- 
est to  them  in  life ;  Marshall,  under  whose  auspices  the  work  before 
us  was  projected,  and  whose  classic  pen  had  already  constructed  a 
monument  to  his  illustrious  compeer  and  friend  more  durable 
than  marble  or  granite;  Knox,  Lincoln,  and  Green;  Franklin, 
Jay,  Pickering,  and  Morris ;  Schuyler  and  Putnam,  Stark  and 
Prescott,  Sumter  and  Marion,  Steuben,  Kosciusko,  and  Lafay- 
ette ;  companions,  counsellors,  supporters,  friends,  followers  of 
Washington,  all,  all;  —  we  hail  them  from  their  orbs  on  high,  and 
feel  that  we  do  them  no  wrong  in  counting  them  among  the 
gratified  witnesses  of  this  occasion ! 

But  it  is  the  precise  epoch  at  which  we  have  arrived  in  the 
world's  history,  and  in  our  own  history,  which  imparts  to  this 
occasion  an  interest  and  an  importance  which  cannot  easily  be 
over-estimated. 

I  can  make  but  the  merest  allusion  to  the  mighty  movements 
which  have  recently  taken  place  on  the  continent  of  Europe; 
where  events  which  would  have  given  character  to  an  age,  have 
been  crowded  within  the  changes  of  a  moon. 

Interesting,  intensely  interesting,  as  these  events  have  been  to 
all  who  have  witnessed  them,  they  have  been  tenfold  more  inte- 
resting to  Americans.  We  see  in  them  the  influence  of  our  own 
institutions.  We  behold  in  them  the  results  of  our  own  example. 
We  recognize  them  as  the  spontaneous  germination  and  growth 
of  seeds  which  have  been  wafted  over  the  ocean,  for  half  a  cen- 
tury past,  from  our  own  original  Liberty  Tree. 

The  distinguished  writer  of  the  Declaration  which  made  this 
day  memorable,  was  full  of  apprehensions  as  to  the  influence  of 
the  Old  World  upon  the  New.  He  even  wished,  on  one  occa- 
sion, that  "  an  ocean  of  fire  "  might  roll  between  America  and 
Europe,  to  cut  off  and  consume  those  serpent  fascinations  and 
seductions  which  were  to  corrupt,  if  not  to  strangle  outright,  our 
infant  freedom  in  its  cradle. 


NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON.  75 

Doubtless,  these  were  no  idle  fears  at  the  time.  Doubtless, 
there  are  dangers  still,  which  might  almost  seem  to  have  justified 
such  a  wish.  But  it  is  plain  that  the  currents  of  political  influ- 
ence thus  far  have  run  deepest  and  strongest  in  the  opposite 
direction.  The  influence  of  the  New  World  upon  the  Old  is  the 
great  moral  of  the  events  of  the  day. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  "  ocean  of  fire  "  has,  indeed,  been  almost  real- 
ized. A  tremendous  enginery  has  covered  the  sea  with  smoke 
and  flame.  The  fiery  dragon  has  ceased  to  be  a  fable.  The  in- 
spired description  of  Leviathan  is  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  "  Out 
of  his  mouth  go  burning  lamps,  and  sparks  of  fire  leap  out. 
Out  of  his  nostrils  goeth  smoke,  as  out  of  a  seething-pot  or 
caldron.  His  breath  kindleth  coals,  and  a  flame  goeth  out  of  his 
mouth.  He  maketh  the  deep  to  boil  like  a  pot ;  he  maketh  the 
sea  like  a  pot  of  ointment." 

But  the  Saint  George  of  modern  civilization  and  science,  in- 
stead of  slaying  the  dragon,  has  subdued  him  to  the  yoke,  and 
broken  him  in  to  the  service  of  mankind.  The  ocean  of  fire  has 
only  facilitated  the  intercourse  which  it  was  invoked  to  destroy. 
And  the  result  is  before  the  world. 

New  modes  of  communication,  regular  and  more  rapid  inter- 
changes of  information  and  opinion,  freer  and  more  frequent 
comparisons  of  principles,  of  institutions,  and  of  conditions, 
have  at  length  brought  the  political  systems  of  the  two  conti- 
nents into  conflict ;  and  prostrate  thrones  and  reeling  empires 
this  day  bear  witness  to  the  shock! 

Yes,  fellow-citizens,  (if  I  may  be  allowed  the  figure,)  the  great 
upward  and  downward  trains  on  the  track  of  human  freedom 
have  at  last  come  into  collision !  It  is  too  early  as  yet  for  any 
one  to  pronounce  upon  the  precise  consequences  of  the  encounter. 
But  we  can  see  at  a  glance  what  engines  have  been  shattered, 
and  what  engineers  have  been  dashed  from  their  seats.  We  can 
see,  too,  that  the  great  American  built  locomotive,  "  Liberty," 
still  holds  on  its  course,  unimpeded  and  unimpaired ;  gathering 
strength  as  it  goes ;  developing  new  energies  to  meet  new 
exigencies  ;  and  bearing  along  its  imperial  train  of  twenty  mil- 
lions of  people  with  a  speed  which  knows  no  parallel. 

Nor  can  we  fail  to  observe  that  men  are  everywhere  beginning 


76  NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON. 

to  examine  the  model  of  this  mighty  engine,  and  that  not  a  few- 
have  already  begun  to  copy  its  construction  and  to  imitate  its 
machinery.  The  great  doctrines  of  our  own  Revolution,  that 
"  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these  are 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  secure  these 
rights  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed ;  that  whenever  any 
form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the 
right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it  and  to  institute  a  new 
government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organ- 
izing its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely 
to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness ; "  —  these  fundamental 
maxims  of  the  rights  of  man  are  proclaimed  as  emphatically  this 
day  in  Paris,  as  they  were  seventy-two  years  ago  this  day  in 
Philadelphia. 

And  not  in  Paris  alone.  The  whole  civilized  world  resounds 
with  American  opinions  and  American  principles.  Every  vale 
is  vocal  with  them.  Every  mountain  has  found  a  tongue  for 
them. 


Sonitum  toto  Germania  ccelo 


Audiit,  et  insolitis  tremuerunt  motibus  Alpes. 

Everywhere  the  people  are  heard  calling  their  rulers  to  account 
and  holding  them  to  a  just  responsibility.  Everywhere  the  cry 
is  raised  for  the  elective  franchise,  the  trial  by  jury,  the  freedom 
of  the  press,  wrritten  constitutions,  representative  systems,  repub- 
lican forms. 

In  some  cases,  most  fortunately,  the  rulers  themselves  have 
not  escaped  some  seasonable  symptoms  of  the  pervading  fervor 
for  freedom,  and  have  nobly  anticipated  the  demands  of  their 
subjects.  To  the  sovereign  Pontiff  of  the  Roman  States,  in 
particular,  belongs  the  honor  of  having  led  the  way  in  the  great 
movement  of  the  day,  and  no  American  will  withhold  from  him 
a  cordial  tribute  of  respect  and  admiration  for  whatever  he  has 
done  or  designed  for  the  regeneration  of  Italy.  Glorious,  in- 
deed, on  the  page  of  history  wall  be  the  name  of  Pius  IX.,  if 
the  rise  of  another  Rome  shall  be  traced  to  his  wise  and  liberal 


NATIONAL   MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON.  77 

policy.  Yet  not  less  truly  glorious,  if  his  own  authority  should 
date  its  decline  to  his  noble  refusal  to  lend  his  apostolical  sanc- 
tion to  a  war  of  conquest. 

For  Italy,  however,  and  for  France,  and  for  the  whole  Euro- 
pean world  alike,  a  great  work  still  remains.  A  rational,  practi- 
cal, enduring  liberty  cannot  be  acquired  in  a  paroxysm,  cannot 
be  established  by  a  proclamation.  It  is  not,  —  our  own  history 
proves  that  it  is  not, — 

"  The  hasty  product  of  a  day, 
But  the  well-ripened  fruit  of  wise  delay." 

The  redress  of  a  few  crying  grievances,  the  reform  of  a  few 
glaring  abuses,  the  banishment  of  a  minister,  the  burning  of  a 
throne,  the  overthrow  of  a  dynasty,  these  are  but  scanty  prepa- 
rations for  the  mighty  undertaking  upon  which  they  have  en- 
tered. New  systems  are  to  be  constructed ;  new  forms  to  be 
established ;  new  governments  to  be  instituted,  organized,  and 
administered,  upon  principles  which  shall  reconcile  the  seeming 
conflict  between  liberty  and  law,  and  secure  to  every  one  the 
enjoyment  of  regulated  constitutional  freedom. 

And  it  is  at  this  moment,  fellow-citizens,  when  this  vast  labor 
is  about  to  be  commenced,  when  the  files  of  the  Old  World  are 
searched  in  vain  for  precedents,  and  the  file-leaders  of  the  Old 
World  are  looked  to  in  vain  for  pioneers,  and  when  all  eyes  are 
strained  to  find  the  men,  to  find  the  man,  who  is  sufficient  for 
these  things,  it  is  at  such  a  moment  that  we  are  assembled  on 
this  pinnacle  of  the  American  Republic  —  I  might  almost  say 
by  some  Divine  impulse  and  direction  —  to  hold  up  afresh  to  the 
admiration  and  imitation  of  mankind  the  character  and  example 
of  George  Washington. 

Let  us  contemplate  that  character  and  that  example  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  see  whether  there  be  any  thing  in  all  the  treasures  of 
our  country's  fame,  I  do  not  say  merely  of  equal  intrinsic  value, 
but  of  such  eminent  adaptation  to  the  exigencies  of  the  time 
and  the  immediate  wants  of  the  world. 

I  will  enter  into  no  details  of  his  personal  history.  Wash- 
ington's birthday  is  a  National  Festival.  His  whole  life,  boy- 
hood and  manhood,  has  been  learned  by  heart  by  us  all.     Who 

7* 


78  NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON. 

knows  not  that  he  was  a  self-made  man  ?  Who  knows  not  that 
the  only  education  which  he  enjoyed  was  that  of  the  common 
schools  of  Virginia,  which,  at  that  day,  were  of  the  very  com- 
monest sort  ?  Who  remembers  not  those  extraordinary  youth- 
ful adventures,  by  which  he  was  trained  up  to  the  great  work  of 
his  destiny  ?  Who  remembers  not  the  labors  and  exposures 
which  he  encountered  as  a  land  surveyor,  at  the  early  age  of  six- 
teen years  ?  Who  has  forgotten  the  perils  of  his  journey  of 
forty-one  days  and  five  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  from  Wil- 
liamsburg to  French  Creek,  when  sent,  at  the  age  of  only 
twenty-one,  as  commissioner  from  Governor  Dinwiddie,  to  de- 
mand of  the  French  forces  their  authority  for  invading  the  King's 
dominions  ?  Who  has  not  followed  him  a  hundred  times,  with 
breathless  anxiety,  as  he  threads  his  way  through  that  pathless 
wilderness,  at  one  moment  fired  at  by  Indians  at  fifteen  paces, 
at  the  next  wrecked  upon  a  raft  amid  snow  and  ice,  and  sub- 
jected throughout  to  every  danger,  which  treacherous  elements 
or  still  more  treacherous  enemies  could  involve?  Who  has 
forgotten  his  hardly  less  miraculous  escape,  a  few  years  later,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Monongahela,  when,  foremost  in  that  fearful 
fight,  he  was  the  only  mounted  officer  of  the  British  troops  who 
was  not  either  killed  or  desperately  wounded  ? 

Let  me  not  speak  of  Washington  as  a  merely  self-made  man. 
There  were  influences  employed  in  moulding  and  making  him, 
far,  far  above  his  own  control.  Bereft  of  his  father  at  the  tender 
age  of  eleven  years,  he  had  a  mother  left,  to  whom  the  world 
can  never  over-estimate  its  debt.  And  higher,  holier  still,  was 
the  guardianship  so  signally  manifested  in  more  than  one  event 
of  his  life.  "  By  the  all-powerful  dispensations  of  Providence," 
wrote  Washington  himself  to  his  venerated  parent,  after  Brad- 
dock's  defeat,  "  I  have  been  protected  beyond  all  human  proba- 
bility or  expectation ;  for  I  had  four  bullets  through  my  coat, 
and  two  horses  shot  under  me ;  yet  I  escaped  unhurt,  although 
death  was  levelling  my  companions  on  every  side  of  me."  Well 
did  the  eloquent  pastor  of  a  neighboring  parish,  on  his  return, 
"point  out  to  the  public  that  heroic  youth,  Colonel  Washington, 
whom  (says  he)  I  cannot  but  hope  Providence  has  hitherto  pre- 
served in  so  signal  a  manner  for  some  important  service  to  the 
country." 


NATIONAL   MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON.  79 

And  not  less  natural  or  less  striking  was  the  testimony  of  the 
Indian  chief,  who  told  Washington,  fifteen  years  afterwards, 
"  that  at  the  battle  of  the  Monongahela,  he  had  singled  him 
out  as  a  conspicuous  object,  had  fired  his  rifle  at  him  many 
times,  and  directed  his  young  warriors  to  do  the  same,  but  that, 
to  his  utter  astonishment,  none  of  their  balls  took  effect ;  that  he 
was  then  persuaded  that  the  youthful  hero  was  under  the  special 
guardianship  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  immediately  ceased  to 
fire  at  him  ;  and  that  he  was  now  come  to  pay  homage  to  the 
man  who  was  the  particular  favorite  of  Heaven,  and  who  could 
never  die  in  battle." 

Our  Revolutionary  fathers  had  many  causes  for  adoring  the 
invisible  hand  by  which  they  were  guided  and  guarded  in  their 
great  struggle  for  liberty ;  but  none,  none  stronger  than  this 
Providential  preparation  and  preservation  of  their  destined  chief. 
Be  it  ours  to  prolong  that  anthem  of  gratitude  which  may  no 
more  be  heard  from  their  mute  lips  :  "  The  grave  cannot  praise 
Thee;  death  cannot  celebrate  Thee;  but  the  living,  the  living, 
they  shall  praise  Thee,  as  we  do  this  day !  " 

Of  the  public  services  of  Washington  to  our  own  country, 
•for  which  he  was  thus  prepared  and  preserved,  it  is  enough  to 
say,  that  in  the  three  great  epochs  of  our  national  history  he 
stands  forth  preeminent  and  peerless,  the  master-spirit  of  the 
time. 

In  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  we  see  him  the  Leader  of  our 
Armies. 

In  the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  we  see  him  the  Presi- 
dent of  our  Councils. 

In  the  organization  of  the  Federal  Government,  we  see  him 
the  Chief  Magistrate  of  our  Republic. 

Indeed,  from  the  memorable  day  when,  under  the  unheard  but 
by  no  means  inauspicious  salute  of  both  British  and  American 
batteries,  engaged  in  no  holiday  exercise  on  Bunker  Hill,  it  was 
unanimously  resolved,  that  George  Washington  having  been 
chosen  commander-in-chief  of  such  forces  as  are  or  shall  be 
raised  for  the  maintenance  and  preservation  of  American  liberty, 
"  This  Congress  doth  now  declare  that  they  will  maintain  and 
assist  him,  and  adhere  to  him,  the  said  George  Washington, 


80  NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON. 

with  their  lives  and  fortunes  in  the  same  cause;"  from  this 
ever-memorable  17th  of  June,  1775  —  a  day  on  which  (as  has 
been  well  said  * )  Providence  kept  an  even  balance  with  the 
cause,  and  while  it  took  from  us  a  Warren  gave  us  a  Washing- 
ton—  to  the  14th  day  of  December,  1799,  when  he  died,  we 
shall  search  the  annals  of  our  land  in  vain  for  any  important 
scene,  in  which  he  was  any  thing  less  than  the  principal  figure. 

It  is,  however,  the  character  of  Washington,  and  not  the  mere 
part  which  he  played,  which  I  would  hold  up  this  day  to  the 
world,  as  worthy  of  endless  and  universal  commemoration.  The 
highest  official  distinctions  may  be  enjoyed,  and  the  most  im- 
portant public  services  rendered,  by  men  whose  lives  will  not 
endure  examination.  It  is  the  glory  of  Washington,  that  the 
virtues  of  the  man  outshone  even  the  brilliancy  of  his  acts,  and 
that  the  results  which  he  accomplished  were  only  the  legitimate 
exemplifications  of  the  principles  which  he  professed  and  che- 
rished. 

In  the  whole  history  of  the  world  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
any  man  can  be  found,  who  has  exerted  a  more  controlling 
influence  over  men  and  over  events  than  George  Washington. 
To  what  did  he  owe  that  influence  ?  How  did  he  win,  how* 
did  he  wield,  that  magic  power,  that  majestic  authority,  over 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  countrymen  and  of  mankind  ?  In 
what  did  the  power  of  Washington  consist  ? 

It  was  not  the  power  of  vast  learning  or  varied  acquirements. 
He  made  no  pretensions  to  scholarship,  and  had  no  opportunity 
for  extensive  reading. 

It  was  not  the  power  of  sparkling  wit  or  glowing  rhetoric. 
Though  long  associated  with  deliberative  bodies,  he  never  made 
a  set  speech  in  his  life,  nor  ever  mingled  in  a  stormy  debate. 

It  was  not  the  power  of  personal  fascination.  There  was  lit- 
tle about  him  of  that  gracious  affability  which  sometimes  lends 
such  resistless  attraction  to  men  of  commanding  position.  His 
august  presence  inspired  more  of  awe  than  of  affection,  and  his 
friends,  numerous  and  devoted  as  they  were,  were  bound  to  him 
rather  by  ties  of  respect  than  of  love. 

*  By  Edward  Everett. 


NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON.  81 

It  was  not  the  power  of  a  daring  and  desperate  spirit  of  heroic 
adventure.  "  If  I  ever  said  so,"  replied  Washington,  when 
asked  whether  he  had  said  that  there  was  something  charming 
in  the  sound  of  a  whistling  bullet ;  "  if  I  ever  said  so,  it  was 
when  I  was  young."  He  had  no  passion  for  mere  exploits.  He 
sought  no  bubble  reputation  in  the  cannon's  mouth.  With  a 
courage  never  questioned,  and  equal  to  every  exigency,  he  had 
yet  "  a  wisdom  which  did  guide  his  valor  to  act  in  safety." 

In  what,  then,  did  the  power  of  Washington  consist  ?  When 
Patrick  Henry  returned  home  from  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress, and  was  asked  who  was  the  greatest  man  in  that  body, 
he  replied  :  "  If  you  speak  of  eloquence,  Mr.  Rutledge,  of  South 
Carolina,  is  the  greatest  orator ;  but  if  you  speak  of  solid  inform- 
ation and  sound  judgment,  Colonel  Washington  is  by  far  the 
greatest  man  on  that  floor." 

When,  fifteen  years  earlier,  Washington,  at  the  close  of  the 
French  war,  took  his  seat  for  the  first  time  in  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses of  Virginia,  and  a  vote  of  thanks  was  presented  to  him 
for  his  military  services  to  the  Colony,  his  hesitation  and  embar- 
rassment were  relieved  by  the  Speaker,  who  said,  "  Sit  down, 
Mr.  Washington,  your  modesty  equals  your  valor ;  and  that 
surpasses  the  power  of  any  language  that  I  possess." 

But  it  was  not  solid  information,  or  sound  judgment,  or  even 
that  rare  combination  of  surpassing  modesty  and  valor,  great  as 
these  qualities  are,  which  gave  Washington  such  a  hold  on  the 
regard,  respect,  and  confidence  of  the  American  people.  I  ha- 
zard nothing  in  saying  that  it  was  the  high  moral  element  of 
his  character  which  imparted  to  it  its  preponderating  force.  His 
incorruptible  honesty,  his  uncompromising  truth,  his  devout 
reliance  on  God,  the  purity  of  his  life,  the  scrupulousness  of  his 
conscience,  the  disinterestedness  of  his  purposes,  his  humanity, 
generosity,  and  justice,  —  these  were  the  ingredients  which, 
blending  harmoniously  with  solid  information  and  sound  judg- 
ment and  a  valor  only  equalled  by  his  modesty,  made  up  a 
character  to  which  the  world  may  be  fearlessly  challenged  for  a 
parallel. 

¥  Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that  little  spark  of  celes- 
tial  fire,  conscience,"  was  one   of  a  series  of  maxims  which 


82  NATIONAL    MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON. 

Washington  framed  or  copied  for  his  own  use  when  a  boy. 
His  rigid  adherence  to  principle,  his  steadfast  discharge  of  duty, 
his  utter  abandonment  of  self,  his  unreserved  devotion  to  what- 
ever interests  were  committed  to  his  care,  attest  the  more  than 
Vestal  vigilance  with  which  he  observed  that  maxim.  He  kept 
alive  that  spark.  He  made  it  shine  before  men.  He  kindled  it 
into  a  flame  which  illumined  his  whole  life.  No  occasion  was 
so  momentous,  no  circumstances  were  so  minute,  as  to  absolve 
him  from  following  its  guiding  ray.  The  marginal  explanation 
in  his  account  book,  in  regard  to  the  expenses  of  his  wife's 
annual  visit  to  the  camp  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  with  his 
passing  allusion  to  the  "  self-denial "  which  the  exigencies  of  his 
country  had  cost  him,  furnishes  a  charming  illustration  of  his 
habitual  exactness.  The  fact  that  every  barrel  of  flour  which 
bore  the  brand  of  "  George  Washington,  Mount  Vernon,"  was 
exempted  from  the  customary  inspection  in  the  West  India 
ports,  —  that  name  being  regarded  as  an  ample  guaranty  of  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  any  article  to  which  it  was  affixed,  — 
supplies  a  not  less  striking  proof  that  his  exactness  was  every- 
where understood. 

Everybody  saw  that  Washington  sought  nothing  for  himself. 
Everybody  knew  that  he  sacrificed  nothing  to  personal  or  to 
party  ends.  Hence,  the  mighty  influence,  the  matchless  sway, 
which  he  exercised  over  all  around  him.  "  He  was  the  only 
man  in  the  United  States  who  possessed  the  confidence  of  all, 
(said  Thomas  Jefferson ;)  there  was  no  other  one  who  was  con- 
sidered as  any  thing  more  than  a  party  leader." 

Who  ever  thinks  of  Washington  as  a  mere  politician  ?  Who 
ever  associates  him  with  the  petty  arts  and  pitiful  intrigues  of 
partisan  office-seekers  or  partisan  office-holders  ?  Who  ever 
pictures  him  canvassing  for  votes,  dealing  out  proscription,  or 
doling  out  patronage  ? 

"  No  part  of  my  duty,"  wrote  Washington  to  Governor  Bow- 
doin,  in  a  letter,  the  still  unpublished  original  of  which  is  a 
precious  inheritance  of  my  own  :  "  No  part  of  my  duty  will  be 
more  delicate,  and  in  many  instances  more  unpleasant,  than 
that  of  nominating  and  appointing  persons  to  office.  It  will 
undoubtedly  happen  that  there  will  be  several  candidates  for 


NATIONAL  MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON.  83 

the  same  office,  whose  pretensions,  abilities,  and  integrity  may- 
be nearly  equal,  and  who  will  come  forward  so  equally  sup- 
ported in  every  respect  as  almost  to  require  the  aid  of  super- 
natural intuition  to  fix  upon  the  right.  I  shall,  however,  in  all 
events,  have  the  satisfaction  to  reflect  that  I  entered  upon  my 
administration  unconfined  by  a  single  engagement,  uninfluenced 
by  any  ties  of  blood  or  friendship,  and  with  the  best  intention 
and  fullest  determination  to  nominate  to  office  those  persons 
only  who,  upon  every  consideration,  were  the  most  deserving, 
and  who  would  probably  execute  their  several  functions  to  the 
interest  and  credit  of  the  American  Union ;  if  such  characters 
could  be  found  by  my  exploring  every  avenue  of  information 
respecting  their  merits  and  pretensions  that  it  was  in  my  power 
to  obtain." 

And  there  was  as  little  of  the  vulgar  hero  about  him,  as  there 
was  of  the  mere  politician.  At  the  head  of  a  victorious  army, 
of  which  he  was  the  idol,  —  an  army  too  often  provoked  to  the 
very  verge  of  mutiny  by  the  neglect  of  an  inefficient  Govern- 
ment, —  we  find  him  the  constant  counsellor  of  subordination 
and  submission  to  the  civil  authority.  With  the  sword  of  a 
conqueror  at  his  side,  we  find  him  the  unceasing  advocate  of 
peace.  Repeatedly  invested  with  more  than  the  power  of  a 
Roman  Dictator,  we  see  him  receiving  that  power  with  reluct- 
ance, employing  it  with  the  utmost  moderation,  and  eagerly 
embracing  the  earliest  opportunity  to  resign  it.  The  offer  of  a 
crown  could  not,  did  not,  tempt  him  for  an  instant  from  his 
allegiance  to  liberty.*  He  rejected  it  with  indignation  and 
abhorrence,  and  proceeded  to  devote  all  his  energies  and  all  his 
influence,  all  his  popularity  and  all  his  ability,  to  the  establish- 
ment of  that  Republican  System,  of  which  he  was  from  first  to 
last  the  uncompromising  advocate,  and  with  the  ultimate  success 
of  which  he  believed  the  best  interests  of  America  and  of  the 
world  were  inseparably  connected. 

It  is  thus  that,  in  contemplating  the  character  of  Washington, 
the  offices  which  he  held,  the  acts  which  he  performed,  his  suc- 
cesses as  a  statesman,  his  triumphs  as  a  soldier,  almost  fade 

*  Sparks's  Life  of  Washington,  pp.  354-5. 


84  NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON. 

from  our  sight.  It  is  not  the  Washington  of  the  Delaware  or 
the  Brandywine,  of  Germantown  or  of  Monmouth ;  it  is  not 
Washington,  the  President  of  the  Convention,  or  the  President 
of  the  Republic,  which  we  admire.  We  cast  our  eyes  over  his 
life,  not  to  be  dazzled  by  the  meteoric  lustre  of  particular  pas- 
sages, but  to  behold  its  whole  pathway  radiant,  radiant  every- 
where, with  the  true  glory  of  a  just,  conscientious,  consummate 
man !     Of  him  we  feel  it  to  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 

"  All  the  ends  he  aimed  at 
Were  his  Country's,  his  God's,  and  Truth's." 

Of  him  we  feel  it  to  be  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  he  stands 
upon  the  page  of  history  the  great  modern  illustration  and 
example  of  that  exquisite  and  Divine  precept,  which  fell  from 
the  lips  of  the  dying  monarch  of  Israel,  — 

"  He  that  ruleth  over  men  must  be  just,  ruling  in  the  fear  of 
God; 

"  And  he  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  morning  when  the  sun 
riseth,  even  a  morning  without  clouds  ! " 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  it  is  this  incomparable  and  tran- 
scendent character,  which  America,  on  this  occasion,  holds  up 
afresh  to  the  admiration  of  mankind.  Believing  it  to  be  the 
only  character  which  could  have  carried  us  safely  through  our 
own  Revolutionary  struggles,  we  present  it,  especially,  this  day, 
to  the  wistful  gaze  of  convulsed  and  distracted  Europe.  May 
we  not  hope  that  there  may  be  kindred  spirits  over  the  sea,  upon 
whom  the  example  may  impress  itself,  till  they  shall  be  inflamed 
with  a  noble  rage  to  follow  it?  Shall  we  not  call  upon  them  to 
turn  from  a  vain  reliance  upon  their  old  idols,  and  to  behold 
here,  in  the  mingled  moderation  and  courage,  in  the  combined 
piety  and  patriotism,  in  the  blended  virtue,  principle,  wisdom, 
valor,  self-denial,  and  self-devotion  of  our  Washington,  the 
express  image  of  the  man,  the  only  man,  for  their  occasion  ? 

Daphni,  quid  antiquos  signorum  suspicis  ortus  ? 
Ecce  Dionaei  processit  Caesaris  astrum  ! 

Let  us  rejoice  that  our  call  is  anticipated.     Washington  is  no 


NATIONAL   MONUMENT   TO    WASHINGTON.  85 

new  name  to  Europe.  His  star  has  been  seen  in  every  sky,  and 
wise  men  everywhere  have  done  it  homage.  To  what  other 
merely  human  being,  indeed,  has  such  homage  ever  before  or 
since  been  rendered  ? 

"  I  have  a  large  acquaintance  among  the  most  valuable  and 
exalted  classes  of  men,"  wrote  Erskine  to  Washington  him- 
self, "  but  you  are  the  only  being  for  whom  I  ever  felt  an  awful 
reverence." 

"  Illustrious  man ! "  said  Fox  of  him,  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons  in  1794,  "  deriving  honor  less  from  the  splendor  of  his 
situation  than  from  the  dignity  of  his  mind  ;  before  whom  all 
borrowed  greatness  sinks  into  insignificance,  and  all  the  poten- 
tates of  Europe*  become  little  and  contemptible." 

"  Washington  is  dead ! "  proclaimed  Napoleon,  on  hearing  of 
the  event.  "  This  great  man  fought  against  tyranny;  he  esta- 
blished the  liberty  of  his  country.  His  memory  will  be  always 
dear  to  the  French  people,  as  it  will  be  to  all  free  men  of  the 
two  worlds." 

"  It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  historian  and  the  sage  in  all  ages," 
says  Lord  Brougham,  "  to  let  no  occasion  pass  of  commemorat- 
ing this  illustrious  man  ;  and,  until  time  shall  be  no  more,  will 
a  test  of  the  progress  which  our  race  has  made  in  wisdom  and 
virtue  be  derived  from  the  veneration  paid  to  the  immortal  name 
of  Washington." 

"  One  thing  is  certain,"  says  Guizot  —  "  one  thing  is  certain  ; 
that  which  Washington  did  —  the  founding  of  a  free  government 
by  order  and  peace,  at  the  close  of  the  revolution  —  no  other 
policy  than  his  could  have  accomplished." 

And  later,  better  still :  "  Efface  henceforth  the  name  of  Machi- 
avel,"  said  Lamartine,  within  a  few  weeks  past,  in  his  reply  to 
the  Italian  association,  —  "efface  henceforth  the  name  of  Machi- 
avel  from  your  titles  of  glory,  and  substitute  for  it  the  name  of 
Washington  ;  that  is  the  one  which  should  now  be  proclaimed ; 
that  is  the  name  of  modern  liberty.  It  is  no  longer  the  name 
of  a  politician  or  a  conqueror  that  is  required  ;  it  is  that  of  a 
man,  the  most  disinterested,  the  most  devoted  to  the  people. 

*  It  was  not  thought  necessary  to  disfigure  the  text,  by  inserting  the  loyal  parenthesis, 
"  (excepting  the  members  of  our  own  royal  family.") 
8 


86  NATIONAL  MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON. 

This  is  the  man  required  by  liberty.  The  want  of  the  age  is  a 
European  Washington ! " 

And  who  shall  supply  that  want  but  he  who  so  vividly  real- 
izes it?  Enthusiastic,  eloquent,  admirable  Lamartine!  Though 
the  magic  wires  may  even  now  be  trembling  with  the  tidings  of 
his  downfall,  we  will  not  yet  quite  despair  of  him.  Go  on  in 
the  high  career  to  which  you  have  been  called !  Fall  in  it,  if  it 
must  be  so ;  but  fall  not,  falter  not,  from  it !  Imitate  the  cha- 
racter you  have  so  nobly  appreciated !  Fulfil  the  pledges  you 
have  so  gloriously  given !  Plead  still  against  the  banner  of 
blood  !     Strive  still  against  the  reign  of  terror !     Aim  still 

"  By  winning  words  to  conquer  willing  hearts, 
And  make  persuasion  do  the  work  of  fear ! " 

May  a  gallant  and  generous  people  second  you,  and  the  Power 
which  preserved  Washington  sustain  you,  until  you  have  secured 
peace,  order,  freedom  to  your  country ! 

"  Si  qua  fata  aspera  rumpas, 
Tu  Marcellus  eris."  * 

But,  fellow-citizens,  while  we  thus  commend  the  character 
and  example  of  Washington  to  others,  let  us  not  forget  to  imi- 
tate it  ourselves.  I  have  spoken  of  the  precise  period  which  we 
have  reached  in  our  own  history,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  world 
at  large,  as  giving  something  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  proceed- 
ings in  which  we  are  engaged.  I  may  not,  I  will  not,  disturb 
the  harmony  of  the  scene  before  me  by  the  slightest  allusion  of 
a  party  character.  The  circumstances  of  the  occasion  forbid  it; 
the  associations  of  the  day  forbid  it ;  the  character  of  him  in 
whose  honor  we  are  assembled  forbids  it;  my  own  feelings 
revolt  from  it.  But  I  may  say,  I  must  say,  and  every  one  within 
the  sound  of  my  voice  will  sustain  me  in  saying,  that  there  has 
been  no  moment  since  Washington  himself  was  among  us, 
when  it  was  more  important  than  at  this  moment,  that  the  two 
great  leading  principles  of  his  policy  should  be  remembered  and 
cherished. 

*  These  forebodings  were  but  too  soon  fulfilled.  The  tidings  of  the  downfall  of 
Lamartine's  administration  were  received  a  few  days  after  this  Address  was  delivered. 


NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON.  87 

Those  principles  were,  first,  the  most  complete,  cordial  and 
indissoluble  Union  of  the  States ;  and,  second,  the  most  entire 
separation  and  disentanglement  of  our  own  country  from  all 
other  countries.  Perfect  union  among  ourselves,  perfect  neu- 
trality towards  others,  and  peace,  peace,  —  domestic  peace  and 
foreign  peace, — as  the  result ;  this  was  the  chosen  and  consum- 
mate policy  of  the  Father  of  his  country. 

But  above  all,  and  before  all,  in  the  heart  of  Washington, 
was  the  Union  of  the  States ;  and  no  opportunity  was  ever 
omitted  by  him,  to  impress  upon  his  fellow-citizens  the  profound 
sense  which  he  entertained,  of  its  vital  importance  at  once  to 
their  prosperity  and  their  liberty. 

In  that  incomparable  Address  in  which  he  bade  farewell  to  his 
countrymen  at  the  close  of  his  Presidential  service,  he  touched 
upon  many  other  topics  with  the  earnestness  of  a  sincere  con- 
viction. He  called  upon  them  in  solemn  terms  to  "  cherish 
public  credit ;  "  to  "  observe  good  faith  and  justice  towards  all 
nations,"  avoiding  both  "  inveterate  antipathies,  and  passionate 
attachments  "  towards  any ;  to  mitigate  and  assuage  the  un- 
quenchable fire  of  party  spirit,  "  lest,  insjtead  of  warming,  it  should 
consume  ; "  to  abstain  from  "  characterizing  parties  by  geogra- 
phical distinctions ; "  "  to  promote  institutions  for  the  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge ; "  to  respect  and  uphold  "  religion  and 
morality,  those  great  pillars  of  human  happiness,  those  firmest 
props  of  the  duties  of  men  and  of  citizens." 

But  what  can  exceed,  what  can  equal,  the  accumulated  inten- 
sity of  thought  and  of  expression  with  which  he  calls  upon  them 
to  cling  to  the  Union  of  the  States.  "  It  is  of  infinite  moment," 
says  he,  in  language  which  we  ought  never  to  be  weary  of  hear- 
ing or  of  repeating,  "  that  you  should  properly  estimate  the  im- 
mense value  of  your  National  Union  to  your  collective  and 
individual  happiness;  that  you  should  cherish  a  cordial,  habit- 
ual, immovable  attachment  to  it ;  accustoming  yourselves  to 
think  and  speak  of  it  as  of  the  palladium  of  your  political 
safety  and  prosperity  ;  watching  for  its  preservation  with  jealous 
anxiety ;  discountenancing  whatever  may  suggest  even  a  sus- 
picion that  it  can,  in  any  event,  be  abandoned ;  and  indignantly 
frowning  upon  the  first  dawning  of  every  attempt  to  alienate 


88  NATIONAL  MONUMENT  TO   WASHINGTON. 

any  portion  of  our  country  from   the  rest,  or  to  enfeeble  the 
sacred  ties  which  now  link  together  the  various  parts." 

The  Union,  the  Union  in  any  event,  was  thus  the  sentiment  of 
Washington.  The  Union,  the  Union  in  any  event,  let  it  be  our 
sentiment  this  day  ! 

Yes,  to-day,  fellow-citizens,  at  the  very  moment  when  the 
extension  of  our  boundaries  and  the  multiplication  of  our  terri- 
tories are  producing,  directly  and  indirectly,  among  the  different 
members  of  our  political  system,  so  many  marked  and  mourned 
centrifugal  tendencies,  let  us  seize  this  occasion  to  renew  to 
each  other  our  vows  of  allegiance  and  devotion  to  the  American 
Union,  and  let  us  recognize  in  our  common  title  to  the  name 
arid  the  fame  of  Washington,  and  in  our  common  veneration 
for  his  example  and  his  advice,  the  all-sufficient  centripetal 
power,  which  shall  hold  the  thick  clustering  stars  of  our  con- 
federacy in  one  glorious  constellation  forever !  Let  the  column 
which  we  are  about  to  construct,  be  at  once  a  pledge  and  an 
emblem  of  perpetual  union!  Let  the  foundations  be  laid,  let 
the  superstructure  be  built  up  and  cemented,  let  each  stone  be 
raised  and  riveted,  in  a  spirit  of  national  brotherhood !  And 
may  the  earliest  ray  of  the  rising  sun,  —  till  that  sun  shall  set 
to  rise  no  more,  —  draw  forth  from  it  daily,  as  from  the  fabled 
statue  of  antiquity,  a  strain  of  national  harmony,  which  shall 
strike  a  responsive  chord  in  every  heart  throughout  the  Re- 
public ! 

Proceed,  then,  fellow-citizens,  with  the  work  for  which  you 
have  assembled !  Lay  the  corner-stone  of  a  monument  which 
shall  adequately  bespeak  the  gratitude  of  the  whole  American 
people  to  the  illustrious  Father  of  his  country !  Build  it  to 
the  skies ;  you  cannot  outreach  the  loftiness  of  his  principles ! 
Found  it  upon  the  massive  and  eternal  rock ;  you  cannot  make 
it  more  enduring  than  his  fame !  Construct  it  of  the  peerless 
Parian  marble;  you  cannot  make  it  purer  than  his  life  !  Exhaust 
upon  it  the  rules  and  principles  of  ancient  and  of  modern  art ; 
you  cannot  make  it  more  proportionate  than  his  character ! 

But  let  not  your  homage  to  his  memory  end  here.  Think  not 
to  transfer  to  a  tablet  or  a  column,  the  tribute  which  is  due  from 
yourselves.     Just  honor  to  Washington  can  only  be  rendered  by 


NATIONAL   MONUMENT   TO   WASHINGTON.  89 

observing  his  precepts  and  imitating  his  example.  Similitudine 
decoremus.  *  He  has  built  his  own  monument.  We,  and  those 
who  come  after  us  in  successive  generations,  are  its  appointed, 
its  privileged  guardians.  This  wide-spread  Republic  is  the  true 
monument  to  Washington.  Maintain  its  Independence.  Up- 
hold its  Constitution.  Preserve  its  Union.  Defend  its  Liberty. 
Let  it  stand  before  the  world  in  all  its  original  strength  and 
beauty,  securing  peace,  order,  equality,  and  freedom  to  all  within 
its  boundaries,  and  shedding  light,  and  hope,  and  joy,  upon  the 
pathway  of  human  liberty  throughout  the  world;  and  Wash- 
ington needs  no  other  monument.  Other  structures  may  fitly 
testify  our  veneration  for  him  ;  this,  this  alone,  can  adequately 
illustrate  his  services  to  mankind. 

Nor  does  he  need  even  this.  The  Republic  may  perish ;  the 
wide  arch  of  our  ranged  Union  may  fall ;  star  by  star  its  glories 
may  expire ;  stone  after  stone  its  columns  and  its  capitol  may 
moulder  and  crumble ;  all  other  names  which  adorn  its  annals 
may  be  forgotten ;  but  as  long  as  human  hearts  shall  anywhere 
pant,  or  human  tongues  shall  anywhere  plead,  for  a  true,  rational, 
constitutional  liberty,  those  hearts  shall  enshrine  the  memory, 
and  those  tongues  shall  prolong  the  fame,  of  George  Wash- 


*  We  may  well  add,  with  Tacitus,  Si  natura  suppeditet. 


THE 

LIFE  AND  SERVICES  OF  JAMES  BOWDOIN. 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  MAINE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  AT 
BOWDOIN  COLLEGE,  ON  THE  AFTERNOON  OF  THE  ANNUAL  COMMENCE- 
MENT,   SEPTEMBER  5,  1S49. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  op  the  Maine  Historical  Societt, — 

I  am  here,  as  you  are  aware,  and  as  I  trust  this  crowded  and 
brilliant  assembly  is  aware,  for  no  purpose  of  literary  discussion, 
philosophical  speculation,  or  oratorical  display.  The  character 
of  the  occasion  would  alone  have  pointed  me  to  a  widely  differ- 
ent line  of  remark,  and  would,  indeed,  have  imperatively  claimed 
of  me  some  more  substantial  contribution  to  the  objects  for  which 
you  are  associated.  But  your  committee  of  invitation  have 
kindly  relieved  me  from  the  responsibility  of  selecting  a  topic 
from  the  wide  field  of  American  history,  and  have  afforded  me 
a  most  agreeable  and  welcome  opportunity  of  fulfilling  a  long- 
cherished  intention.  They  have  called  upon  me,  as  one  likely 
to  have  more  than  ordinary  materials  for  such  a  work,  as  well 
as  likely  to  take  a  more  than  ordinary  interest  in  its  performance, 
to  give  some  ampler  account  than  has  ever  yet  been  supplied,  of 
a  Family,  which,  while  it  may  fairly  claim  a  place  in  the  history 
of  the  nation,  as  having  furnished  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  our  revolutionary  statesmen  and  patriots,  has  been  more  di- 
rectly identified,  both  by  its  earliest  adventures  and  by  its  latest 
acts,  with  the  history  of  Maine ;  —  of  Maine,  both  as  it  once 
waS)  —  an  honored  and  cherished  part  of  the  good  old  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts,  —  and  as  it  now  is,  — a  proud,  prosper- 
ous, and  independent  State. 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES   OP   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  91 

In  preparing  myself  to  comply  with  this  call,  I  have  felt  bound 
to  abandon  all  ideas  of  ambitious  rhetoric,  to  forego  all  custom 
of  declamation,  to  clip  the  wings  of  any  little  fancy  which  I 
might  possess,  and  to  betake  myself  to  a  diligent  examination 
of  such  private  papers  and  public  records  as  might  promise  to 
throw  light  upon  my  subject.  I  come  now,  gentlemen,  to  lay 
before  you,  in  the  simplest  manner,  the  fruits  of  my  research. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  an  original  manuscript  in  the  French  lan- 
guage, which,  being  interpreted,  is  as  follows  : 

"To  his  Excellency,  the  Governor-in-Chief  of  New  England,  humbly  prays  Pierre 
Baudouin,  saying :  that  having  been  obliged,  by  the  rigors  which  were  exercised  to- 
wards the  Protestants  in  France,  to  depart  thence  with  his  family,  and  having  sought 
refuge  in  the  realm  of  Ireland,  at  the  City  of  Dublin,  to  which  place  it  pleased  the 
Keceivers  of  His  Majesty's  Customs  to  admit  him,  your  petitioner  was  employed  in 
one  of  the  bureaux  ;  but  afterwards,  there  being  a  change  of  officers,  he  was  left  with- 
out any  employment.  This  was  what  caused  the  petitioner  and  his  family,  to  the  num- 
ber of  six  persons,  to  withdraw  into  this  territory,  in  the  town  of  Casco,  and  Province 
of  Maine;  and  seeing  that  there  are  many  lands  which  are  not  occupied,  and  particu- 
larly those  which  are  situated  at  the  point  of  Barbary  Creek,  may  it  please  your  Ex- 
cellency to  decree  that  there  may  be  assigned  to  your  petitioner  about  one  hundred 
acres,  to  the  end  that  he  may  have  the  means  of  supporting  his  family.  And  he  will 
continue  to  pray  God  for  the  health  and  prosperity  of  your  Excellency. 

"Pierre  Baudouin." 

Such  was  the  first  introduction  into  New  England  of  a  name 
which  was  destined  to  be  connected  with  not  a  few  of  the  most 
important  events  of  its  subsequent  history,  and  which  is  now 
indissolubly  associated  with  more  than  one  of  its  most  cherished 
institutions  of  education,  literature,  and  science. 

Driven  out  from  his  home  and  native  land  by  the  fury  of  that 
religious  persecution,  for  which  Louis  XIV.  gave  the  signal  by 
the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  —  disappointed  in  his  at- 
tempt to  secure  the  means  of  an  humble  support  in  Ireland, 
whither  he  had  at  first  fled,  —  Pierre  Baudouin,  in  the  summer 
of  1687,  presents  himself  as  a  suppliant  to  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 
then  Governor-in-Chief  of  New  England,  for  a  hundred  acres  of 
unoccupied  land  at  the  point  of  Barbary  Creek  in  Casco  Bay, 
in  the  Province  of  Maine,  that  he  may  earn  bread  for  himself 
and  his  family  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow. 

He  was  one  of  that  noble  sect  of  Huguenots,  of  which  John 


92  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   EOWDOIN. 

Calvin  may  be  regarded  as  the  great  founder  and  exemplar,  — 
of  which  Gaspard  de  Coligny,  the  generous  and  gallant  admiral, 
who  "  filled  the  kingdom  of  France  with  the  glory  and  terror  of 
his  name  for  the  space  of  twelve  years,"  was  one  of  the  most 
devoted  disciples  and  one  of  the  most  lamented  martyrs, —  and 
which  has  furnished  to  our  own  land  blood  every  way  worthy 
of  being  mingled  with  the  best  that  has  ever  flowed  in  the  veins 
either  of  southern  Cavalier  or  northern  Puritan. 

He  was  of  that  same  noble  stock  which  gave  three  Presidents 
out  of  nine  to  the  old  Congress  of  the  Confederation ;  which  gave 
her  Laurenses  and  Marions,  her  Hugers  and  Manigaults,  her  Pri- 
oleaus  and  Gaillards  and  Legares  to  South  Carolina;  which 
gave  her  Jays  to  New  York,  her  Boudinots  to  New  Jersey,  her 
Brimmers,  her  Dexters,  and  her  Peter  Faneuil,  with  the  Cradle 
of  Liberty,  to  Massachusetts. 

He  came  from  the  famous  town  of  Rochelle,  which  was  for  so 
many  years  the  very  stronghold  and  rallying  point  of  Protestant- 
ism in  France,  and  which,  in  1629,  held  out  so  long  and  so  hero- 
ically against  the  siege,  which  Richelieu  himself  thought  it  no 
shame  to  conduct  in  person. 

He  is  said  to  have  been  a  physician  by  profession.  The  mere 
internal  evidence  of  the  paper  which  I  have  produced,  though 
the  idiom  may  not  be  altogether  of  the  latest  Parisian,  shows 
him  to  have  been  a  man  of  education.  While,  without  insisting 
on  tracing  back  his  pedigree,  as  others  have  done,  either  to 
Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders  in  862,  or  to  Baldwin  the  chival- 
rous King  of  Jerusalem  in  1143,  both  of  whom,  it  seems,  spelled 
their  names  precisely  as  he  did,  there  is  ample  testimony  that  he 
was  a  man  both  of  family  and  fortune  in  his  own  land. 

"  I  am  the  eldest  descendant,"  wrote  James  Bowdoin,  the 
patron  of  the  College  within  whose  precincts  we  are  assembled, 
"  from  one  of  those  unfortunate  families  which  was  obliged  to 
fly  their  native  country  on  account  of  religion; — a  family,  which, 
as  I  understand,  lived  in  affluence,  perhaps  elegance,  upon  a 
handsome  estate  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rochelle,  which  at  that 
time  (1685)  yielded  the  considerable  income  of  700  louis  d'ors 
per  annum." 

This  estate  was,  of  course,  irrecoverably  forfeited  by  his  flight, 


THE  LIFE   AND   SERVICES    OF   JAMES    BOWDOItf.  93 

and  at  the  end  of  two  years  of  painful  and  perilous  adventure, 
he  landed  upon  the  shores  of  New  England,  with  no  other 
wealth  but  a  wife  and  four  children,  and  the  freedom  to  worship 
God  after  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience. 

His  petition,  which  has  no  date  of  its  own,  but  which  is  en- 
dorsed 2d  August,  1687,  was  favorably  received  by  Sir  Edmund 
Andros,  and  the  public  records  in  the  State  department  of  Mas- 
sachusetts contain  a  warrant,  signed  by  Sir  Edmund,  and  direct- 
ed to  Mr.  Richard  Clements,  deputy  surveyor,  authorizing  and 
requiring  him  to  lay  out  one  hundred  acres  of  vacant  land  in 
Casco  Bay  for  Pierre  Baudouin,  in  such  place  as  he  should  be 
directed  by  Edward  Tyng,  Esq.,  one  of  his  majesty's  council. 
The  warrant  bears  date  October  8,  1687. 

Before  this  warrant  was  executed,  however,  Pierre  Baudouin 
had  obtained  possession  of  a  few  acres  of  land  on  what  is  now 
the  high  road  from  Portland  to  Vaughan's  Bridge,  a  few  rods 
northerly  of  the  house  of  the  Hon.  Nicholas  Emery.  A  solitary 
apple  tree,  and  a  few  rocks  which  apparently  formed  the  curbing 
of  a  well,  were  all  that  remained  about  twenty  years  ago,  to 
mark  the  site  of  this  original  dwelling-place  of  the  Bowdoins  in 
America.     I  know  not  whether  even  these  could  now  be  found. 

In  this  original  dwelling-place,  Pierre  and  his  family  remained 
only  about  two  years  and  a  half.  He  had  probably  heard  of  the 
successful  establishment  in  Boston,  a  year  or  two  previously,  of 
a  Protestant  church  by  some  of  his  fellow  fugitives  from  France. 
He  is  likely  to  have  been  still  more  strongly  prompted  to  an  early 
abandonment  of  this  residence,  by  its  extreme  exposure  to  the 
hostile  incursions  and  depredations  of  the  French  and  Indians, 
who  were  leagued  together,  at  this  time,  in  an  attempt  to  break 
up  the  British  settlements  on  this  part  of  the  North  American 
continent.  And  most  narrowly,  and  most  providentially,  did  he 
escape  this  peril.  On  the  17th  of  May,  1690,  the  fort  at  Casco 
was  attacked  and  destroyed,  and  a  general  massacre  of  the  set- 
tlers was  perpetrated  by  the  Indians.  On  the  16th,  just  twenty- 
four  hours  previously,  Pierre  Baudouin  and  his  family  had  plucked 
up  their  stakes  and  departed  for  Boston.  A  race  which  had  sur- 
vived the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's,  and  the  siege  of  Ro- 
chelle,  was  not  destined  to  perish  thus  ignobly  in  the  wilderness ! 


94  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

Pierre  himself,  however,  lived  but  a  short  time  after  his  arrival 
at  Boston,  and  his  eldest  son,  James,  was  left  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen years,  with  the  charge  of  maintaining  a  mother,  a  younger 
brother,  and  two  sisters,  in  a  strange  land. 

The  energy,  perseverance,  and  success  with  which  this  trying 
responsibility  was  met  and  was  discharged  by  James  Bowdoin 
(the  first  of  that  name  in  America,)  is  sufficiently  attested  by  the 
fact,  that  he  soon  rose  to  the  very  first  rank  among  the  merchants 
of  Boston,  that  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Colonial  Coun- 
cil for  several  years  before  his  death,  and  that  he  left  to  his 
children,  as  the  fruit  of  a  long  life  of  industry  and  integrity,  the 
greatest  estate  which  had  ever  been  possessed,  at  that  day, 
by  any  one  person  in  Massachusetts ;  an  estate  which  I  have 
seen  estimated  at  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  thousand  pounds 
sterling. 

Of  the  two  sons,  who  succeeded  equally  to  the  largest  part 
of  this  estate,  James  Bowdoin,  who  will  form  the  principal  sub- 
ject of  this  discourse,  was  the  youngest. 

He  was  born  in  Boston  on  the  7th  of  August,  1726,  and  after 
receiving  the  rudiments  of  his  education  at  the  South  Grammar 
School  of  that  town,  under  Master  Lovell,  he  was  sent  to  Har- 
vard College,  where  he  was  graduated  a  Bachelor  of  Arts  in 
1745.  The  death  of  his  father  occurred  about  two  years  later, 
and  he  was  thus  left  with  an  independent  estate  just  as  he  had 
attained  to  his  majority, 

It  is  hardly  to  be  presumed  that  a  young  man  of  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  of  a  liberal  education,  and  an  ample  fortune,  would 
devote  himself  at  once  and  exclusively  to  mere  mercantile  pur- 
suits. Nor  am  I  inclined  to  believe  that  he  ever  gave  much 
practical  attention  to  them.  But  the  earliest  letter  directed  to 
him,  which  I  find  among  the  family  papers,  proves  that  he  must 
have  been,  at  least  nominally,  engaged  in  commercial  business. 
It  is  directed  to  "  Mr.  James  Bowdoin,  Merchant." 

This  letter,  however,  has  a  far  higher  interest  than  as  merely 
designating  an  address.  It  is  dated  Philadelphia,  Oct.  25,  1750, 
and  is  in  the  following  words : 

"Sir,  —  Enclosed  with  this  I  send  you  all  my  Electrical  papers  fairly  transcribed, 
and  I  have,  as  you  desired,  examined  the  copy,  and  find  it  correct.    I  shall  be  glad  to 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  95   ' 

have  your  observations  on  them ;  and  if  in  any  part  I  have  not  made  myself  well 
understood,  I  will  no  notice  endeavor  to  explain  the  obscure  passages  by  letter. 

"My  compliments  to  Mr.  Cooper  and  the  other  gentleman  who  were  with  you  here. 
I  hope  you  all  got  safe  home. 

"I  am,  Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

"B.  FRANKLIN." 


The  young  Bowdoin,  it  seems,  —  who  at  the  date  of  this 
letter  was  but  four-and-twenty  years  old, —  had  made  a  journey 
to  Philadelphia,  (a  journey  at  that  day  almost  equal  to  a  voyage 
to  London  at  this,)  in  company  with  his  friend  and  pastor,  the 
Reverend  Samuel  Cooper,  afterwards  the  celebrated  Dr.  Cooper 
of  Brattle  Street  Church,  —  and  having  there  sought  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Dr.  Franklin,  had  so  impressed  himself  upon  his  regard 
and  respect,  that  Franklin,  in  transmitting  to  him  his  electrical 
papers,  takes  occasion  to  invite  his  observations  upon  them. 

Franklin  was  then  at  the  age  of  forty -four  years,  and  in  the 
very  maturity  of  his  powers.  Although  he  was  at  this  time 
holding  an  office  connected  with  the  post-office  department  of 
the  Colonies,  as  the  frank  on  the  cover  of  this  letter  indicates,  he 
was  already  deeply  engaged  in  those  great  philosophical  inquiries 
and  experiments  which  were  soon  to  place  him  on  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  fame. 

The  acquaintance  between  Franklin  and  Bowdoin,  which  had 
thus  been  formed  at  Philadelphia,  was  rapidly  ripened  into  a 
most  intimate  and  enduring  friendship  ;  and  with  this  letter  com- 
menced a  correspondence  which  terminated  only  with  their  lives. 

At  the  outset  of  this  correspondence,  Bowdoin  appears  to 
have  availed  himself  of  the  invitation  to  make  observations  on 
Franklin's  theories  and  speculations,  with  somewhat  more  of 
independence  of  opinion  than  might  have  been  expected  from 
the  disparity  of  their  ages.  One  of  his  earliest  letters  (21st 
Dec.  1751)  suggested  such  forcible  objections  to  the  hypothesis, 
that  the  sea  was  the  grand  source  of  electricity,  that  Franklin 
was  led  to  say  in  his  reply,  (24th  January,  1752,) — "I  grow 
more  doubtful  of  my  former  supposition,  and  more  ready  to 
allow  weight  to  that  objection,  (drawn  from  the  activity  of  the 
electric  fluid  and  the  readiness  of  water  to  conduct,)  which  you 
have  indeed  stated  with  great  strength  and  clearness."     In  the 


96  THE    LIFE   AND    SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

following  year  Franklin  retracted  this  hypothesis  altogether. 
The  same  letter  of  Bowdoin's  contained  an  elaborate  explication 
of  the  cause  of  the  crooked  direction  of  lightning,  which  Frank- 
lin pronounced,  in  his  reply,  to  be  "  both  ingenious  and  solid,"  — 
adding,  "  when  we  can  account  as  satisfactorily  for  the  electrifi- 
cation of  clouds,  I  think  that  branch  of  natural  philosophy  will 
be  nearly  complete." 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  Bowdoin  suggested  a  theory  in  regard 
to  the  luminousness  of  water  under  certain  circumstances,  ascrib- 
ing it  to  the  presence  of  minute  phosphorescent  animals,  of  which 
Franklin  said,  in  his  reply,  (13th  Dec.  1753,)  —  "  The  observations 
you  made  of  the  sea  water  emitting  more  or  less  light  in  differ- 
ent tracts  passed  through  by  your  boat,  is  new,  and  your  mode 
of  accounting  for  it  ingenious.  It  is,  indeed,  very  possible,  that 
an  extremely  small  animalcule,  too  small  to  be  visible  even  by 
our  best  glasses,  may  yet  give  a  visible  light."  This  theory  has 
since  been  very  generally  received. 

Franklin  soon  after  paid  our  young  philosopher  the  more  sub- 
stantial and  unequivocal  compliment  of  sending  his  letters  to 
London,  where  they  were  read  at  the  Royal  Society,  and  pub- 
lished in  a  volume  with  his  own.  The  Royal  Society,  at  a  later 
day,  made  Bowdoin  one  of  their  fellows ;  and  Franklin,  writing 
to  Bowdoin  from  London,  Jan.  13,  1772,  says :  "  It  gives  me 
great  pleasure  that  my  book  afforded  any  to  my  friends.  I 
esteem  those  letters  of  yours  among  its  brightest  ornaments, 
and  have  the  satisfaction  to  find  that  they  add  greatly  to  .the 
reputation  of  American  philosophy." 

But  the  sympathies  of  Franklin  and  Bowdoin  were  not  des- 
tined to  be  long  confined  to  philosophical  inquiries.  There  were 
other  clouds  than  those  of  the  sky,  gathering  thickly  and  darkly 
around  them,  and  which  were  about  to  require  another  and  more 
practical  sort  of  science,  to  break  their  force  and  rob  them  of 
their  fires.  "  Eripuit  cash  fidmen,  sceptrumque  tyrannis  "  is  the 
proud  motto  upon  one  of  the  medals  which  were  struck  in  honor 
of  Franklin.  Bowdoin,  we  shall  see,  was  one  of  his  counsellors 
and  coadjutors  in  both  the  processes  which  secured  for  him  this 
enviable  ascription. 


THE   LIFE   AND  SERVICES   OF   JAMES    BOWDOIN.  97 

Bowdoin  entered  into  political  life  in  the  year  1753,  as  one  of 
the  four  representatives  of  Boston,  in  the  Provincial  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  and  remained  a  member  of  the  House  for 
three  years,  having  been  reelected  by  the  same  constituency  in 
1754  and  1755. 

The  American  Colonies  were,  at  this  moment,  mainly  engaged 
in  resisting  the  encroachments  of  the  French  upon  their  bound- 
aries. The  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  devoted  itself,  with 
especial  zeal,  to  this  object.  It  was  said,  and  truly  said,  by  their 
Councillors  in  1755,  in  an  answer  to  one  of  Governor  Shirley's 
Messages,  "  that  since  the  peace  of  Aix  la  Chapelle  (1748)  we 
have  been  at  more  expense  for  preventing  and  removing  the 
French  encroachments,  we  do  not  say  than  any  other  Colony, 
but  than  all  His  Majesty's  Colonies  besides." 

Bowdoin  appears  from  the  journals  to  have  cooperated  cor- 
dially in  making  provision  for  the  expeditions  to  Nova  Scotia 
and  Crown  Point,  and  in  all  the  military  measures  of  defence. 
He  seems,  however,  to  have  been  more  particularly  interested  in 
promoting  that  great  civil  or  political  measure  of  safety  and 
security  which  was  so  seriously  agitated  at  this  time,  —  the 
Union  of  the  Colonies. 

In  June,  1754,  a  convention  of  delegates  from  the  various 
Colonies  was  held  at  Albany,  under  Royal  authority  and  recom- 
mendation, to  consider  a  plan  of  uniting  the  Colonies  in  mea- 
sures for  their  general  defence.  Of  this  convention  Franklia 
was  a  member,  and  a  plan  of  general  union,  known  afterwards- 
as  the  Albany  plan  of  union,  but  of  which  he  was  the  projector 
and  proposer,  was  conditionally  adopted  by  the  unanimous  vote 
of  the  delegates.  The  condition  wras,  that  it  should  be  con- 
firmed by  the  various  Colonial  Assemblies. 

In  December,  1754,  the  measure  was  largely  debated  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  and  on  the  14th 
day  of  that  month,  the  House  came  to  a  vote  on  the  three  fol- 
lowing questions  :  — 

1.  "  Whether  the  House  accept  of  the  general  plan  of  union 
as  reported  by  the  commissioners  convened  at  Albany  in  June 
last."     This  was  decided  in  the  negative. 

2.  "  Whether  the  House  accept  of  the  partial  plan  of  union 


98  THE   LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OP  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

reported  by  the  last  committee  of  both  Houses,  appointed  on 
the  Union."     This,  also,  was  decided  in  the  negative. 

3.  "  Whether  it  be  the  mind  of  the  House,  that  there  be  a 
General  Union  of  his  Majesty's  Colonies  on  this  Continent,  ex- 
cept those  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Georgia."  This  proposition 
was  decided  in  the  affirmative  by  a  large  majority. 

The  proceedings  of  the  legislative  bodies  of  the  Colonies,  and 
indeed  of  all  other  legislative  bodies,  wherever  they  existed 
throughout  the  world,  were  at  that  time  conducted  in  secrecy. 
As  late  as  1776,  Congress  discussed  every  thing  with  closed 
doors,  and  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  Notes  for  all  that 
we  know  of  the  debates  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Even  to  this  day,  there  is  no  authority  for  the  admission  either 
of  reporters  or  listeners  to  the  halls  of  the  British  Parliament. 
A  single  member  may  demand,  at  any  moment,  that  the  gal- 
leries be  cleared,  and  may  insist  on  the  execution  of  the  demand. 
Practically,  however,  the  proceedings  of  Parliament  and  of 
almost  all  other  legislative  bodies  are  now  public,  and  no  one 
can  over-estimate  the  importance  of  the  change. 

Doubtless,  when  debates  were  conducted  with  closed  doors, 
there  were  no  speeches  for  Buncombe,  no  clap-traps  for  the  gal- 
leries, no  flourishes  for  the  ladies,  and  it  required  no  hour-rule, 
perhaps,  to  keep  men  within  some  bounds  of  relevancy.  But 
one  of  the  great  sources  of  instruction  and  information,  in  regard 
both  to  the  general  measures  of  government,  and  to  the  particu- 
lar conduct  of  their  own  representatives,  was  then  shut  out  from 
the  people,  and  words  which  might  have  roused  them  to  the 
vindication  of  justice  or  to  the  overthrow  of  tyranny  were  lost 
in  the  utterance.  The  perfect  publicity  of  legislative  proceed- 
ings is  hardly  second  to  the  freedom  of  the  press,  in  its  influence 
upon  the  progress  and  perpetuity  of  human  liberty,  though,  like 
the  freedom  of  the  press,  it  may  be  attended  with  inconve- 
niences and  abuses. 

It  is  a  most  significant  fact  in  this  connection,  that  the  earliest 
instance  of  authorized  publicity  being  given  to  the  deliberations 
of  a  legislative  body  in  modern  days,  was  in  this  same  House 
of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  3d  day  of  June, 
1766,  when,  upon  motion  of  James  Otis,  and  during  the  debates 


THE   LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  99 

which  arose  on  the  questions  of  the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act,  and 
of  compensation  to  the  sufferers  by  the  riots  in  Boston,  to  which 
that  act  had  given  occasion,  a  resolution  was  carried  "  for  open- 
ing a  gallery  for  such  as  wished  to  hear  the  debates."  The 
influence  of  this  measure  in  preparing  the  public  mind  for  the 
great  revolutionary  events  which  were  soon  to  follow,  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated. 

Of  the  debates  in  1754,  on  the  union  of  the  Colonies,  we,  of 
course,  have  no  record.  But  I  find  among  the  family  papers,  a 
brief  and  imperfect  memorandum,  in  his  own  hand-writing,  of 
a  speech  made  by  Bowdoin  on  this  occasion. 

"  It  seems  to  be  generally  allowed  (said  he)  that  an  union  of 
some  sort  is  necessary.  If  that  be  granted,  the  only  question  to 
be  considered  is,  whether  the  union  shall  be  general  or  partial. 
It  has  been  my  opinion,  and  still  is,  that  a  general  union  would 
be  most  salutary.  If  the  Colonies  were  united,  they  could  easily 
drive  the  French  out  of  this  part  of  America ;  but,  in  a  dis- 
united state,  the  French,  though  not  a  tenth  part  so  numerous, 
are  an  overmatch  for  them  all.  They  are  under  one  head  and 
one  direction,  and  all  pull  one  way ;  whereas  the  Colonies  have 
no  head,  some  of  them  are  under  no  direction  in  military  mat- 
ters, and  all  pull  different  ways.  Join  or  Die,  must  be  their 
motto." 

After  alluding  to  the  importance  of  a  union  in  reference  to 
the  Indian  trade,  he  goes  on  to  say,  that  "  another  advantage  of 
a  general  union  is,  that  the  French  Cape  Breton  trade  would  be 
put  an  end  to." 

"  This  trade  (he  continued)  has  been  long  complained  of,  not 
only  as  detrimental  to  our  own  trade,  but  as  the  French  have, 
by  means  thereof,  been  furnished  with  provisions  of  all  kinds, 
not  only  for  themselves  at  Louisburg,  but  for  Canada  and  the 
forces  which  they  have  employed  on  the  Ohio.  The  flour  they 
had  there  was  marked  by  the  Philadelphia  and  New  York  brand. 
They  are  supplied  from  the  Colonies  with  the  means  of  effecting 
their  destruction ;  and  their  destruction  will  be  the  consequence 
of  that  trade,  unless  it  be  stopped.  And  it  must  be  stopped  by 
being  subjected  to  the  regulations  of  a  general  union." 

Thus  early  did  Bowdoin  suggest  and  advocate  that  great  idea 


100  THE  LIFE   AND    SERVICES   OP  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

of  a  general  union  of  the  Colonies  for  the  regulation  of  trade, 
which  we  shall  find  him,  almost  half  a  century  afterwards,  in 
no  small  degree  instrumental  in  accomplishing  and  realizing 
through  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

The  prominent  part  which  he  took,  in  1754,  in  favor  of  the 
measure,  is  proved  by  the  fact,  that  immediately  after  the  adop- 
tion of  the  proposition  which  I  have  stated,  he  was  made  the 
chairman  of  a  committee  of  seven,  on  the  part  of  the  House, 
with  such  as  the  Council  might  join,  "  to  consider  and  report  a 
general  plan  of  union  of  the  several  Colonies  on  this  Continent, 
except  those  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Georgia." 

It  appears  that  this  committee  agreed  upon  such  a  plan,  and 
that  it  was  adopted  by  the  Council.  On  being  brought  down 
to  the  House,  however,  its  consideration  was  deferred,  to  allow 
time  for  members  to  consult  their  constituents,  and  a  motion  to 
print  it  was  negatived.  It  was  never  again  taken  up,  and  I 
know  not  that  any  copy  of  it  remains.  Greater  dangers,  and 
from  a  more  formidable  source,  were  needed,  to  impress  upon 
the  Colonies  the  vital  importance  of  that  Union,  without  which 
their  liberties  and  independence  never  could  have  been  achieved. 
Nor  were  such  greater  dangers  distant. 

In  May,  1757,  after  an  interval  of  a  single  year  from  the  ter- 
mination of  his  three  years'  service  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, Bowdoin  was  elected  by  that  body  a  member  of  the 
Council. 

The  Council  of  that  day  was  not  a  mere  Executive  Council, 
like  that  which  exists  under  the  present  Constitution  of  Massa- 
chusetts, but  was  a  coordinate  and  independent  branch  of  the 
Colonial  Legislature.  It  was  composed  of  twenty-eight  mem- 
bers, a  larger  number  than  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  con- 
tained at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  was  in  almost 
every  respect  analogous  to  the  Senates  of  our  own  day.  To 
this  body  Bowdoin  was  annually  reelected,  from  1757  to  1774, 
and  he  actually  served  as  a  member  of  it,  with  what  zeal  and 
ability  we  shall  presently  see,  during  sixteen  of  these  seventeen 
successive  years. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  overstate  the  importance  to  the  ulti- 
mate success  of  American   liberty    and   independence,  of   the 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OP   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  101 

course  pursued  by  the  Council  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
Massachusetts,  during  the  greater  part  of  this  long  period. 
Even  as  early  as  1757,  a  controversy  sprung  up  between  these 
bodies  and  Lord  Loudoun,  the  British  commander-in-chief,  in 
regard  to  quartering  and  billeting  his  troops  upon  the  citizens  of 
Boston,  which  by  no  means  faintly  foreshadowed  the  great  dis- 
putes which  were  to  follow.  In  this  controversy,  the  authority 
of  an  act  of  Parliament  in  the  Colony  was  boldly,  and,  it  is 
believed,  for  the  first  time  in  our  history,  denied;  and  an  earnest 
protestation  was  made  that  the  colonists  were  entitled  to  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  Englishmen. 

The  Provincial  Governor  of  that  period,  however,  —  Thomas 
Pownall,  —  was  too  moderate  and  too  liberal  in  his  administra- 
tion, and  was,  moreover,  too  deeply  interested  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  those  glorious  campaigns  of  Wolfe  and  Amherst,  in 
which  Massachusetts,  —  and  Maine,  as  a  part  of  Massachusetts, 
—  had  so  large  and  honorable  a  share,  and  by  which  the  French 
power  on  this  Continent  was  finally  extinguished,  to  provoke  any 
serious  breach  between  himself  and  the  Legislative  Assemblies. 

But  Sir  Francis  Bernard,  his  successor,  was  another  sort  of 
person,  and  from  his  accession  in  1760,  down  to  the  very  day 
on  which  the  last  British  governor  was  finally  driven  from  our 
shores,  there  was  one  continued  conflict  between  the  legislative 
and  executive  authorities. 

Governor  Bernard,  in  his  very  first  speech  to  the  Assembly, 
gave  a  clue  to  his  whole  political  character  and  course,  by  allud- 
ing to  the  blessings  which  the  Colonies  derived  "  from  their 
subjection  to  Great  Britain  ; "  and  the  Council,  in  their  reply  to 
this  speech,  furnished  a  no  less  distinct  indication  of  the  spirit 
with  which  they  were  animated,  by  acknowledging  how  much 
they  owed  "  to  their  relation  to  Great  Britain." 

Indeed,  if  any  one  would  fully  understand  the  rise  and  pro- 
gress of  revolutionary  principles  on  this  Continent ;  if  he  would 
understand  the  arbitrary  and  tyrannical  doctrines  which  were 
asserted  by  the  British  Ministry,  and  the  prompt  resistance  and 
powerful  refutation  which  they  met  at  the  hands  of  our  New 
England  patriots,  he  must  read  what  are  called  "  The  Massa- 
chusetts State  Papers,"  consisting,  mainly,  of  the  messages  of 
9* 


102  THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

the  Governor  to  the  Legislature,  and  the  answers  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  Legislature  to  the  Governor,  during  this  period. 
He  will  find  here  almost  all  the  great  principles  and  questions 
of  that  momentous  controversy,  Trial  by  Jury,  Regulation  of 
Trade,  Taxation  without  Representation,  the  Stamp  Act,  the 
Tea  Tax,  and  the  rest,  stated  and  argued  with  unsurpassed 
ability  and  spirit.  It  was  by  these  State  Papers,  more,  perhaps, 
than  by  any  thing  else,  that  the  people  of  that  day  were  in- 
structed as  to  the  great  rights  and  interests  which  were  at  stake, 
and  the  popular  heart  originally  and  gradually  prepared  for  the 
great  issue  of  Independence.  If  James  Otis's  argument  against 
Writs  of  Assistance  in  1761,  (as  was  said  by  John  Adams,) 
"breathed  into  this  nation  the  breath  of  life,"  few  things,  if  any 
thing,  did  more  to  prolong  that  breath,  and  sustain  that  life 
through  the  trying  period  of  the  nation's  infancy,  until  it  was 
able  to  go  alone,  than  the  answers  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  Massachusetts  to  the  insolent  assumptions  of  Bernard 
and  Hutchinson,  mainly  drafted  by  the  same  James  Otis  and 
Samuel  Adams,  and  the  answers  of  the  Council,  mainly  drafted 
by  James  Bowdoin. 

Of  the  first-rate  part  which  Bowdoin  played,  during  his  long 
service  in  the  Council,  we  have  the  fullest  testimony  from  the 
most  unquestionable  sources. 

Governor  Hutchinson,  who  was  himself  a  principal  actor  in 
the  scenes  which  he  describes,  and  who  will  not  be  suspected  of 
any  undue  partiality  to  Bowdoin,  furnishes  unequivocal  testi- 
mony as  to  his  course. 

"  In  most  of  the  addresses,  votes,  and  other  proceedings  in 
Council,  of  importance,  for  several  years  past,  (says  he,  in  the 
third  volume  of  his  History  of  Massachusetts,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  year  1766,)  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  (Hutchinson 
himself)  had  been  employed  as  the  chairman  of  the  committees. 
Mr.  Bowdoin  succeeded  him,  and  obtained  a  greater  influence 
over  the  Council  than  his  predecessor  ever  had ;  and  being 
united  in  principle  with  the  leading  men  in  the  House,  measures 
were  concerted  between  him  and  them,  and  from  this  time  the 
Council,  in  matters  which  concerned  the  controversy  between 
the  Parliament  and  the  Colonies,  in  scarcely  any  instance  dis- 
agreed with  the  House." 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  103 

Again,  under  date  of  1770,  Hutchinson  says,  "  Bowdoin  was 
without  a  rival  in  the  Council,  and  by  the  harmony  and  recipro- 
cal communications  between  him  and  Mr.  S.  Adams,  the  mea- 
sures of  Council  and  House  harmonized  also,  and  were  made 
reciprocally  subservient  each  to  the  other;  so  that  when  the 
Governor  met  with  opposition  from  the  one,  he  had  reason  to 
expect  like  opposition  from  the  other." 

Hutchinson  also  states,  under  the  same  date,  that  "  Bowdoin 
greatly  encouraged,  if  he  did  not  first  propose,  (as  a  measure  of 
retaliation  for  the  arbitrary  taxes  imposed  by  Great  Britain,)  the 
association  for  leaving  off  the  custom  of  mourning  dress,  for  the 
loss  of  deceased  friends ;  and  for  wearing,  on  all  occasions,  the 
common  manufactures  of  the  country." 

Nor  are  these  unequivocal  expressions  in  the  published  his- 
tory of  Hutchinson,  the  only  testimony  which  has  been  borne 
to  Bowdoin's  influence  in  the  Council  and  in  the  Common- 
wealth. 

Alexander  Wedderburn,  (afterwards  Lord  Loughborough,) 
in  his  infamous  philippic  upon  Dr.  Franklin,  before  the  Privy 
Council  in  England,  styled  Bowdoin  "  the  leader  and  manager 
of  the  Council  in  Massachusetts,  as  Mr.  Adams  was  in  the 
House." 

Sir  Francis  Bernard,  in  a  private  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Hills- 
borough, then  secretary  of  the  Colonies,  dated  30th  November, 
1768,  held  up  Mr.  Bowdoin  to  the  censure  of  the  Ministry,  "  as 
having  all  along  taken  the  lead  of  the  Council  in  their  late 
extraordinary  proceedings,"  and,  in  another  letter,  as  "  the  per- 
petual president,  chairman,  secretary,  and  speaker  of  the  Coun- 
cil ; "  and  Sir  Francis  gave  a  practical  demonstration  of  the 
sense  which  he  entertained  of  Bowdoin's  importance  to  the 
popular  party,  by  negativing  him  as  a  councillor  at  the  next 
annual  election.  To  this  most  honorable  proscription,  by  the 
most  tyrannical  Governor  who  ever  administered  the  affairs  of 
Massachusetts,  Bowdoin  owed  that  single  year  of  intermission 
in  his  labors  at  the  Council  Board,  to  which  I  have  heretofore 
alluded. 

But  the  people  of  Boston  were  not  in  a  mood  to  be  thus 
deprived  of  the  patriotic  services  of  a  long- tried  and  favorite 


104  THE  LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

servant,  and,  James  Otis  having  at  this  moment  withdrawn 
from  public  duty,  Bowdoin  was  immediately  chosen,  in  his 
place,  a  representative  of  Boston.  No  sooner,  however,  had  he 
taken  his  seat  again  in  this  body,  than  the  House,  animated  by 
the  same  spirit  with  the  people  of  Boston,  reelected  him  to  the 
Council,  and  Sir  Francis  Bernard,  having  in  the  mean  time  been 
recalled,  Bowdoin's  election  was  assented  to  by  Governor  Hutch- 
inson upon  grounds  even  more  complimentary  to  his  ability,  and 
not  less  so  to  his  patriotism,  than  those  upon  which  he  had  been 
negatived  by  Sir  Francis,  —  "because  he  thought  his  influence 
more  prejudicial  in  the  House  of  Representatives  than  at  the 
Council."  It  was  as  the  successor  of  Bowdoin,  on  this  occasion, 
that  John  Adams  first  took  his  seat  in  the  Legislature  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Hutchinson's  reason  for  assenting  to  Bowdoin's  reelection  to 
the  Council,  is  given  with  something  more  of  circumstance  and 
amplification,  in  one  of  his  private  letters  to  the  Ministry  a  year 
or  two  afterwards.  In  April,  1772,  he  wrote  as  follows :  "  Mr. 
Hancock  moved  in  the  House  to  address  the  Governor  to  carry 
the  Court  to  Boston,  and  to  assign  no  reason  except  the  con- 
venience of  sitting  there,  but  this  was  opposed  by  his  colleague 
Adams,  and  carried  against  the  motion  by  three  or  four  voices 
only.  The  same  motion  was  made  in  Council,  but  opposed  by 
Mr.  Bowdoin,  who  is,  and  has  been  for  several  years,  the  princi- 
pal supporter  of  the  opposition  to  the  government.  It  would  be 
to  no  purpose  to  negative  him,  for  he  would  be  chosen  into  the 
House,  and  do  more  mischief  there  than  at  the  Board." 

It  seems,  however,  that  this  reasoning  was  not  altogether 
satisfactory  to  the  ministers  of  the  Crown,  or  to  the  Crown 
itself,  as  in  1774  Bowdoin  was  again  negatived  by  General 
Gage,  who  had  succeeded  Hutchinson  as  Governor,  and  who 
declared  "  that  he  had  express  orders  from  his  Majesty  to  set 
aside  from  that  board  Hon.  Mr.  Bowdoin,  Mr.  Dexter,  and  Mr. 
Winthrop." 

Thus  terminated  the  services  of  James  Bowdoin  in  his  Ma- 
jesty's Council,  and  within  a  few  months  afterwards  his  Ma- 
jesty's Council  itself  was  swept  out  of  existence  within  the  limits 
of  Massachusetts. 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  105 

The  17th  of  June,  1774,  was  no  unfit  precursor  of  the  17th 
of  June,  1775.  If  the  latter  was  the  date  of  the  first  great 
physical  contest  for  liberty,  the  former  was  the  date  of  one  of 
the  earliest  civil  acts  of  revolution.  The  House  of  Represent- 
atives of  Massachusetts  then  assembled  at  Salem,  having  come 
to  a  rupture  with  Governor  Gage,  and  foreseeing  that  they 
should  be  immediately  dissolved,  ordered  the  door  of  their 
chamber  to  be  locked,  and  having  effectually  barred  out  the 
Governor's  secretary,  proceeded,  while  he  was  actually  reading 
the  promulgation  for  their  dissolution  on  the  staircase,  to  do 
two  most  important  and  significant  things  :  the  one,  to  provide 
for  holding  a  Provincial  Congress  to  supply  the  place  of  the 
General  Court  of  the  Commonwealth ;  the  other,  to  elect  dele- 
gates to  the  first  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  At  the 
head  of  these  delegates  stood  the  name  of  James  Bowdoin.  The 
others  were  Thomas  Cushing,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  and 
Robert  Treat  Paine. 

Had  the  condition  of  Bowdoin's  family  allowed  him  to  pro- 
ceed to  Philadelphia,  agreeably  to  this  appointment,  there  can 
hardly  be  a  doubt  that  his  name  would  now  be  found,  where  all 
the  world  might  read  it,  foremost  on  the  roll  of  Independence ; 
but  the  illness  of  his  wife  compelled  him  to  stay  at  home,  and 
that  proud  distinction  was  reserved  for  the  name  of  John  Hancock, 
who  was  elected  as  his  substitute.  The  spirit  by  which  he  was 
actuated  at  this  time,  is  abundantly  indicated  by  a  letter  which 
he  wrote  to  his  friend  Franklin  in  London,  on  the  6th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1774,  just  after  the  first  Congress  had  assembled,  and 
which  was  mainly  written  as  an  introduction  of  Josiah  Quincy, 
Jr.,  then  vainly  seeking  a  restoration  of  his  health  by  a  foreign 
voyage. 

"  Six  regiments  (says  he)  are  now  here,  and  General  Gage,  it 
is  said,  has  sent  for  two  or  three  from  Canada,  and  expects  soon 
two  more  from  Ireland.  Whether  he  will  think  these,  or  a  much 
greater  number  added  to  them,  sufficient  to  enforce  submission 
to  the  act,  (for  reducing  the  province  to  a  military  government,) 
his  letters  to  the  Ministry  will  inform  them,  and  time,  every 
body  else.  In  apricum  proferet  cetas.  A  sort  of  enthusiasm 
seems  universally  prevalent,  and  it  has  been  greatly  heightened 


106  THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES    OF  JAMES    BOWDOIN. 

by  the  Canada  act  for  the  encouraging  and  establishing  Popery. 
"  Pro  arts  etfocis,  our  all  is  at  stake,"  is  the  general  cry  through- 
out the  country.  Of  this  I  have  been  in  some  measure  a  witness, 
having  these  two  months  past  been  journeying  about  the  Pro- 
vince with  Mrs.  Bowdoin,  on  account  of  her  health  ;  the  bad 
state  of  which  has  prevented  my  attending  the  Congress,  for 
which  the  Assembly  thought  proper  to  appoint  me  one  of  their 
committee." 

Mr.  Bowdoin's  own  health,  also,  about  this  time,  gave  way, 
and  soon  after  assumed  a  most  serious  aspect.  In  a  letter  to 
John  Adams  from  his  wife,  bearing  date  June  15th,  1775,  and 
which  is  among  the  letters  of  Mrs.  Adams  recently  published  by 
her  grandson,  I  find  the  following  passage :  "  Mr.  Bowdoin  and 
his  lady  are  at  present  in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Borland,  and  are 
going  to  Middleborough,  to  the  house  of  Judge  Oliver.  He, 
poor  gentleman,  is  so  low,  that  I  apprehend  he  is  hastening  to 
a  house  not  made  with  hands ;  he  looks  like  a  mere  skeleton, 
speaks  faint  and  low,  is  racked  with  a  violent  cough,  and,  I 
think,  far  advanced  in  consumption.  I  went  to  see  him  last 
Saturday.  He  is  very  inquisitive  of  every  person  with  regard 
to  the  times ;  begged  I  would  let  him  know  of  the  first  intelli- 
gence I  had  from  you  ;  is  very  unable  to  converse  by  reason  of 
his  cough.  He  rides  every  pleasant  day,  and  has  been  kind 
enough  to  call  at  the  door  (though  unable  to  get  out)  several 
times.  He  says  the  very  name  of  Hutchinson  distresses  him. 
Speaking  of  him  the  other  day,  he  broke  out,  '  Religious  rascal ! 
how  I  abhor  his  name!'" 

I  am  the  more  particular  in  giving  these  contemporaneous 
accounts  of  the  circumstances  which  prevented  Bowdoin  from 
taking  his  seat  in  the  Continental  Congress,  because,  in  the 
violence  of  partisan  warfare  afterwards,  his  patriotism  was  im- 
peached on  this  ground.  As  well  might  the  patriotism  of  James 
Otis  be  impeached,  because  the  blows  of  assassins  upon  his 
brain,  unsettling  his  reason,  compelled  him  also  to  retire,  at  this 
moment,  from  the  service  of  the  country,  and  to  leave  others  to 
reap  a  harvest  of  glory  which  he  had  sown  !  As  well  might  the 
patriotism  of  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.  be  impeached,  because  con- 
sumption, at  this  moment,  had  marked  him  for  its  prey,  and  he, 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES    BOWDOIN.  107 

too,  was  forced  to  fly  to  milder  climes,  from  which  he  only- 
returned  to  expire  within  sight  of  his  native  shores ! 

The  services  of  Bowdoin,  however,  were  not  yet  destined  to  be 
lost  to  Massachusetts  or  to  the  country.  Momentous  responsi- 
bilities still  awaited  him,  and  the  partial  restoration  of  his  health 
soon  enabled  him  to  meet  them. 

Indeed,  while  his  health  was  still  failing,  he  served  as  moder- 
ator of  a  great  meeting  of  the  people  of  Boston,  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
which  was  held  to  consider  the  demand  which  had  been  made 
upon  them  by  General  Gage,  for  the  surrender  of  their  arms. 
The  meeting  was  one  of  the  greatest  interest  and  excitement, 
and  was  protracted  through  many  days.  Bowdoin,  at  the  close 
of  it,  acted  as  chairman  of  the  committee  to  remonstrate  and 
treat  with  General  Gage  upon  the  subject,  and  I  now  have  in 
my  hand  the  evidence  of  his  success,  in  an  original  paper,  which 
is  not  without  historical  interest,  dated  Boston,  April  27,  1775, 
in  the  following  terms  : 

"  General  Gage  gives  liberty  to  the  inhabitants  to  remove  out 
of  town  with  their  effects,  and,  in  order  to  expedite  said  removal, 
informs  the  inhabitants  that  they  may  receive  passes  for  that 
purpose  from  General  Robinson,  any  time  after  8  o'clock  to- 
morrow morning." 

Such  was  the  only  liberty  which  the  people  of  Boston  could, 
in  that  day,  extort  from  the  British  commander-in-chief,  —  liberty 
to  abandon  their  homes  and  firesides,  and  to  seek  shelter  where 
they  could  find  it !  Even  this,  however,  was  a  great  point- 
gained,  and  was  far  better  than  being  exposed  to  the  daily 
insults  and  depredations  of  a  hireling  soldiery.  I  have  it  under 
his  own  hand,  that  it  was  by  his  attention  to  this  business,  while 
already  an  invalid,  that  Bowdoin  contracted  the  serious  illness 
described  by  Mrs.  Adams,  by  reason  of  which  his  life  was  at  one 
time  despaired  of. 

In  August  of  this  same  year,  1775,  a  Provincial  Congress 
assembled  at  Watertown,  and  proceeded,  under  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  Continental  Congress,  to  organize  the  first  regular 
Government,  by  electing  twenty-eight  Councillors,  not  only  to 
act  as  a  branch  of  the  legislative  body,  but  to  exercise  the 
supreme  executive   authority  of  the  province.     Bowdoin  was 


108  THE   LIFE  AND    SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

elected  first  on  the  list,  and  on  the  meeting  of  the  Board  was 
formally  placed  at  its  head,  so  that  he  should  act  as  President 
of  the  Council  whenever  he  was  present.  Though  his  health 
was  still  infirm,  he  instantly  accepted  the  appointment,  and  soon 
repaired  to  his  post,  and  in  that  capacity  he  presided,  from  time 
to  time  for  several  years,  over  the  now  independent  Republic. 
"  This  conspicuous  act  of  overt  treason,"  (as  it  was  well  termed 
by  one  who  knew  the  meaning  of  the  terms  which  he  used, — 
Bowdoin's  distinguished  eulogist,  Judge  Lowell,)  this  conspicu- 
ous act  of  overt  treason  to  the  British  monarch,  whose  ministry 
was  still  exercising  "  the  pageantry  of  civil  government  within 
the  province,"  and  whose  armies  held  possession  of  the  capital 
almost  within  sight,  furnishes  ample  evidence  that  Bowdoin 
shrunk  from  no  exposure  to  personal  proscription  or  peril. 

George  Washington  had  just  then  assumed  the  command 
of  the  American  army,  encamped  around  Boston.  Bowdoin's 
official  position  brought  him,  of  course,  into  immediate  relation 
to  the  commander-in-chief,  and  an  intimate  and  enduring  friend- 
ship was  soon  formed  between  them.  Many  letters  of  a  highly 
confidential  character,  and  a  beautiful  cane,  now  in  my  own 
possession,  which  was  the  gift  of  Bowdoin  to  Washington, 
and  which  was  returned,  as  a  precious  memorial  to  the  family 
by  Mrs.  Washington,  after  her  husband's  death,  bear  witness  to 
the  cordial  regard  which  they  cherished  for  each  other. 

In  the  autumn  of  1775,  the  Continental  Congress  despatched 
a  special  committee  of  its  members  to  Cambridge,  to  confer 
with  Washington  and  the  authorities  of  the  New  England 
States,  as  to  the  best  means  of  conducting  the  campaign.  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  and  Benjamin  Harrison,  (the  father  of  the  late 
lamented  President  of  the  United  States,)  were  two  of  the 
committee  of  Congress.  Bowdoin  was  the  chairman  of  the 
committee  to  conduct  the  conference  on  the  part  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  by  them  it  was  agreed  that  an  army  of  twenty-four 
thousand  men  should  be  raised  for  the  ensuing  year,  and  that 
the  several  Colonies  should  be  called  on  for  their  respective  pro- 
portions of  money  to  meet  the  expenses  of  supporting  them. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Washington  said  to  some  timid 
Whigs  in  Massachusetts,  "  You  need  not  fear,  when  you  have 
a  Bowdoin  at  your  head." 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  109 

It  was  through  the  confidential  agency  of  Bowdoin,  some 
years  afterwards,  in  1780,  that  Washington  procured  a  plan  of 
the  harbor  of  Halifax,  with  the  depth  of  the  water,  and  the  po- 
sition of  all  the  military  works,  with  a  view  to  its  destruction 
by  the  French  fleet. 

Nor  may  it  be  uninteresting,  or  out  of  place,  to  mention  here, 
that  on  the  night  on  which  Washington  threw  up  the  redoubts 
on  Dorchester  Heights,  which  compelled  the  British  army  to 
evacuate  Boston  on  the  seventeenth  of  March,  he  was  accompa- 
nied by  Bowdoin's  son,  James,  (afterwards  the  patron  of  the 
College,)  a  young  man  then  of  twenty-two  years  of  age,  who, 
after  being  graduated  at  Harvard,  had  gone  over  to  England, 
partly  on  account  of  his  health,  and  partly  to  pursue  his  studies 
at  the  University  of  Oxford,  but  who  had  hurried  back  to  share 
the  fortunes  of  his  native  land  instantly  on  the  breaking  out  of 
hostilities.  The  young  Bowdoin  also  crossed  over  in  the  same 
boat  with  Washington  on  his  entrance  into  Boston,  after  the 
departure  of  the  British,  and  took  him  to  dine  at  his  grandfather 
Erving's,  where,  we  are  told,  the  greatest  delicacy  the  town  af- 
forded "  was  only  a  piece  of  salted  beef." 

Mr.  Bowdoin,  the  father,  was  reelected  to  the  Council  in  1776 
and  1777,  and  continued  to  serve  as  its  presiding  officer,  when- 
ever his  health  permitted  him  to  attend  its  meetings,  until  the 
summer  of  1777,  when  he  resigned. 

In  1776,  on  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  Declaration  of  Inr 
dependence,  he  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  to  direct 
and  personally  superintend  its  proclamation  from  the  balcony  of 
the  Old  State  House  in  Boston.  He  was,  also,  the  chairman  of 
the  committee  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Commonwealth 
during  the  recess  of  the  General  Court. 

In  1779,  Bowdoin  was  brought  back  again  into  the  public  ser- 
vice by  being  elected  a  delegate  from  the  town  of  Boston  to  the 
Convention  which  framed  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts. 
One  attempt  to  accomplish  this  work  had  already  been  made  by 
the  Legislature  during  the  previous  year,  but  the  plan  had  been  re- 
jected by  the  people.  The  greatest  minds  of  the  Commonwealth 
were  now  called  together  to  repair  the  failure.  Samuel  Adams 
and  John  Adams,  Hancock,  the  elder  John  Lowell,  Theophilus 

10 


110  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

Parsons,  the  elder  John  Pickering,  George  Cabot,  Nathaniel 
Gorham,  James  Sullivan,  the  elder  Levi  Lincoln,  Robert  Treat 
Paine,  Jonathan  Jackson,  Henry  Higginson,  Nathaniel  Tracy, 
Samuel  Osgood,  William  Cushing,  and  Caleb  Strong,  were 
among  the  members  of  this  Convention.  Your  own  Province 
of  Maine  was  represented,  among  others,  by  David  Sewall  and 
Benjamin  Chadbourne.  Well  might  it  be  said  that  "to  this 
Convention  were  returned  from  all  parts  of  the  Commonwealth, 
as  great  a  number  of  men  of  learning,  talents,  and  patriotism, 
as  had  ever  been  assembled  here  at  any  earlier  period."  It  may 
be  doubted,  whether  any  later  period  has  ever  witnessed  its  equal. 
Of  this  Convention,  Bowdoin  was  the  President. 

His  position  as  presiding  officer,  however,  did  not  exempt  him 
from  the  more  active  duties  of  membership,  and,  during  the  long 
recess  of  the  Convention,  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  select 
committee,  by  which  the  original  draft  of  the  Constitution  was 
digested  and  prepared.  His  friend  and  eulogist,  Judge  Lowell, 
who  was  himself  second  to  no  one  in  that  Convention,  either 
for  the  zeal  or  the  ability  which  he  brought  to  the  work,  says 
of  Bowdoin,  that  "  it  is  owing  to  the  hints  which  he  occasionally 
gave,  and  the  part  which  he  took  with  the  committee  who  framed 
the  plan,  that  some  of  the  most  admired  sections  in  the  Consti- 
tution of  this  State  appear  in  their  present  form ; "  and  he  adds, 
"this  assembly  of  wise  men  carried  home  with  them  such  im- 
pressions of  his  character  as  an  able  and  virtuous  statesman,  that 
they  retained  the  highest  respect  and  esteem  for  him  till  his  death." 

At  the  organization  of  the  government  of  the  Commonwealth 
under  this  new  Constitution,  John  Hancock  was  elected  to  the 
chief  magistracy.  There  having  been  no  choice  of  a  Lieutenant 
Governor  by  the  people,  the  Legislature,  on  their  assembling, 
elected  Bowdoin  to  that  office.  They,  also,  simultaneously 
elected  him  a  Senator  for  the  County  of  Suffolk,  leaving  it 
optional  with  himself  to  decide  in  which  capacity  he  would 
serve  the  State,  and  intimating,  certainly,  in  the  most  compli- 
mentary manner,  their  unwillingness  that  the  State  should  be 
deprived  of  his  services  altogether.  Bowdoin,  however,  declined 
both  these  offices,  as  he  did,  also,  the  appointment  of  agent  to 
negotiate  a  loan  in  Europe,  which,  about  this  time,  was  offered 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  Ill 

to  him.  But  in  the  subsequent  winter  he  accepted  an  appoint- 
ment from  the  Legislature,  in  company  with  the  Justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  the  Attorney- General,  and  Mr.  John  Pickering, 
"  to  revise  the  laws  in  force  in  the  State  ;  to  select,  abridge,  alter, 
and  digest  them,  so  as  to  be  accommodated  to  the  present  Go- 
vernment." I  have  seen  ample  evidence,  in  his  private  papers, 
of  the  labor  which  he  bestowed  on  the  duties  of  this  distin- 
guished and  most  responsible  commission. 

In  1782,  Bowdoin  was  chosen  a  representative  from  Boston, 
but  declined  the  office. 

In  January,  1785,  Hancock  resigned  his  place  as  Chief  Magis- 
trate of  Massachusetts.  At  the  ensuing  April  election  there 
was  no  choice  by  the  people,  but  on  the  meeting  of  the  Legisla- 
ture in  May,  Bowdoin  was  elected  Governor,  by  the  Senate,  out 
of  the  candidates  sent  up  to  that  body  by  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. 

It  was  during  the  popular  canvass  preceding  this  election, 
that  a  charge  was  brought  against  Bowdoin  that  he  was  in 
British  interest  and  under  British  influence.  In  these  latter  days, 
such  a  charge,  against  whomsoever  it  were  arrayed,  could  excite 
little  surprise.  It  is  the  penalty  of  modern  public  life,  to  be 
abused.  Not  to  be  the  subject  of  some  false  report,  of  some 
slanderous  charge,  of  some  calumnious  imputation,  would  seem 
almost  to  imply  that  one  was  too  insignificant  to  attract  notice. 
So  uniformly  does  abuse  or  misrepresentation  follow  any  consi- 
derable fame,  that  a  public  man  is  almost  tempted  to  exclaim  in 
the  words  of  an  old  ballad, — 

"  Liars  will  lee  on  full  guid  men 
Sae  will  they  do  on  me ; 
I  wad'na  wish  to  be  the  man, 
That  liars  on  wad'na  lee." 

But  that  one  who  had  been  so  early  and  ardent  an  opposer  of 
British  oppression  and  British  dominion,  and  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  cooperated  personally  and  prominently  in  almost  all 
the  measures  by  which  that  aggression  had  been  successfully 
resisted,  and  that  dominion  finally  thrown  off,  should  now  so  soon 
have  been  subjected  to  such  an  imputation  upon  his  patriotism, 


112  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOLN. 

and  such  an  impeachment  of  his  integrity,  must  certainly  asto- 
nish every  one,  who  has  not  become  familiar  with  the  habitual 
disingenuousness  and  unscrupulousness  of  modern  partisan  war- 
fare. 

The  only  points  relied  upon  to  give  color  to  this  infamous  ac- 
cusation were,  first,  Bowdoin's  failure  to  attend  the  Continental 
Congress  in  1774,  when,  as  we  have  sufficiently  seen,  the  illness 
of  his  wife,  and  the  critical  condition  of  his  own  health,  detained 
him  at  home;  and,  second,  the  marriage  of  Bowdoin's  only 
daughter  with  Sir  John  Temple. 

The  late  estimable  and  distinguished  author  of  the  "  Familiar 
Sketches  of  Public  Characters,"  which  are  believed  to  be  gene- 
rally as  correct,  as  they  certainly  are  spirited  and  interesting, 
says  that  Bowdoin  was  suspected  of  English  partialities,  "  be- 
cause an  Englishman  who  bore  a  title  had  become  his  son-in- 
law." 

Now  the  fact  is,  that  John  Temple  was  a  Boston  boy,  born  at 
Noddle's  Island,  now  East  Boston,  of  parents  who  had  long  re- 
sided in  this  country,  and  that  he  did  not  inherit  his  baronetcy 
from  his  great  grandfather  until  nearly  eighteen  months  after  this 
election  was  over.  He  had  been,  moreover,  a  thorough  Whig 
during  the  whole  of  our  Revolution,  and  had  paid  the  penalty 
of  his  opposition  to  the  British  Ministry  by  the  loss  of  more  than 
one  office,  of  which  the  emoluments  were  in  the  last  degree  ne- 
cessary to  his  support.  It  was  of  Temple  that  Arthur  Lee,  then 
in  London,  wrote  to  Samuel  Adams,  December  22, 1773,  "  There 
is  no  man  more  obnoxious  to  Hillsborough,  Bernard,  Knox,  and 
all  that  tribe  of  determined  enemies  to  truth,  to  virtue,  liberty, 
and  America." 

It  is,  indeed,  not  a  little  curious,  that,  while  in  1785,  Bowdoin 
was  charged  with  being  in  British  interest,  on  account  of  his  con- 
nection with  Temple,  —  in  1770,  Bowdoin's  original  opposition 
to  Great  Britain  was  attributed  to  the  very  same  cause.  "  Dur- 
ing the  administration  of  Shirley  and  Pownall,  (says  Governor 
Hutchinson  in  his  third  volume,)  Bowdoin  was  considered  rather 
as  a  favorer  of  the  prerogative,  than  of  the  opposition  to  it.  But 
Mr.  Temple,  the  Surveyor-General  of  the  Customs,  having  mar- 
ried Mr.  Bowdoin's  daughter,  and  having  differed  with  Governor 


THE   LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  113 

Bernard,  and  connected  himself  with  Mr.  Otis  and  others  in  the 
opposition,  Mr.  Bowdoin,  from  that  time,  entered  into  the  like 
connections." 

Hutchinson  is  still  more  explicit  upon  this  point  in  some  of 
his  private  letters.  In  a  letter  to  Commodore  (afterwards  Ad- 
miral) Gambier,  dated  7th  May,  1772,  he  says:  "  Of  the  two 
you  mentioned,  one  in  the  Common  and  the  other  near  it,  (Bow- 
doin's  elegant  mansion  near  the  Common  is  still  freshly  remem- 
bered,) I  have  found  the  first  pliable,  and  have  made  great  use 
of  him,  and  expect  to  make  more ;  the  other  is  envious,  and  with 
dark,  secret  plottings  endeavors  to  distress  Government;  and, 
although  I  am  upon  terms  of  civility  with  him,  yet  when  the 
faction  in  the  House  have  any  point  to  carry,  they  are  sure  of 
his  support  in  Council,  and  he  is  as  obstinate  as  a  mule.  I  do 
not  find  the  advice,  that  his  son-in-law  is  like  to  be  provided  for 
in  England,  has  any  effect  upon  him.  If  I  see  any  chance  of 
bringing  him  over,  and  making  him  a  friend  to  Government,  I 
will  try  it ;  in  the  mean  time,  I  will  bear  with  his  opposition  as 
I  have  done  for  several  years  past.     This  inter  nos" 

It  seems  thus,  that  Hutchinson  was  about  to  make  a  trial 
upon  Bowdoin's  patriotism,  with  a  view  of  seeing  if  there  was 
"  any  chance  of  bringing  him  over,  and  making  him  a  friend  to 
Government."  And  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Francis  Bernard,  dated 
25th  August,  1772,  four  months  afterwards,  we  have  some 
glimpses  of  the  result  of  the  attempt. 

"  Before  Commodore  Gambier  sailed,  (he  says,)  he  hinted  to 
me  the  same  thing  he  did  to  you  after  his  arrival  in  England. 

I  thought  it  was  suggested  to  him  by ,  and  I  took  it  to  be 

only  his  opinion  of  the  effect  such  an  expectation  might  have, 
and  I  have  no  reason  to  think  Mr.  B.  was  privy  to  the  suggestion. 
His  conduct  in  Council  is  very  little  different  from  what  it  was 
in  your  administration,  and  he  runs  into  the  foolish  notions  of 
Adams  &  Co.,  and  when  Government  is  the  subject,  talks  their 
jargon.  On  other  occasions,  we  are  just  within  the  bounds  of 
decency.  One  would  have  thought  the  unexpected  favors  shown 
to  his  son-in-law  would  have  softened  him.  I  don't  know  but 
he  may  have  been  rather  more  cautious  in  his  language,  but  he 
joins  in  the  same  measures." 

10* 


114  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

Bowdoin  himself  gave  the  best  evidence,  not  many  months 
afterwards,  with  what  success  he  had  been  approached,  and 
how  far  he  had  even  become  "  more  cautious  in  his  language," 
in  the  prompt  and  powerful  stand  which  he  took  against  Hutch- 
inson's elaborate  message  to  the  Legislature^  upholding  the 
power  of  Parliament  over  the  Colonies ;  in  regard  to  which, 
Hutchinson  wrote  to  General  Gage,  on  the  7th  of  March, 
1773,  — "  The  Council  would  have  acquiesced,  if  Mr.  Bowdoin 
had  not  persuaded  them  that  he  could  defend  Lord  Chatham's 
doctrine,  that  Parliament  had  no  right  of  taxation ;  but  by  his 
repugnant  arguments  he  has  exposed  himself  to  contempt." 

A  copy  of  these  "  repugnant  arguments "  is  in  my  posses- 
sion, in  Bowdoin's  handwriting,  as  they  are  printed  among  the 
Massachusetts  State  Papers;  and  no  one  can  read  them  without 
feeling  that,  if  they  exposed  him  to  the  "  contempt "  of  this 
pliant  tool  of  royalty,  they  have  entitled  him  to  the  respect  and 
gratitude  of  every  American  patriot.  The  paper  is,  unquestion- 
ably, among  the  ablest  compositions  to  which  the  controversies 
of  that  day  gave  occasion,  and  was  the  immediate  cause  of 
Bowdoin's  being  negatived,  at  his  next  election  to  the  Council, 
by  the  express  order  of  his  Majesty. 

Temple,  it  appears,  had  been  appointed  in  December,  1771, 
surveyor-general  of  the  customs  in  England.  He  had  been 
refused  all  further  employment  in  America  on  the  ground  of  his 
known  attachment  to  the  cause  of  his  native  country,  the  King 
himself  having  signified  to  Lord  North  that  he  must  not  be 
suffered  to  return  to  the  Colonies  in  any  public  capacity.  But 
his  zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  Colonies  could  not  thus  be  extin- 
guished ;  and  in  1774,  he  was  summarily  removed  from  office, 
for  reasons  which  are  set  forth  in  a  paper  bearing  his  own  signa- 
ture, which  was  addressed  to  the  Government  of  Massachusetts 
in  1791,  and  which  begins  as  follows  : 

"  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Temple  were,  in  the  year  1774,  upon 
one  and  the  same  day,  and  for  one  and  the  same  cause,  dis- 
missed from  the  several  employments  they  held  under  the  crown 
of  Great  Britain  ;  expressly  for  their  attachment  to  the  American 
cause  ;  and  particularly  for  their  having  obtained  and  transmitted 
to  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  certain  original  letters  and  papers, 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  115 

which  first  discovered,  with  certainty,  the  perfidious  plans  then 
machinating  against  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  the  then 
Colonies,  now  United  States  in  North  America;  Mr.  Temple, 
by  such  dismission,  lost  upwards  of  a  thousand  pounds  sterling 
per  annum,  besides  several  very  honorary  appointments  under 
the  crown ;  Dr.  Franklin's#loss  was  about  five  hundred  pounds 
a  year." 

This  distinct  and  public  declaration  during  the  lifetime  of 
Franklin,  corroborated  as  it  is  by  a  previous  and  private  com- 
munication to  John  Adams,  removes  all  doubt  as  to  the  fact, 
that  it  was  through  Temple's  cooperation  with  Franklin  that 
the  famous  Hutchinson  letters  were  sent  over  to  this  country,  and 
furnishes  another  proof  that  his  employment  and  salaries  abroad 
had,  in  no  degree,  diminished  his  interest  in  the  cause  of  Ameri- 
can Liberty. 

It  would  be  quite  out  of  place  to  follow  the  course  and  cha- 
racter of  Sir  John  Temple  further  on  this  occasion.  I  have  said 
enough  to  show  how  utterly  groundless  were  any  imputations 
upon  Bowdoin's  patriotism,  arising  out  of  his  connection  with 
Temple.  I  have  said  enough  to  prove  how  justly  it  was  said 
of  Bowdoin  at  his  death,  —  "He  was  in  every  sense  a  patriot. 
He  connected  himself  with  those  who  were  determined  not  to 
be  slaves.  It  was  in  his  power  to  have  made  any  terms  for 
himself,  if  he  could  have  deserted  his  principles;  but  firm  and 
incorruptible,  he  put  every  thing  at  hazard." 

The  condition  of  Massachusetts,  and  of  the  nation  at  large, 
when  Bowdoin  assumed  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  Common- 
wealth, (if  there  was  any  thing  which  could  be  called  a  nation 
in  1785,)  was  most  critical.  Both  were  overwhelmed  with  the 
debts  of  the  Revolution,  and  no  effective  system  of  finance  had 
been  established  for  their  discharge.  Indeed,  the  resources  of 
the  people  were  already  utterly  exhausted,  and  a  wide-spread 
bankruptcy  seemed  almost  inevitable.  Bowdoin,  however,  stood 
forth,  in  his  first  address  to  the  Legislature,  as  the  stern  advocate 
of  supporting  the  credit  of  the  State  at  all  costs,  and  as  the 
uncompromising  opponent  of  every  idea  of  repudiation.  "  Lately 
emerged,  (said  he,)  from  a  bloody  and  expensive  war,  a  heavy 
debt  upon  us  in  consequence  of  it,  —  our  finances  deranged  and 


116  THE   LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

our  credit  to  reestablish,  —  it  will  require  time  to  remove  these 
difficulties.  The  removal  of  them  must  be  effected  in  the  same 
way  a  prudent  individual,  in  like  circumstances,  would  adopt,  — 
by  retrenching  unnecessary  expenses,  adopting  a  strict  economy, 
providing  means  of  lessening  his  debt,  duly  paying  the  interest 
of  it,  and  manifesting  to  his  creditors,  and  the  world,  that  in  all 
his  transactions  he  is  guided  by  the  principles  of  honor  and 
strict  honesty.  In  this  way,  and  in  this  only,  public  credit  can 
be  maintained  or  restored  ;  and  when  governments,  by  an  unde- 
viating  adherence  to  these  principles,  shall  have  firmly  established 
it,  they  will  have  the  satisfaction  to  see  that  they  can  obtain 
loans  in  preference  to  all  borrowers  whatever." 

In  this  same  first  address  to  the  General  Court,  Bowdoin  came 
forward,  also,  as  the  ardent  adviser  of  an  enlargement  of  the 
powers  of  the  Continental  Congress,  with  a  view  to  the  regula- 
tion of  commerce  with  foreign  nations. 

"  The  state  of  our  foreign  trade,  (said  he,)  which  has  given  so 
general  an  uneasiness,  and  the  operation  of  which,  through  the 
extravagant  importation  and  use  of  foreign  manufactures,  has 
occasioned  so  large  a  balance  against  us,  demands  a  serious  con- 
sideration. 

"  To  satisfy  that  balance,  our  money  is  exported  ;  which,  with 
all  the  means  of  remittance  at  present  in  our  power,  falls  very 
short  of  a  sufficiency. 

"  Those  means,  which  have  been  greatly  lessened  by  the  war, 
are  gradually  enlarging  ;  but  they  cannot  soon  increase  to  their 
former  amplitude,  so  long  as  Britain  and  other  nations  continue 
the  commercial  systems  they  have  adopted  since  the  war.  Those 
nations  have  an  undoubted  right  to  regulate  their  trade  with  us, 
and  to  admit  into  their  ports,  on  their  own  terms,  the  vessels  and 
cargoes  that  go  from  the  United  States,  or  to  refuse  an  admit- 
tance ;  their  own  interest  or  their  sense  of  it,  being  the  only  prin- 
ciple to  dictate  those  regulations,  where  no  treaty  of  commerce 
is  subsisting. 

"  The  United  States  have  the  same  right,  and  can,  and  ought 
to  regulate  their  foreign  trade  on  the  same  principle  ;  but  it  is  a 
misfortune,  that  Congress  have  not  yet  been  authorized  for  that 
purpose  by  all  the  States.     If  there  be  any  thing  wanting  on 


THE   LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  117 

the  part  of  this  State  to  complete  that  authority,  it  lies  with  you, 
gentlemen,  to  bring  it  forward  and  mature  it ;  and,  until  Con- 
gress shall  ordain  the  necessary  regulations,  you  will  please  to 
consider  what  further  is  needful  to  be  done  on  our  part,  to  remedy 
the  evils  of  which  the  merchant,  the  tradesman,  and  manufac- 
turer, and  indeed  every  other  description  of  persons  among  us, 
so  justly  complain." 

"  It  is  of  great  importance,  (he  continues,)  and  the  happiness 
of  the  United  States  depends  upon  it,  that  Congress  should  be 
vested  with  all  the  powers  necessary  to  preserve  the  Union,  to 
manage  the  general  concerns  of  it,  and  secure  and  promote  its 
common  interest.  That  interest,  so  far  as  it  is  dependent  on  a 
commercial  intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  the  Confederation 
does  not  sufficiently  provide  for ;  and  this  State,  and  the  United 
States  in  general,  are  now  experiencing,  by  the  operation  of  their 
trade  with  some  of  these  nations,  particularly  Great  Britain,  the 
want  of  such  a  provision. 

"  This  matter,  Gentlemen,  merits  your  attention  ;  and  if  you 
think  that  Congress  should  be  vested  with  ampler  powers,  and 
that  special  delegates  from  the  States  should  be  convened  to 
settle  and  define  them,  you  will  take  the  necessary  measures  for 
obtaining  such  a  Convention  or  Congress,  whose  agreement, 
when  confirmed  by  the  States,  would  ascertain  these  powers." 

Thus  again  did  Bowdoin,  in  1785,  propose  as  the  only  mode 
of  securing  our  national  prosperity,  and  counteracting  the  per- 
nicious effects  of  the  restrictive  policy  of  Great  Britain,  the  same 
remedy  which  he  had  declared  necessary  in  1754,  against  the 
Cape  Breton  trade  of  the  French,  —  a  general  union  of  the  Colo- 
nies, with  the  power  of  regulating"  trade. 

His  views  were  not  now  lost  upon  those  to  whom  they  were 
addressed.  The  Legislature  of  the  Commonwealth  cordially 
responded  to  them,  and  passed  strong  resolutions,  bearing  date 
July  1,  1785,  recommending  a  Convention  of  Delegates  from  all 
the  States,  for  the  purpose  of  revising  the  articles  of  Confedera- 
tion, and  enlarging  the  powers  of  Congress.  These  resolutions 
were  communicated  to  Congress  and  the  several  States.  Vir- 
ginia passed  similar  resolutions  in  January,  1786  ;  in  the  follow- 
ing September,  the  first  meeting  of  delegates  was  held  at  Anna- 


01 


ov 


118  THE  LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

polis ;  and  in  May,  1787,  the  Convention  assembled  at  Phila- 
delphia, by  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
finally  formed. 

The  late  Mr.  Alden  Bradford,  whose  name  has  so  many  titles 
to  our  respectful  remembrance,  does  not  hesitate  to  assert,  in  his 
History  of  Massachusetts,  in  view  of  the  facts  which  I  have 
stated,  that  Governor  Bowdoin  "  is  entitled  to  the  honor  of 
having  first  urged  the  enlargement  of  the  powers  of  Congress 
for  regulating  commerce  with  foreign  countries,  and  for  raising 
a  revenue  from  it  to  support  the  public  credit." 

I  need  not  say  how  gladly  I  would  vindicate  the  Bowdoin 
title  to  this  distinction.  He  who  can  rightfully  claim  it,  needs 
no  other  title  to  the  eternal  gratitude  of  his  country.  The  man, 
upon  whose  tombstone  it  may  be  truly  written,  — "  It  was  by  him 
that  the  great  idea  of  our  glorious  Federal  Constitution  was 
first  conceived,  and  first  urged,"  —  need  not  envy  the  proudest 
epitaph  in  Westminster  Abbey  or  the  Pantheon.  To  him  the 
rarely  interrupted  peace,  the  unparalleled  progress  and  prosperity, 
the  firm  and  cordial  union  of  this  mighty  nation,  for  sixty  years 
past,  and  as  we  hope  and  believe,  for  sixty  times  sixty  years  to 
come,  will  bear  grateful  testimony!  To  him,  the  first  great 
example  of  successful  Constitutional  Republican  Government, 
will  acknowledge  a  perpetual  debt !  Around  his  memory,  the 
hopes  of  civil  liberty  throughout  the  world  will  weave  an  unfad- 
ing chaplet ! 

Such  an  honor,  however,  is  too  high  to  be  lightly  appropriated 
to  any  one  man.  I  know  the  danger  of  setting  up  pretensions 
of  priority  in  great  ideas,  whether  of  state  policy,  philosophical 
theory,  scientific  discovery,  or  mechanical  invention.  It  was 
claimed  for  Patrick  Henry,  that  he  was  the  first  to  exclaim,  under 
the  sting  of  British  oppression  in  1774,  "  We  must  fight ; "  but 
it  has  since  been  clearly  proved,  that  he  only  echoed  the  excla- 
mation of  Joseph  Hawley  of  Massachusetts,  communicated  to 
him  by  John  Adams. 

The  first  public  proposal  of  a  General  Convention  to  remodel 
the  Confederacy,  has  been  traced  by  Mr.  Madison  to  one,  whose 
family  name  would  thus  seem  to  be  associated  both  with  the 
earliest  suggestion,  and  with  the  latest  and   ablest  defence  of 


THE   LIFE   AND    SERVICES    OF   JAMES   BOWDOIN.  119 

the  Constitution,  —  Pelatiah  Webster,  —  a  correspondent  and 
friend  of  Governor  Bowdoin,  who  brought  it  forward  in  a 
pamphlet  published  in  1781.  This  was  followed  by  resolutions 
in  favor  of  it,  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  New  York,  on  motion 
of  General  Schuyler,  in  1782.  Hamilton  declared  himself  in 
favor  of  the  plan,  in  Congress,  in  1783.  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison,  urged  it  in  1784.  But  no  one  can 
doubt  that  the  earnest  official  recommendation  of  Bowdoin,  and 
the  strong  resolutions  of  Massachusetts,  (then  one  of  the  three 
great  States  of  the  Confederacy,)  in  1785,  were  most  important 
steps  in  this  momentous  Federal  movement.  They  preceded, 
by  more  than  a  year,  the  resolutions  of  Virginia,  to  which  so 
deserved  a  prominence  has  always  been  given,  and  they  should 
not  be  suffered  to  be  omitted,  as  they  too  often  hitherto  have 
been,  from  the  history  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

It  may  be  doubted,  indeed,  whether  any  one  was  an  earlier  or 
more  intelligent  advocate  than  Bowdoin,  of  the  great  commer- 
cial principle  which  the  Constitution  was  primarily  established 
to  vindicate.  The  necessity  of  regulating  the  trade  and  naviga- 
tion of  the  United  States,  with  a  view  to  counteracting  the 
jestrictive  policy  of  Great  Britain  and  other  nations,  and  of  pro- 
tecting the  industry  and  labor  of  our  own  people,  was  illustrated 
and  enforced  by  him  on  every  occasion. 

Under  his  auspices,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  passed 
an  act  for  this  purpose  on  their  own  responsibility,  to  cease,  of 
course,  whenever  Congress  should  be  vested  with  power  to  take 
the  subject  under  national  control. 

Under  his  advice,  an  act  laying  additional  duties  of  import 
and  excise  was  also  passed  by  the  State  Legislature,  in  relation 
to  which,  at  the  subsequent  session,  in  October,  1785,  Governor 
Bowdoin  used  language  in  his  message,  which  shows  both  the 
extent  of  his  information,  and  the  soundness  of  his  views  upon 
these  commercial  subjects  :  — 

"  As  one  intention  of  the  act  (says  he)  was  to  encourage  our 
own  manufactures,  by  making  such  a  distinction  in  the  duties 
upon  them  and  upon  foreign  manufactures,  as  to  give,  in  regard 
to  price,  a  clear  preference  to  the  former,  you  will  please  to  con- 


120  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

sider,  in  revising  the  act,  whether  that  intention  be  in  fact  an- 
swered with  respect  to  some  of  them.  I  would  particularly 
instance  in  the  manufacture  of  loaf  sugar,  which,  at  a  time 
when  we  were  under  the  dominion  of  Great  Britain,  was  for  a 
while  very  profitably  carried  on  here ;  but  by  the  British  Parlia- 
ment giving  a  large  bounty  on  the  exportation  of  it  from  thence, 
and  this  with  a  view  of  putting  a  stop  to  our  manufacturing  it, 
it  was  imported  here  so  cheap,  as  effectually  to  answer  that 
purpose.  The  bounty,  as  I  am  informed,  being  still  continued, 
the  duties  on  each  of  these  manufactures,  and  on  foreign  in 
general,  should  be  so  regulated,  as  to  give  a  decided  preference 
in  favor  of  our  own  ;  and  a  like  attention  should  be  also  had  in 
reference  to  all  our  manufactures." 

In  a  message  of  February  8,  1786,  he  calls  upon  the  Legis- 
lature to  do  something  for  the  encouragement  of  the  manufac- 
ture of  iron :  — 

"  Mr.  John  Noyes,  (says  he,)  who  has  lately  returned  hither 
from  Europe,  was  with  me  a  few  days  ago,  and  acquainted  me 
that  while  there,  he  employed  the  greatest  part  of  his  time  in 
endeavoring  to  inform  himself  in  several  branches  of  manufac- 
ture in  iron;  that  he  had  gained  a  thorough  knowledge  of  those 
branches ;  and  that  if  he  and  his  partner,  Colonel  Revere,  could 
obtain  sufficient  encouragement  from  the  Legislature,  they  would 
erect  works  for  carrying  them  on  to  some  considerable  extent; 
that  he  had,  also,  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  machines  used  in 
Europe  in  manufacturing  iron  and  steel,  and  was  well  informed 
in  the  construction  and  use  of  the  new-invented  steam  engine, 
very  necessary  in  those  operations,  and  which  may  be  advan- 
tageously employed  in  many  others. 

"  In  consequence  of  this  conversation,  I  yesterday  received  a 
letter  from  them  to  the  same  purpose,  which,  with  a  letter  to  me 
from  the  Hon.  Mr.  Adams,  our  Minister  in  London,  recommend- 
ing Mr.  Noyes  and  his  project  of  introducing  some  new  manu- 
factures, will  be  communicated  to  you. 

"  Circumstanced  as  we  are  at  present,  it  is  highly  necessary 
we  should  encourage  every  useful  and  practicable  manufacture, 
especially  that  of  iron,  which,  in  point  of  usefulness  and  prac- 
ticability, may  vie  with  any. 


THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  121 

"  As  this  manufacture,  connected  with  the  proposed  improve- 
ments upon  it,  may  be  extensively  beneficial  to  the  Common- 
wealth, I  do  with  great  earnestness  recommend  the  proposal  for 
its  establishment  to  your  favorable  consideration." 

In  another  of  his  messages,  (21st  February,  1786,)  he  calls  the 
attention  of  the  Legislature  to  the  importance  of  doing  some- 
thing for  the  wool  growers  and  the  woollen  manufacturers  of 
the  State :  — 

"  The  extravagant  importation  of  foreign  manufactures,  (says 
he,)  since  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  has  greatly  injured  our 
own,  particularly  those  in  wool. 

"  The  quantity  of  woollens  imported,  their  superior  fabric, 
and  the  cheapness  of  them,  have  not  only  in  a  great  measure 
put  a  stop  to  our  looms,  and  to  the  several  other  modes  of  manu- 
facturing our  wool,  but  have  thereby  been  a  principal  cause  of 
the  decrease  of  sheep  in  this  Commonwealth.  This  decrease, 
as  we  are  now  necessitated  to  manufacture  for  ourselves,  is  uni- 
versally felt  and  regretted ;  and  it  has  become  necessary  to  apply 
some  remedy  to  this  evil,  which  for  several  years  has  been  a 
growing  one.  You  will,  therefore,  allow  me,  gentlemen,  to 
recommend  to  you,  to  apply  some  effectual  remedy  accordingly; 
and  at  the  same  time  to  project  some  method,  by  which  we  may 
obtain  models  of  several  machines,  or  the  machines  themselves, 
lately  invented  for  manufacturing  woollen  cloths,  by  the  use  of 
which  there  would  be  a  saving  of  much  labor  and  expense,  and 
the  cloth  would  be  manufactured  in  a  superior  manner." 

In  still  another  message  of  the  same  date,  he  says,  "  As  the 
encouragement  of  every  useful  manufacture  in  the  Common- 
wealth has  now  become  necessary,  it  is  my  duty  to  mention  to 
you  a  very  important  one, —  so  important  to  us  as  a  free  and 
independent  people,  that  our  existence  as  such  may  depend  on 
the  establishing  it  among  ourselves  ;  I  mean  the  manufacture  of 
gunpoivder" 

It  is  not  for  me,  on  this  occasion,  to  discuss  the  value  of  what 
has  been  called  "  the  American  System."  Nor  would  I,  at  any 
time,  disturb  the  laurels  of  those  among  the  living,  to  whom  its 
paternity  has  been  ascribed.  But  if  any  one  of  later  years  is 
privileged  to  wear  the  title  of  the  father  of  this  system,  I  think 
11 


122  THE  LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES  BOWDOIN. 

I  may  safely  assert,  upon  the  evidence  which  I  have  now  fur- 
nished, the  unquestionable  claim  of  Governor  Bowdoin  to  be 
remembered  as  its  grandfather. 

Certainly,  if  any  one  desires  to  know  for  what  object  the 
revisal  of  the  old  articles  of  confederation  was  demanded  by 
at  least  one  of  its  earliest  and  most  prominent  advocates  in 
New  England ;  if  any  one  desires  to  understand  what  was  the 
original  Massachusetts  meaning  of  the  constitutional  phrase, 
"  Congress  shall  have  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign 
nations ; "  he  may  read  it  in  language  which  cannot  be  mis- 
taken, in  these  messages  of  Governor  Bowdoin. 

There  was  something,  however,  of  ominous  significance  in 
his  call  upon  the  Legislature  at  this  moment  to  encourage  the 
manufacture  of  gunpowder.  The  day  was  rapidly  approaching 
when  Massachusetts  was  about  to  require  a  supply  of  that  arti- 
cle for  the  first  time,  and,  I  pray  God,  for  the  last  time,  in  her 
history  as  an  independent  Commonwealth,  for  the  most  deplora- 
ble of  all  occasions. 

Bowdoin  was  reelected  to  the  Chief  Magistracy,  in  April, 
1786,  by  a  very  large  majority  of  the  popular  votes,  when  he 
again,  in  his  opening  address,  pressed  upon  the  Legislature  the 
paramount  importance  of  making  provision  for  sustaining  the 
public  credit.  Already,  however,  the  discontents  at  the  heavy 
burden  of  taxation  had  swollen  to  a  formidable  height ;  and 
before  the  close  of  the  year,  they  had  broken  out  into  an  open 
insurrection  against  the  legal  processes  of  collection.  The 
courts  of  justice  were  systematically  interrupted  in  their  ses- 
sions, and  the  insurgents  were  led  along  from  step  to  step,  until 
they  found  themselves  arrayed  in  arms  against  the  constituted 
authorities  of  the  State. 

The  exigency  was,  indeed,  a  momentous  one.  For  the  first 
time,  and  while  the  cement  by  which  it  was  held  together  was 
still  green  and  unhardened,  the  fabric  of  our  free  institutions 
was  to  be  put  to  the  test  of  a  forcible  assault.  The  public 
Credit,  the  Independence  of  the  Judiciary,  the  Authority  of  the 
Executive,  the  Supremacy  of  the  Laws,  the  Capacity  of  the 
People  for  Self-government,  —  all,  all  were  at  stake.  Had 
"  Shays'  Rebellion,"  as  itis  called,  been  triumphant,  it  is  hardly 


THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  123 

possible  to  exaggerate  the  danger  in  which  our  whole  American 
Republican  system  would  have  been  involved.  Had  an  example 
of  successful  repudiation  at  once  of  debt,  of  law,  and  of  all 
government,  been  given  at  so  early  a  day  after  our  independ- 
ence, and  in  so  leading  a  commonwealth  as  Massachusetts,  no 
one  can  tell  into  what  volcanic  vortex  our  whole  continent 
would  have  been  plunged,  or  how  far  we  should  have  escaped 
the  fate  of  the  Spanish  colonies  at  the  South,  in  being  the  sub- 
ject of  one  unceasing  series  of  political  convulsions  and  revolu- 
tions. 

Everywhere  the  faces  of  the  friends  of  freedom  gathered  black- 
ness at  the  prospect.  Even  Washington  could  scarcely  hold 
fast  to  the  great  principle  which  had  never  before  failed  him, 
not  to  despair  of  the  Republic.  In  a  letter  to  James  Madison, 
of  November  6,  1786,  he  says :  — "  No  morn  ever  dawned 
more  favorably  than  ours  did ;  and  no  day  was  ever  more 
clouded  than  the  present.  .  .  .  Without  an  alteration  in 
our  political  creed,  the  superstructure  we  have  been  seven  years 
in  raising,  at  the  expense  of  so  much  treasure  and  blood,  must 
fall.     We  are  fast  verging  to  anarchy  and  confusion. 

"  A  letter  which  I  have  received  from  General  Knox,  who  had 
just  returned  from  Massachusetts,  whither  he  had  been  sent  by 
Congress,  in  consequence  of  the  commotions  in  that  State,  is 
replete  with  melancholy  accounts  of  the  temper  and  designs  of 
a  considerable  part  of  the  people.  Among  other  things  he 
says :  l  Their  creed  is,  that  the  property  of  the  United  States 
has  been  protected  from  the  confiscation  of  Britain  by  the  joint 
exertions  of  all,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  the  common  property 
of  all ;  and  he  that  attempts  opposition  to  this  creed,  is  an  ene- 
my to  equity  and  justice,  and  ought  to  be  swept  off  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.'  Again,  '  they  are  determined  to  annihilate 
all  debts,  public  and  private,  and  have  agrarian  laws,  which  are 
easily  effected  by  the  means  of  unfunded  paper  money,  which 
shall  be  a  tender  in  all  cases  whatever.'  .  .  .  How  melan- 
choly is  the  reflection,  that  in  so  short  a  time  we  should  have 
made  such  large  strides  towards  fulfilling  the  predictions  of  our 
transatlantic  foes !  —  <  Leave  them  to  themselves,  and  their 
government  will  soon  dissolve.'     Will  not  the  wise  and  good 


124  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

strive  hard  to  avert  this  evil  ?  Or  will  their  snpineness  suffer 
ignorance,  and  the  arts  of  self-interested,  designing,  disaffected, 
and  desperate  characters,  to  involve  this  great  country  in  wretch- 
edness and  contempt  ?  " 

"  It  is  with  the  deepest  and  most  heartfelt  concern,  (writes 
Washington  soon  after  to  General  Humphreys,)  that  I  perceive, 
by  some  late  paragraphs  extracted  from  the  Boston  papers,  that 
the  insurgents  of  Massachusetts,  far  from  being  satisfied  with 
the  redress  offered  by  their  General  Court,  are  still  acting  in 
open  violation  of  law  and  government,  and  have  obliged  the 
Chief  Magistrate,  in  a  decided  tone,  to  call  upon  the  militia  of 
the  State  to  support  the  Constitution.  What,  gracious  God! 
is  man,  that  there  should  be  such  inconsistency  and  perfidious- 
ness  in  his  conduct  ?  It  was  but  the  other  day,  that  we  were 
shedding  our  blood  to  obtain  the  Constitutions  under  which  we 
now  live,  —  Constitutions  of  our  own  choice  and  making,  — 
and  now  we  are  unsheathing  the  sword  to  overturn  them.  The 
thing  is  so  unaccountable,  that  I  hardly  know  how  to  realize  it,  or 
to  persuade  myself  that  I  am  not  under  the  illusion  of  a  dream." 

I  might  cite  a  hundred  other  evidences  of  the  alarm  which 
this  rebellion  in  Massachusetts  excited  throughout  the  Union. 
iProximus  ardet  Ucalegon?  No  one  knew  whose  house  would 
catch  next,  or  how  soon  the  whole  nation  might  be  involved  in 
the  flames  of  civil  war.  It  was  regarded,  like  the  late  rising  of 
the  Communists  and  Red  Republicans  of  Paris,  as  menacing 
the  very  existence  of  the  system  against  which  it  was  aimed,  and 
as  threatening  the  whole  experiment  of  free  government  with 
explosion  and  failure. 

"  These  combinations,  (says  Judge  Lowell,)  were  extensive 
and  formidable,  and  perhaps  there  was  a  time  in  which  it  was 
uncertain,  whether  even  a  majority  of  the  people  were  not  at 
least  in  a  disposition  not  to  oppose  the  progress  of  insurgency." 
Well  did  he  add,  that  "  Bowdoin  was  at  this  time  in  a  situation 
to  try  the  fortitude  and  resources  of  any  man." 

Among  other  difficulties  with  which  he  had  to  contend,  was 
that  of  an  empty  treasury  and  a  prostrate  credit.  I  have  myself 
heard  the  late  venerable  Jacob  Kuhn  say,  that  having  occasion 
to  buy  fuel  for  the  winter  session  of  the  Legislature  in  1786, 


THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES  BOWDOIN.  125 

and  there  being  no  money  in  hand  to  pay  the  bills,  he  could  find 
no  one  who  would  furnish  it  on  the  credit  of  the  Commonwealth, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  pledge  his  own  personal  responsibility  for 
the  amount!  The  credit  of  this  humble  but  honest  and  patriotic 
Messenger  of  the  General  Court  was  thus  better  than  that  of 
the  Commonwealth  itself!  But  an  appeal  was  made,  where  it 
has  never  been  made  in  vain,  to  the  merchants  and  other  men  of 
property  of  Boston,  and  was  seconded  by  the  liberal  example 
of  Bowdoin  himself,  and  funds  enough  were  speedily  raised,  by 
voluntary  subscription,  for  carrying  on  the  measures  of  defence, 
which  had  now  become  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  State. 
A  special  session  of  the  Legislature  was  convened ;  the  militia 
in  all  parts  of  the  Commonwealth  were  called  on  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  for  service,  and  many  of  them  summoned 
at  once  into  the  field ;  and  after  a  few  months  of  vigilant  and 
vigorous  exercise  of  the  whole  civil  and  military  power  which 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws  intrusted  to  him,  Bowdoin 
had  the  unspeakable  happiness  to  find  Order  again  esta- 
blished, Peace  restored,  and  Liberty  and  Law  triumphantly 
reconciled. 

He  had  excellent  counsellors  about  him,  and  gallant  officers 
under  him,  in  this  emergency ;  and  he  knew  how  to  employ 
them  and  trust  them.  The  brave  and  admirable  Benjamin  Lin- 
coln, to  whom  the  chief  command  was  assigned,  and  who,  in 
conducting  the  principal  expedition  against  the  insurgents,  ga- 
thered fresh  laurels  for  a  brow  already  thickly  bound  with  the 
victorious  wreaths  of  the  Revolution ;  the  gallant  John  Brooks, 
afterwards  the  distinguished  and  popular  governor  of  the  State ; 
the  chivalrous  Cobb,  who,  being  at  once  chief  justice  of  the 
Bristol  courts  and  commander  of  the  Bristol  militia,  declared  he 
"  would  sit  as  a  judge,  or  die  as  a  general ; "  the  prudent  yet 
fearless  Shepard  ;  these,  and  many  more  whom  the  accomplished 
Minot,  in  his  history  of  the  rebellion,  has  sufficiently  designated, 
rendered  services  on  the  occasion  which  will  never  be  forgotten. 
But  nobody  has  ever  doubted  that,  to  the  lofty  principle,  the  calm 
prudence,  the  wise  discretion,  and  the  indomitable  firmness  of 
Bowdoin,  the  result  was  primarily  due,  and  that  his  name  is  en- 
titled to  go  down  in  the  history  of  the  country,  as  preeminently 
11* 


126  THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

the  leader  in  that  first  great  vindication  of  Law  and  Order  within 
the  limits  of  our  American  Republic. 

In  the  course  which  he  was  obliged  to  pursue,  however,  for 
this  end,  cause  of  offence  could  hardly  fail  of  being  given  to 
large  masses  of  the  people.  An  idea,  too,  extensively  prevailed, 
that  Bowdoin  would  be  sterner  than  another  in  enforcing  the 
punishment  of  the  guilty  parlies,  and  stricter  than  another  in 
exacting  the  payment  of  the  taxes  still  due.  During  the  latter 
part  of  the  year,  too,  the  Legislature  had  passed  a  bill  reducing 
the  Governor's  salary ;  and  Bowdoin,  holding  this  measure  to  be 
inconsistent  at  once  with  the  true  spirit  and  with  the  express 
letter  of  the  Constitution,  had  not  scrupled  to  veto  it.  He 
clearly  foresaw  that  this  act  would  conspire  with  other  circum- 
stances in  preventing  his  reelection  to  the  executive  chair.  He 
resolved,  however,  not  to  shrink  from  the  canvass,  nobly  declar- 
ing, that  "  his  inclination  would  lead  him  to  retirement,  but  if  it 
should  be  thought  he  could  be  further  serviceable  to  the  Com- 
monwealth, he  would  not  desert  it."  Defendi  rempublicam  ado- 
lescens ;  non  deseram  senex. 

His  predictions  were  realized,  and  at  the  next  election,  Han- 
cock, having  accepted  a  nomination  in  opposition  to  him,  was 
again  chosen  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  It  would  have  been 
an  ample  compensation  for  any  degree  of  mortification  which 
Bowdoin  could  have  felt  at  this  defeat,  could  he  have  known,  as 
he  doubtless  did  before  his  death,  and  as  is  well  understood  now, 
that  the  ratification  of  the  Federal  Constitution  by  the  Conven- 
tion of  Massachusetts  was  unquestionably  brought  about  by  this 
concession  on  the  part  of  his  political  friends  to  the  demands  of 
their  opponents.  He  would  have  counted  no  sacrifice  of  himself 
too  great  to  accomplish  such  a  result. 

But  Bowdoin  was  to  be  permitted  to  aid  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  that  result  in  a  more  direct  and  agreeable  manner. 
Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  he  was  to  be  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Country.  A  Constitution, 
embodying  the  great  principle  of  the  Regulation  of  Trade  by  a 
General  Union,  was  at  length  framed  by  the  National  Conven- 
tion at  Philadelphia,  and  submitted  to  the  adoption  of  the  peo- 
ple.    The  Massachusetts  Convention  assembled  to  consider  it 


THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OP  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  127 

in  January,  1788.  Bowdoin  was  a  delegate  from  Boston,  and 
had  the  satisfaction  of  finding  his  son  by  his  side,  as  a  delegate 
from  Dorchester.  Both  gave  their  ardent  and  unhesitating  sup- 
port to  the  new  instrument  of  government,  and  both  made  for- 
mal speeches  in  its  favor. 

The  elder  Bowdoin  concluded  his  remarks  with  a  sentiment, 
which  will  still  strike  a  chord  in  every  true  American  heart,  — 

"  If  the  Constitution  should  be  finally  accepted  and  established, 
it  will  complete  the  temple  of  American  liberty,  and,  like  the 
keystone  of  a  grand  and  magnificent  arch,  be  the  bond  of  union 
to  keep  all  the  parts  firm  and  compacted  together.  May  this 
temple,  sacred  to  liberty  and  virtue,  —  sacred  to  justice,  the  first 
and  greatest  political  virtue, — and  built  upon  the  broad  and  solid 
foundation  of  perfect  union,  —  be  dissoluble  only  by  the  dissolu- 
tion of  nature !  and  may  this  Convention  have  the  distinguished 
honor  of  erecting  one  of  its  pillars  on  that  lasting  foundation ! " 

It  was  Bowdoin's  happiness  to  live  to  see  this  wish  accom- 
plished, to  see  the  Federal  Constitution  adopted  and  the  Govern- 
ment organized  under  it,  and  to  welcome  beneath  his  own  roof 
his  illustrious  friend,  General  Washington,  on  his  visit  to  Boston 
in  1789,  as  the  First  President  of  the  United  States. 

He  was  now,  however,  a  private  citizen,  and  had  transferred 
his  attention  again  to  those  philosophical  pursuits,  which  had 
engaged  him  in  his  earliest  manhood.  Indeed,  his  interest  in 
literature  and  science  had  never  been  suspended.  A  little  vo- 
lume of  verses,  published  anonymously  by  him  in  1759,  proves 
that  poetry  as  well  as  philosophy  was  an  object  of  his  youthful 
homage.  He  was  long  connected  with  the  Government  of  Har- 
vard College,  and  always  manifested  the  most  earnest  devotion 
to  her  welfare.  In  1780,  he  was  foremost  among  the  founders 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  was  their 
President  from  their  first  organization  to  his  death.  To  the 
transactions  of  the  Academy  he  contributed  several  elaborate 
Memoirs,  in  regard  to  which  I  borrow  the  language  of  the  ac- 
complished Lowell,  who,  at  the  request  of  the  Academy,  pro- 
nounced the  eulogy  from  which  I  have  already  repeatedly  quoted, 
and  who,  undoubtedly,  gave  utterance  to  the  judgment  of  his 
learned  associates. 


128  THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

"  The  first,  (says  he,)  was  an  ingenious  and  perspicuous  vin- 
dication of  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Theory  of  Light  from  objections 
which  Dr.  Franklin  had  raised.  The  two  others  were  also  on 
the  subject  of  Light;  and  an  attempt  to  account  for  the  manner 
in  which  the  waste  of  matter  in  the  sun  and  fixed  stars,  by  the 
constant  efflux  of  light  from  them,  is  repaired. 

"  These  Memoirs  (he  adds)  afford  conclusive  evidence  that 
Mr.  Bowdoin  was  deeply  conversant  in  the  principles  of  natural 
philosophy  ;  and  though  the  latter  memoir  suggests  a  theory 
which  may  be  liable  to  some  objections,  yet  the  novelty  of  it  and 
the  ingenious  manner  in  which  he  has  considered  it,  discovers 
an  inquisitive  mind,  and  a  boldness  of  ideas  beyond  those,  who, 
though  learned  in  the  knowledge  of  others,  are  too  feeble  to  ven- 
ture on  new  and  unexplored  paths  of  science." 

The  correspondence  between  Bowdoin  and  Franklin  on  ques- 
tions of  science  was  now  renewed,  and  it  will  be  interesting,  I 
am  sure,  to  follow  them  once  more,  for  a  single  moment,  in  some 
of  the  speculations  of  their  closing  years.  "  Our  ancient  corres- 
pondence (says  Franklin,  in  a  letter  dated  31st  May,  1788,)  used 
to  have  something  philosophical  in  it.  As  you  are  now  free  from 
public  cares,  and  I  expect  to  be  so  in  a  few  months,  why  may 
we  not  resume  that  kind  of  correspondence  ?  "  And  he  then 
proceeds  to  suggest  some  fifteen  or  twenty  questions,  relating 
to  magnetism  and  the  theory  of  the  earth,  for  their  mutual  con- 
sideration and  discussion.  Among  others,  he  inquires,  "  May  not 
a  magnetic  power  exist  throughout  our  system,  perhaps  through 
all  systems,  so  that  if  a  man  could  make  a  voyage  in  the  starry 
regions,  a  compass  might  be  of  use  ?  " 

Bowdoin,  in  his  reply  of  June  28,  1788,  after  expressing  his 
doubt  whether  Franklin  would  even  yet  be  spared  from  the 
public  service,  proceeds  to  say, — "  If,  however,  you  choose  to 
recede  from  politics,  it  will  be  a  happy  circumstance  in  a  philo- 
sophical view,  as  we  may  expect  many  advantages  to  be  derived 
from  it  to  science.  I  have  read,  (says  he,)  and  repeatedly  read, 
your  ingenious  queries  concerning  the  cause  of  .the  earth's  mag- 
netism and  polarity,  and  those  relating  to  the  theory  of  the 
earth.  By  the  former,  you  seem  to  suppose  that  a  similar  mag- 
netism and  polarity  may  take  place,  not  only  throughout  the 


THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OP  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  129 

whole  solar  system,  but  all  other  systems,  so  that  a  compass 
might  be  useful,  if  a  voyage  in  the  starry  regions  were  practi- 
cable. I  thank  you  for  this  noble  and  highly  pleasurable  sug- 
gestion, and  have  already  enjoyed  it.  I  have  pleased  myself 
with  the  idea  that,  when  we  drop  this  heavy,  earth-attracted 
body,  we  shall  assume  an  ethereal  one ;  and,  in  some  vehicle 
proper  for  the  purpose,  perform  voyages  from  planet  to  planet, 
with  the  utmost  ease  and  expedition,  and  with  much  less  uncer- 
tainty than  voyages  are  performed  on  our  ocean  from  port  to 
port.  I  shall  be  very  happy  in  making  such  excursions  with 
you,  when  we  shall  be  better  qualified  to  investigate  causes,  by 
discerning  with  more  clearness  and  precision  their  effects.  In 
the  mean  time,  my  dear  friend,  until  that  happy  period  arrives, 
I  hope  your  attention  to  the  subject  of  your  queries  will  be 
productive  of  discoveries  useful  and  important,  such  as  will 
entitle  you  to  a  higher  compliment  than  was  paid  to  Newton 
by  Pope,  in  the  character  of  his  Superior  Beings;  with  this 
difference,  however,  that  it  be  paid  by  those  Beings  themselves."* 

Little  dreamed  these  veteran  philosophers  and  friends,  how 
soon  the  truth  of  their  pleasant  theories  was  to  be  tested,  and 
how  almost  simultaneously  they  were  indeed  about  to  enter 
upon  an  excursion  to  the  stars !  On  the  17th  of  April,  1790, 
Franklin  died,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-four  years.  On 
the  6th  of  November,  of  the  same  year,  at  the  earlier  age  of 
sixty-four  years,  borne  down  by  the  pressure  of  severe  disease, 
Bowdoin  followed  him  to  the  grave. 

The  death  of  Bowdoin  was  in  admirable  keeping  with  his 
life.  "  Inspired  by  religion,  (says  the  obituary  of  the  time,) 
and  upheld  by  the  Father  of  Mercies,  he  endured  a  most  pain- 
ful sickness  with  the  greatest  firmness  and  patience,  and  received 
the  stroke  of  death  with  a  calmness,  a  resignation,  and  com- 
posure, that  marked  the  truly  great  and  good  man." 

He  had  not  contented  himself  with  a  life  of  unstained  purity 
and  unstinted  benevolence;  nor  had  he  postponed  the  more 
serious   preparations   for   death  to  the  scanty  and  precarious 

*  "  Superior  Beings,  when  of  late  they  saw 
A  mortal  man  unfold  all  nature's  law, 
Admir'd  such  wisdom  in  an  earthly  shape, 
And  show'd  a  Newton  as  we  show  an  ape." 


130  THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

opportunities  of  a  last  illness.  He  had  embraced  the  religion 
of  the  Gospel  at  an  early  period  of  his  life,  upon  studious 
examination  and  serious  conviction.  If  his  philosophic  mind 
ever  entertained  doubts,  he  strove,  and  strove  successfully,  to 
remove  them.  He  has  left  it  upon  record,  that  "  Butler's  Ana- 
logy "  was  of  the  greatest  service  to  him  in  satisfying  his  mind 
as  to  the  truths  of  Christianity.  "  From  the  time  of  my  read- 
ing that  book,  (said  he,)  I  have  been  an  humble  follower  of  the 
blessed  Jesus;"  and,  as  the  moment  of  his  dissolution  drew 
nigh,  he  expressed  his  perfect  satisfaction  and  confidence  that 
he  was  "  going  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  God  and  his  Redeemer." 

Rarely  has  the  end  of  a  public  man  in  New  England  been 
marked  by  evidences  of  a  deeper  or  more  general  regret.  "  Great 
and  respectable  (we  are  told)  was  the  concourse  which  attended 
his  funeral;  every  species  of  occupation  was  suspended;  all 
ranks  and  orders  of  men,  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  the  magistrate 
and  the  citizen,  men  of  leisure  and  men  of  business,  testified 
their  affection  and  respect  by  joining  in  the  solemn  procession ; 
and  crowds  of  spectators  lined  the  streets  through  which  it 
passed,  whilst  an  uncommon  silence  and  order  everywhere 
marked  the  deepness  of  their  sorrow." 

Such  were  the  becoming  tokens  of  public  respect  for  the 
memory  of  one  who  had  devoted  no  less  than  thirty-six  years 
of  his  life  to  the  service  of  his  Commonwealth  and  his  Country ; 
who  had  sustained  himself  in  the  highest  offices  of  trust  and 
responsibility,  and  in  the  greatest  emergencies  of  difficulty  and 
danger,  without  fear  and  without  reproach ;  and  of  whom  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say,  that  he  had  exhibited  himself  always  the 
very  personification  of  that  just  and  resolute  man  of  the  Roman 
poet,  whom  neither  the  mandates  of  a  foreign  tyrant,  nor  the 
menaces  of  domestic  rebels,  could  shake  from  his  established 
principles. 

"  Justum,  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 
Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  vultus  instantis  tyranni, 
Mente  quatit  solida." 

I  can  find  no  other  words  for  summing  up  his  character,  than 
the  admirable  sentence  of  Judge  Lowell : 


THE  LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN.  131 

"  It  may  be  said  that  our  country  has  produced  many  men  of 
as  much  genius;  many  men  of  as  much  learning  and  knowledge  ; 
many  of  as  much  zeal  for  the  liberties  of  their  country;  and 
many  of  as  great  piety  and  virtue ;  but  is  it  not  rare  indeed,  to 
find  those  in  whom  they  have  all  combined,  and  been  adorned, 
with  his  other  accomplishments?" 

Governor  Bowdoin  was  early  married  to  Elizabeth  Erving,  a 
lady  of  most  respectable  family  and  of  most  estimable  qualities, 
who,  with  their  two  children,  survived  him. 

Of  his  only  son,  James  Bowdoin,  I  need  say  nothing  in  this 
presence  and  on  this  spot.  He  was  known  elsewhere  as  a  gentle- 
man of  liberal  education  and  large  fortune,  repeatedly  a  member 
of  both  branches  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  and  who 
received  from  Mr.  Jefferson  the  appointments  successively  of 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  the  Court  of  Spain,  and  Associate 
Special  Minister  with  General  Armstrong  to  the  Court  of  France. 
He  is  known  here  by  other  and  more  enduring  memorials.  He 
died  without  children ;  but  it  was  only  to  give  new  attestation 
to  that  quaint  conceit  of  Lord  Bacon's,  —  "  Surely  a  man  shall 
see  the  noblest  works  and  foundations  have  proceeded  from 
childless  men ;  who  have  sought  to  express  the  images  of  their 
minds,  where  those  of  their  bodies  have  failed :  so  the  care  of 
posterity  is  most  in  them  that  have  no  posterity." 

With  him  the  name  of  Bowdoin,  by  direct  descent  in  the 
male  line,  passed  away  from  the  annals  of  New  England  ;  but, 
even  had  there  been  no  collaterals  and  kinsfolk  worthy  to  wear, 
and  proud  to  adopt  and  perpetuate  it,  the  day,  the  place,  the  cir- 
cumstances of  this  occasion,  afford  ample  evidence  that  it  has 
been  inscribed  where  it  will  not  be  forgotten.  When  Anaxagoras 
of  Clazomene  was  asked  by  the  Senate  of  Lampsacus  how  they 
should  commemorate  his  services,  he  replied,  "  By  ordaining 
that  the  day  of  my  death  be  annually  kept  as  a  holiday  in  all 
the  schools  of  Lampsacus.'  And,  certainly,  if  any  man  may 
be  said  to  have  taken  a  bond  against  oblivion,  it  is  he  whose 
name  is  worthily  associated  with  a  great  institution  of  education. 
Who  shall  undertake  to  assign  limits  to  the  duration  of  the 
memories  of  Harvard,  and  Yale,  and  Bowdoin,  and  the  rest,  as 
long  as  another,  and  still  another  generation  of  young  men  shall 


132  THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES   BOWDOIN. 

continue  to  come  up  to  the  seats  of  learning  which  they  have 
founded,  and  to  go  forth  again  into  the  world  with  a  grateful 
sense  of  their  inestimable  advantages  ?  The  hero,  the  statesman, 
the  martyr,  may  be  forgotten ;  but  the  name  of  the  Founder  of 
a  College  is  written  where  it  shall  be  remembered  and  repeated 
to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time.  Semper  —  semper  honos, 
nomenque  tuum,  laudesque  manebunt ! 

And  may  I  not  add,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  in  con- 
clusion, that  the  name  of  Bowdoin  is  intrinsically  worthy  to  be 
held  in  such  perpetual  remembrance?  Do  not  the  facts  which 
I  have  thus  imperfectly  set  before  you,  justify  me  in  saying,  with- 
out the  fear  of  being  reproached  even  with  a  not  unnatural  par- 
tiality, that  there  are  few  names  in  our  country's  history,  which 
will  better  bear  being  held  up  before  the  young  men  of  New 
England,  as  the  distinguishing  designation  of  their  Alma  Mater? 

The  mere  money  which  endows  a  school  or  a  college,  is  not 
the  only  or  the  highest  contribution  to  the  cause  of  education 
or  improvement.  It  may  have  been  acquired  by  dishonorable 
trade  or  accursed  traffic.  It  may  have  been  amassed  by  sordid 
hoardings,  or  wrung  from  oppressed  dependents.  It  may  carry 
with  it  to  the  minds  of  those  for  whom  it  provides,  the  perni- 
cious idea,  that  a  pecuniary  bequest  may  purchase  oblivion  for 
a  life  of  injustice  and  avarice,  or  secure  for  the  vile  and  the 
infamous  that  ever  fresh  and  fragrant  renown,  which  belongs  to 
the  memory  of  the  just. 

The  noblest  contribution  which  any  man  can  make  for  the 
benefit  of  posterity  is  that  of  a  good  character.  The  richest 
bequest  which  any  man  can  leave  to  the  youth  of  his  native 
land,  is  that  of  a  shining,  spotless  example. 

Let  not,  then,  the  ingenuous  and  pure-hearted  young  men, 
who  are  gathered  within  these  walls,  imagine  that  it  is  only  on 
account  of  the  munificence  of  the  younger  Bowdoin,  that  I 
would  claim  for  the  name  their  respect  and  reverence.  Let 
them  examine  the  history  of  that  name  through  four  successive 
generations;  let  them  follow  it  from  the  landing  at  Casco  to  the 
endowment  of  the  College ;  let  them  consider  the  religious  con- 
stancy of  the  humble  Huguenot,  who  sought  freedom  of  con- 
science on  the  shores  of  yonder  bay ;  let  them  remember  the 


THE  LIFE  AND   SERVICES   OF  JAMES  BOWDOIN.  133 

diligence,  enterprise,  and  honesty  of  the  Boston  Merchant ;  let 
them  recall  the  zeal  for  science,  the  devotion  to  liberty,  the  love 
for  his  country,  its  constitution  and  its  union,  —  the  firmness, 
the  purity,  the  piety  of  the  Massachusetts  Patriot ;  and  let  them 
add  to  these  the  many  estimable  and  eminent  qualities  which 
adorned  the  character  of  their  more  immediate  benefactor ;  and 
they  will  agree  with  me,  and  you,  Gentlemen,  will  agree  with 
them,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  name  in  our  history, 
which,  within  the  same  period  of  time,  has  furnished  a  nobler 
succession  of  examples  for  their  admiration  and  imitation.  And 
neither  of  you,  I  am  sure,  will  regret  the  hour  which  has  now 
been  spent,  in  once  more  brushing  off  the  dust  and  mould  which 
had  begun  to  gather  and  thicken  upon  memories,  which,  in  these 
Halls  at  least,  will  never  be  permitted  to  perish. 


12 


NOTE. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 

IN  FAVOR  OF  A  CONVENTION  TO  REVISE  THE  ARTICLES  OF  CONFEDERATION. 

[See  page  43.] 

Resolve,  recommending  a  Convention  of  Delegates  from  all  the  States,  for  the  purpose 
mentioned,  July  1,  1785. 

As  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  a  nation  cannot  be  secured  without  a  due 
proportion  of  power  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  Supreme  Rulers  of  the  State, 
the  present  embarrassed  situation  of  our  public  affairs  must  lead  the  mind  of 
the  most  inattentive  observer  to  realize  the  necessity  of  a  revision  of  the  powers 
vested  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by  the  articles  of  confederation. 

And  as  we  conceive  it  to  be  equally  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  every 
State  in  the  Union,  freely  to  communicate  their  sentiments  to  the  rest  on  every 
subject  relating  to  their  common  interest,  and  to  solicit  their  concurrence  in 
such  measures  as  the  exigency  of  their  public  affairs  may  require  :  — 

Therefore,  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Court,  that  the  present 
powers  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  as  contained  in  the  Articles  of 
Confederation,  are  not  fully  adequate  to  the  great  purposes  they  were  originally 
designed  to  effect 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Court,  that  it  is  highly  expedient,  if 
not  indispensably  necessary,  that  there  should  be  a  convention  of  delegates  from 
all  the  States  in  the  Union,  at  some  convenient  place,  as  soon  as  may  be,  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  revising  the  Confederation,  and  reporting  to  Congress  how 
far  it  may  be  necessary  to  alter  or  enlarge  the  same. 

Resolved,  That  Congress  be,  and  they  are  hereby  requested  to  recommend  a 
Convention  of  Delegates  from  all  the  States,  at  such  time  and  place  as  they  may 
think  convenient,  to  revise  the  Confederation,  and  to  report  to  Congress  how 
far  it  may  be  necessary,  in  their  opinion,  to  alter  or  enlarge  the  same,  in  order 
to  secure  and  perpetuate  the  primary  objects  of  the  Union. 


NOTE.  135 


LETTER  TO  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  CONGRESS.     » 

Sir,  —  Impressed  with  the  importance  and  necessity  of  revising  the  powers 
of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  the  General  Court  of  the  Massachu- 
setts have  taken  the  subject  under  their  serious  consideration,  and  have  adopted 
the  inclosed  resolutions,  which  you  are  requested  to  communicate.  Should  the 
nature  and  importance  of  the  subject  appear  to  Congress  in  the  same  point  of 
light  that  it  does  to  this  Court,  they  flatter  themselves,  that  Congress  will  so  far 
endeavor  to  carry  their  views  into  effect,  as  to  recommend  a  Convention  of  the 
States,  at  some  convenient  place,  on  an  early  day,  that  the  evils  so  severely 
experienced  from  the  want  of  adequate  powers  in  the  Federal  Government 
may  find  a  remedy  as  soon  as  possible. 

As  a  perfect  harmony  among  the  States  is  an  object  no  less  important  than 
desirable,  the  Legislature  of  the  Massachusetts  have  aimed  at  that  unassuming 
openness  of  conduct,  and  respectful  attention  to  the  rights  of  every  State  in 
the  Union,  as  they  doubt  not  will  secure  their  confidence,  and  meet  the  appro- 
bation of  Congress. 

A  circular  letter  to  the  States  is  herewith  transmitted  to  Congress,  which  they 
are  requested  to  forward,  with  their  recommendation  for  a  Convention  of  Dele- 
gates from  the  States,  if  they  should  so  far  concur  in  sentiment  with  the  Court, 
as  to  deem  such  a  recommendation  advisable. 


TO   THE   SUPREME   EXECUTIVE    OF   EACH   STATE. 

The  unequal  footing  on  which  we  find  ourselves  placed  by  all  the  powers 
with  whom  we  have  any  commercial  intercourse,  has  produced  consequences  too 
extensive  not  to  be  universally  felt,  and  too  important  to  be  longer  neglected. 

As  commerce,  and  our  national  credit  and  importance,  must  decline,  unless 
our  Representatives  in  Congress  are  vested  with  more  efficient  powers,  we  can- 
not doubt  of  your  ready  concurrence  in  measures  necessary  to  accomplish  so 
important  a  purpose. 

We  have,  by  a  Resolve  of  this  day,  made  application  to  the  United  States  in 
Congress  assembled,  for  such  recommendation  to  the  several  States  as  shall  be 
thought  most  conducive  to  the  purposes  aforesaid,  a  copy  of  which  Resolve,  with 
the  letter  inclosing  it,  addressed  to  the  President  of  Congress,  is  herewith  trans- 
mitted you.  Should  you  be  in  sentiment  with  us,  that  the  measures  proposed 
are  the  proper  expedients  to  relieve  us  from  the  national  embarrassments  we 
labor  under,  you  are  requested  to  signify  your  approbation  of  them  to  Congress, 
as  early  as  possible. 


136  NOTE. 


TO    TITE    DELEGATES    OF   TIIIS    STATE   IN    CONGRESS. 

Gentlemen,  —  You  have  herewith  transmitted  you,  copies  of  a  Resolve  of 
the  General  Court,  accompanied  by  a  letter  to  the  President  of  Congress,  and 
a  Circular  Letter  to  the  States,  upon  business  of  the  greatest  importance  to  this, 
as  well  as  every  State  in  the  Union,  as  you  will  readily  perceive  by  a  perusal  of 
them. 

You  are,  therefore,  directed  to  take  the  earliest  opportunity  of  laying  them 
before  Congress,  and  making  every  exertion  in  your  power  to  carry  the  object 
of  them  into  effect,  and  to  give  notice  to  the  Governor  as  early  as  possible  of 
the  success  of  such  application. 

Resolved,  That  his  Excellency  the  Governor  be,  and  he  is  hereby  requested, 
in  behalf  of  the  Legislature,  to  sign  the  foregoing  letter  to  the  President  6f 
Congress,  the  Supreme  Executive  of  the  several  States,  and  to  the  Delegates  of 
this  Commonwealth  in  Congress,  and  to  forward  them  accordingly. 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS- 


A  LECTURE  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  BOSTON  LYCEUM, 
DECEMBER  20,  1838. 


I  have  chosen  no  new  topic  for  the  subject  of  this  evening's 
lecture  ;  nor  can  I  promise  you  any  display  of  that  rare  faculty, 
which  commands  for  an  old  subject  new  attention  and  com- 
mends it  to  fresh  embraces,  by  exhibiting  it  in  unworn  robes  and 
surrounding  it  with  unwonted  illustrations.  It  is  my  purpose 
to  deal  with  old  truths  in  the  old  way,  and  I  must  trust  to  the 
intrinsic  importance  and  universal  interest  of  those  truths  to 
secure  for  them  a  willing  and  patient  attention. 

It  cannot  fail  to  have  been  remarked  by  every  intelligent 
observer  of  passing  events,  that  the  subject  of  Popular  Educa- 
tion has  attracted,  within  a  few  years  past,  a  much  larger  share 
of  both  public  and  private  attention  than  it  formerly  enjoyed. 
Evidences  of  an  increased  private  attention  to  it  may  be  seen 
in  the  various  Conventions,  Associations,  and  Institutes  which 
are  meeting  daily  upon  the  subject  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 
Proofs  of  an  enlarged  public  regard  for  it  may  be  found  in  the 
recent  establishment,  by  the  Legislatures  of  many  of  the  States, 
of  School  Funds  and  Boards  of  School  Commissioners.  While 
the  still  more  recent  appropriation  in  our  own  Commonwealth 
of  a  considerable  sum  of  money,  in  connection  with  the  noble 
donation  of  Mr.  Edmund  Dwight,  to  institute  the  experiment 
of  what  are  called  Normal  Schools,  may  be  hailed  as  a  cheering 
assurance  that  private  munificence  and  public  liberality  are  not, 
upon  this  subject  as  upon  some  others,  seeking  opposite  or  even 
separate  ends,  nor  have  any  tendency  to  counteract  or  discour- 
age each  other,  but  are  ready  and  resolved  to  cooperate  together 
in  promoting  this  great  cause, 
12  * 


138  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  the  United  States  that  a  new  regard  for 
popular  education  has  been  recently  manifested.  In  England, 
in  France,  and  in  many  other  parts  of  Europe,  and  most  of  all 
in  those  parts  where  least  of  all  we  should  have  expected  it  and 
last  of  all  looked  for  it,  the  education  of  the  people  has  become 
a  matter  of  the  most  prominent  public  and  private  concern.  In 
Prussia,  in  Austria,  and  even  in  Russia,  a  Free  Popular  School 
System  has  been  silently  springing  up,  which  for  completeness 
and  efficiency  seems  to  have  had  no  precedent  in  time  past,  and 
certainly  has  no  parallel  at  the  present  day;  —  a  system,  says 
Professor  Stowe  of  Ohio,  "  more  complete  and  better  adapted  to 
develop  every  faculty  of  the  soul,  and  to  bring  into  action  every 
capability  of  every  kind  that  may  exist  even  in  the  poorest  cot- 
tage of  the  most  obscure  corner  of  those  kingdoms  than  has  ever 
before  been  imagined." 

Professor  Stowe,  you  may  remember,  was  employed  by  the 
Legislature  of  Ohio  to  procure  information  upon  this  subject 
during  his  recent  travels  in  Europe,  and  his  report,  containing 
an  interesting  account  of  the  Prussian  School  System,  both  as 
it  exists  at  home  and  as  already  extended  to  the  other  countries 
which  I  have  named,  was  reprinted,  by  the  Legislature  of  our 
own  Commonwealth  at  their  last  session,  for  the  information 
of  the  school  teachers  and  the  instruction  of  the  schools  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. 

Among  the  many  striking  occurrences  of  these  wonder-teem- 
ing times,  hardly  any  one  seems  calculated  to  make  a  stronger 
impression  upon  a  reflecting  New  England  mind  than  this.  If 
there  has  been  any  thing  upon  which  New  Englanders  have 
been  accustomed  to  think  that  they  might  pardonably  pride 
themselves,  it  has  been  their  Free  School  System.  While  others 
have  been  boasting  of  the  fertility  of  their  soils  and  the  salu- 
brity of  their  climates,  we  have  been  content  to  be  jested 
about  our  rocks  and  ice,  our  east  winds  and  consumptions, 
while  we  could  point  to  institutions  of  popular  education  which 
were  admitted  to  be  models  for  the  world.  And  year  after  year, 
as  our  sons  and  daughters  have  swarmed  out  from  the  old  New 
England  hive  and  sought  better  soils  and  brighter  skies  in  the 
distant  West,  we  have  commended  these  cherished  institutions 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS.         139 

to  them  with  our  parting  tears,  and  counted  it  among  our  most 
precious  consolations  under  the  bereavement,  that  by  them  and 
in  them  New  England  principles  would  be  planted  and  per- 
petuated thousands  of  miles  over  the  mountains.  How  harshly, 
then,  does  it  strike  upon  our  eyes  and  ears  and  hearts,  to  see 
other  institutions  now  sought  out  as  examples,  to  have  other 
schools  made  the  subject  of  praises  so  long  awarded  to  ours, 
and  to  feel  that  New  England  will  soon  be  called  on  to  acknowl- 
edge and  admire,  in  the  intellectual  fields  and  gardens  of  our 
country,  <  strange  leaves  and  fruits  not  her  own,'  —  novas  frondes 
et  non  sua  poma.  Above  all,  how  stern  and  stoical  a  philosophy 
does  it  require,  not  only  to  acquiesce  in  the  justice  of  all  this, 
not  merely  to  give  the  assent  of  silence  to  the  sentence  which 
supersedes  us  in  our  most  cherished  field  of  competition,  but 
even  to  unite,  as  we  have  done,  in  transferring  the  very  diadem 
of  our  beauty  and  our  pride  to  other  heads ! 

But  this  view  of  the  circumstance  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
comprises  but  a  small  portion  of  its  impressive  character.  Had 
the  Free  School  System  of  New  England  been  obliged  to  relin- 
quish its  claims  upon  the  admiration  and  imitation  of  the  world 
in  favor  of  similar  institutions  upon  our  own  American  soil, — 
had  some  thrifty  scion  of  our  own  raising  outshot  the  parent 
stock,  and  were  it  now  standing  by  its  side  to  cast  upon  it  no 
greater  disparagement  than  that  of  being  "  the  lovely  mother  of 
a  lovelier  daughter,"  —  our  vanity  might  have  been  healed  by 
the  very  blow  which  wounded  it,  and  we  should  have  been 
compensated  for  the  immediate  honors  we  had  lost,  by  the 
derivative  and  reflected  glory  we  had  acquired.  But  far  dif- 
ferent has  been  our  fate.  Robbed  of  our  own  richest  and 
proudest  distinction,  we  are  compelled  to  see  it  claimed  and 
enjoyed  by  those,  whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to  regard 
with  feelings  only  oscillating  between  pity  and  contempt, 
and  with  whose  intellectual,  moral,  or  political  condition  we 
should  have  scorned  to  clairn,  or  even  to  admit,  any  connec- 
tion or  sympathy.  The  ignorance  and  degradation  of  Prussian 
hirelings,  and  Austrian  bondsmen,  and  Russian  serfs,  have  so 
long  been  the  theme  of  our  wholesale  declamations,  and  have 
constituted  so  completely  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  our 


140  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

associations  with  those  regions  of  the  earth  respectively,  that 
as  little  should  we  have  expected  any  good  thing  out  of  either 
of  them,  as  an  ancient  Jew  did  out  of  Nazareth.  Yet,  from 
these  very  mountains  of  darkness  and  valleys  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  a  light  has  sprung  up,  of  whose  rays  we  are  now  glad  to 
borrow. 

What  would  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  have  thought  of  it ;  what* 
would  the  Puritan  schoolmasters  have  said  to  it ;  what  would 
the  founders  and  patrons  of  our  schools  and  colleges,  whether 
of  the  Pilgrim  or  the  Patriot  age  —  the  Harvards,  the  Mathers, 
the  Cheevers,  and  the  Lovells  —  have  said,  had  it  been  foretold 
to  them,  that  no  sooner  had  the  trans- Alleghany  region  of  this 
continent  begun  to  be  cleared  and  settled,  and  before  even  the 
first  generation  of  its  emigrant  population  had  passed  away,  it 
should  be  found  turning  its  eyes  to  find  models  for  institutions 
of  education,  —  not  to  the  old,  time-honored  Free  Schools  of 
New  England,  which  were  the  scene  of  their  labors  and  the  sub- 
ject of  their  prayers ;  not  even  to  the  older  and  hardly  less 
honored  academies  and  colleges  of  old  England,  the  common 
mother  of  us  all ;  —  but  to  institutions  for  public  instruction 
established  by  the  most  arbitrary  and  despotic  Governments,  and 
among  the  most  benighted  and  enslaved  peoples  of  Europe, — 
and  should  be  seen  actually  sending  an  embassy  across  the 
ocean  to  obtain  the  most  accurate  and  detailed  information  as 
to  their  system  and  discipline  ?  Would  they  not  almost  as 
soon  have  believed,  that  the  destined  dwellers  on  the  banks  of 
the  Beautiful  River,  (as  the  native  American  well  designated  the 
Ohio,)  would  have  one  day  imported  in  the  egg  a  cargo  of 
Hessian  flies  to  feed  and  fatten  on  their  ripening  wheatfields ;  or 
that  they  would  have  panted  themselves  to  exchange  their  tem- 
pered and  genial  climate  for  "  the  thrilling  regions  of  thick-ribbed 
ice,"  which  constitute  so  large  a  part  of  the  empire  of  the  Czar ! 

But  there  is  still  another  view  of  the  facts  to  which  I  have 
referred,  which  suggests  reflections  of  a  far  higher  and  more  im- 
portant character  than  either  of  those  which  have  yet  been 
presented,  and  which  relates  not  so  much  to  our  pride  as  New 
Englanders,  as  to  our  prosperity  and  welfare  as  freemen.  We 
have  been  accustomed  to  regard  a  free  school  system  as  the 


FREE    SCHOOLS   ANp    FREE    GOVERNMENTS.  141 

chief  corner-stone  of  our  Republic,  and  popular  education  as 
the  only  safe  and  stable  basis  for  popular  liberty.  So  thought 
our  fathers  before  us,  and  the  principle  may  be  found  interwoven 
in  a  thousand  forms  into  the  very  thread  and  texture  of  our 
political  institutions.  Education,  —  religious  and  civil,  the 
education  of  the  sanctuary  and  of  the  school-house,  —  was,  we 
all  know,  from  the  first  establishment  of  these  Colonies,  a  matter 
in  regard  to  which  all  property  was  held  in  common,  and  every 
man  bound  to  contribute  to  the  necessities  of  every  other  man ; 
as  much  so  as  personal  protection,  public  justice,  or  any  other  of 
the  more  obvious  duties  of  government,  or  rights  of  the  go- 
verned. "  To  this  celestial  and  this  earthly  light,"  to  use  the 
language  of  Daniel  Webster,  every  man  was  entitled  by  the 
fundamental  laws,  and  as  a  part  of  that  provision  for  the  secu- 
rity of  free  men  and  the  maintenance  of  free  institutions,  which 
it  was  the  purpose  of  those  laws  to  establish.  A  conscientious 
scruple  of  later  years,  which  I  am  willing  to  respect  in  others, 
even  if  I  do  not  quite  feel  the  force  of  it  myself,  has  stricken  off 
religious  education  from  the  pay-roll  of  the  State,  and  left  every 
man  not  only  to  consult  his  own  will,  but  to  depend  on  his  own 
means,  in  seeking  for  the  light  celestial.  But  the  terrestrial 
light,  the  education  of  the  week-day  and  of  the  earthly  man, 
from  which  all  care  of  his  spiritual  nature,  it  is  hoped,  is  not 
entirely  excluded,  is  still  provided  at  the  public  cost,  and  the 
Free  Common  School  system  is  still  cherished  as  sacredly  as 
ever,  as  the  only  sure  foundation  for  the  Republican  fabric. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  we  now  find  the  most  arbitrary  and 
despotic  Governments  of  the  Old  World  adopting  this  same 
system  as  a  security  for  their  own  stern  dominations,  and  carry- 
ing it  into  operation  at  immense  expense  and  upon  an  unparal- 
leled scale,  with  as  much  apparent  confidence  that  it  will  an- 
swer their  own  tyrannical  ends,  as  if  they  were  only  manning  a 
new  fleet,  or  mustering  a  new  standing  army  ?  Have  we  on 
this  side  of  the  waters  been  all,  and  all  along,  mistaken  in  our 
estimate  of  the  political  consequences  of  popular  education  ? 
Were  our  Puritan  Fathers  led  away  by  erroneous  prepossessions, 
which  the  winds  and  waves  of  three  thousand  miles  of  wintry 
ocean  had  not  uprooted,  or  were  they  only  chasing  some  ignis 


142  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

fatuus  of  wilderness  origin  and  growth,  when  they  devoted  their 
earliest  attention  to  the  establishment  of  common  schools  and 
colleges  ?  Was  it  a  false  philosophy,  a  misguided  foresight,  a 
deluded  sagacity,  which  led  the  patriot  framers  of  our  State 
Constitution  to  declare,  in  the  language  of  John  Adams,  one  of 
the  noblest  of  their  number,  that  "  wisdom  and  knowledge,  as 
well  as  virtue,  diffused  generally  among  the  body  of  the  people, 
were  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  their  rights  and  liberties," 
and  to  make  it  the  constitutional  duty  "  of  Legislatures  and 
Magistrates,  in  all  future  periods  of  the  Commonwealth,  to 
cherish  the  interests  of  literature  and  the  sciences,  and  all  semi- 
naries of  them  ?  "  Have  we,  from  first  to  last,  been  harboring 
and  cherishing  in  our  bosoms  an  insidious  and  treacherous  foe 
to  our  freedom?  Has  an  emissary  of  despotism,  in  the  bor- 
rowed robes  of  an  Angel  of  Liberty,  been  admitted  unawares 
to  our  society  and  entertainment  ?  Or  is  Popular  Education 
merely  neutral  and  non-committal  in  its  political  tendencies,  and 
are  Free  Schools  utterly  indifferent  in  their  influence  upon  poli- 
tical institutions  ?  Will  they  serve  as  well,  and  may  they  be 
relied  on  as  safely,  for  the  bulwarks  of  an  arbitrary  and  impe- 
rious dominion,  as  for  the  basis  of  a  free  Republican  govern- 
ment ?  Do  our  enormous  annual  contributions  of  time  and 
money  to  the  cause  of  public  instruction  afford  us  no  new  or 
additional  guaranty  for  the  progress  of  free  principles,  and  leave 
our  democratic  institutions  in  no  less  danger  of  downfall  or 
overthrow?  And  will  the  hirelings  and  mercenaries  of  Aus- 
tria and  Prussia  muster  as  promptly,  and  march  as  steadily,  to 
execute  the  mandates  of  individual  or  of  allied  monarchs,  after 
they  have  learned  to  read  and  write,  as  they  did  before  ?  And 
the  Autocrat  of  all  the  Russias  —  will  he  sit  as  easy  on  his 
throne  of  state,  and  sway  his  sceptre  as  unceremoniously  over 
an  enlightened,  intelligent,  and  educated  people,  as  he  did  while 
they  were  benighted,  degraded,  and  ignorant  ? 

I  know  that  but  one  answer  would  be  given  to  these  ques- 
tions by  all  whom  I  address,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  it  would 
be  the  right  answer.  But  I  cannot  help  thinking  that,  in  view 
of  the  events  on  the  other  side  of  the  waters  to  which  I  have 
referred,  not  a  few  of  us  may  be  glad  to  have  the  faith  that  is 


FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS.  143 

in  us  refreshed,  and  some  of  the  reasons  of  that  faith  newly  im- 
pressed upon  our  minds,  by  dwelling  for  a  few  moments  on  the 
political  bearings  of  Popular  Education,  and  upon  the  influence 
of  Free  Schools  in  establishing  and  supporting  Free  Govern- 
ments. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  that  much  apparent  difference  of 
opinion  might  be  reconciled,  and  much  of  angry  controversy 
avoided,  if  men  could  agree  in  advance  upon  the  meaning  and 
definition  of  the  terms,  which  are  employed  to  designate  the 
subject  matter  in  debate.  And  we  daily  observe  discussions, 
which  commenced  with  a  formidable  array  of  most  opposite 
and  conflicting  principles,  gradually  dwindling  down  into  a  mere 
dispute  about  words,  and  ending  in  an  appeal  to  the  last  edition 
of  Walker's  or  Webster's  Dictionary.  Let  me,  then,  so  far 
provide  against  any  controversy  which  might  originate  in  a 
mere  disagreement  about  words,  as  to  state  explicitly  at  the 
outset  my  understanding  of  the  phrases,  Popular  Education  and 
Free  Government ;  and  if,  in  doing  so,  I  shall  seem  to  have 
settled  the  whole  question,  the  patience  of  my  hearers  will  be 
the  sooner  relieved. 

In  attempting  to  describe  Popular  Education,  I  am  not  about 
to  discuss  systems  of  education.  I  have  no  new-fangled  theo- 
ries to  advance  as  to  the  age  at  which  education  should  com- 
mence, the  mode  in  which  it  should  be  pursued,  or  the  matters 
with  which  it  should  deal.  The  education  to  which  I  refer,  it  is 
never  too  early,  and  never  entirely  too  late,  to  commence,  and 
towards  it  there  is  neither  royal  road  nor  railroad  which  can 
claim  a  monopoly  of  the  travel.  It  is  not  classical  learning. 
It  is  not  scientific  acquirement.  It  is  not  a  knowledge  of  dead 
languages  or  of  living.  "  Though  a  linguist  (says  John  Milton) 
should  pride  himself  to  have  all  the  tongues  which  Babel  cleft 
the  world  into,  yet  if  he  have  not  studied  the  solid  things  in 
them,  as  well  as  the  words  and  the  lexicons,  he  were  nothing  so 
much  to  be  esteemed  a  learned  man,  as  any  yeoman  or  trades- 
man competently  wise  in  his  mother  dialect  only."  But  it  is 
not  the  study  of  these  solid  things  either,  which  constitutes  the 
education  which  I  have  in  my  mind.  It  is  not  the  science  of 
elements,  any  more  than  of  alphabets.     It  is  not  the  knowledge 


144  FREE   SCHOOLS  AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

of  the  materials  of  the  earth,  the  powers  of  the  air,  or  the  mo- 
tions of  the  stars.   In  reference  to  the  education  of  which  I  speak, 

"  Those  earthly  godfathers  of  heaven's  lights 
That  give  a  name  to  every  fixed  star, 
Have  no  more  profit  of  their  shining  nights 
Than  those  that  walk  and  wot  not  what  they  are." 

Let  me  not  seem  to  speak  lightly  of  the  study  of  languages 
or  the  science  of  astronomy.  The  power  and  presence  of  the 
Spirit  of  Truth  were  once  attested  by  the  possession  of  tongues ; 
and  it  is  an  attribute  to  God  himself  that  "  he  telleth  the  number 
of  the  stars,  and  calleth  them  all  by  their  names."  I  desire  only 
to  convey  in  the  most  emphatic  manner  the  idea,  that  in  speak- 
ing of  education,  I  refer  not  to  modes,  but  to  results ;  not  to 
instruments,  but  to  operations;  not  to  ways,  but  to  ends. 
Reading  and  writing  are  excellent  accomplishments;  but  the 
time  has  gone  by  when  they  could  save  a  man's  neck  from  the 
gallows ;  and  they  never  did,  and  never  can,  establish  or  maintain 
the  life  and  liberty  of  a  nation.  The  ancient  languages  are 
golden  keys  for  unlocking  the  stores  of  wit  and  eloquence  and 
poesy  ;  but  evil  spirits  have  long  since  refused  to  be  exorcised  by 
a  sentence  of  Latin,  and  the  words  of  life  may  as  certainly  be 
found  in  a  vernacular  Testament,  or  even  in  John  Eliot's  Indian 
version,  as  if  they  were  hunted  for  in  the  original  Greek,  or  in 
the  Complutensian  Polyglott  itself.  A  man's  memory  may#be 
tasked  and  strained  till  it  becomes  a  perfect  encyclopaedia,  hav- 
ing the  whole  circle  of  science  in  its  grasp,  paged  and  indexed 
for  use.  A  man's  fancy  may  be*  chafed  and  charged  till  it  will 
sparkle  and  lighten  of  its  own  mere  exuberance  and  inconti- 
nency.  A  man's  observation  may  be  quickened  and  informed 
till  it  can  read  and  translate  at  sight  every  sign  and  character 
and  composition  of  Nature  and  of  Art.  And  beautiful  ornaments 
to  a  true  education  do  such  faculties  form  in  himself,  and  pow- 
erful aids  in  imparting  a  true  education  to  others.  But  they 
neither  constitute  that  education,  nor  are  necessary  either  to  its 
attainment  or  communication.  Wretched,  indeed,  would  be  the 
lot  of  the  every-day  man,  if  his  happiness,  his  advancement,  his 
liberty,  depended  on  powers  like  these.     The  doctrine  that  would 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS.         145 

make  his  enjoyment  of  freedom  conditional  upon  such  acquisi- 
tions, would  doom  the  daily  laborer  for  his  daily  bread  to  perpe- 
tual servitude. 

Such  then,  certainly,  is  not  that  popular  education  whose  in- 
fluence upon  Free  Governments  I  proposed  to  consider.  No  ;  I 
speak  not  of  the  attainment  of  positive  knowledge,  but  of  the 
preparation  of  negative  faculties,  —  not  of  the  introduction  and 
inculcation  of  any  thing  that  is  without  a  man,  but  of  the  deve- 
lopment and  expansion  of  what  is  within  a  man,  and  within  every 
man.  I  speak  of  education  as  distinguished  from  instruction. 
Instruction  is  the  communication  of  knowledge.  Education  is 
the  formation  of  the  mind,  the  regulation  of  the  heart,  the  esta- 
blishment of  the  principles,  the  educing  or  drawing  out  and 
training  up  of  the  whole  moral  and  intellectual  nature  of  man. 
I  speak  of  intelligence,  —  whether  sharpened  by  the  observation 
of  signs  or  of  things  signified,  of  sounds  or  of  substances.  I 
speak  of  judgment,  —  whether  disciplined  in  the  school  of  an  ab- 
stract philosophy,  or  rectified  by  the  standard  of  a  practical  expe- 
rience. I  speak  of  passions,  —  not  crushed  and  eradicated  — 
God  never  planted  such  mighty  impulses  within  us  to  be  plucked 
up  and  thrown  away  —  but  controlled  and  directed ;  —  of  pas- 
sions, not  paralyzed  and  deadened,  but  purged  of  their  cor- 
rupt fires  and  lawless  lusts,  and  quickened  to  the  scent  and  the 
pursuit  of  purity  and  truth;  —  of  passions,  not  hunted  down  and 
destroyed  like  beasts  of  prey,  but  reclaimed  from  their  wild  na- 
ture, tamed,  broken,  and  harnessed  to  the  car  of  Virtue  and  the 
Graces.  I  speak  of  conscience,  —  not  abandoned  to  accidental 
promptings,  occasional  twinges,  wayward  and  capricious  im- 
pulses, and  made  the  plea,  if  not  the  pretence,  of  all  sorts  of 
whimsical  opinions  and  extravagant  acts;  but  instructed,  in- 
formed, enlightened  by  human  reason  and  divine  revelation,  until 
it  can  no  longer  be  confounded  with  an  obstinate  prepossession, 
or  a  blind  self-will,  and  then  excited  and  stimulated  to  a  vigilant 
and  constant  monitorship  ;  —  of  conscience,  not  left  in  the  dim, 
deceptive  twilight  in  which  it  first  reveals  itself  to  the  human 
breast,  betokening  rather  the  approach,  than  the  presence,  of  a 
Divine  Day  within  us ;  but  saluted,  cherished,  worshipped,  and 
ushered  up,  until  it  has  advanced  from  an  unrisen  to  a  meridian 

13 


146  FREE    SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

and  never-setting  luminary.  Or  rather  I  speak  of  all  these  facul- 
ties united  and  harmonized,  the  intelligence  furnishing  materials 
for  the  judgment,  and  the  passions  supplying  a  stimulus  to  the 
intelligence,  and  the  judgment,  the  passions,  and  the  intelli- 
gence, alike  and  together,  all  brought  to  the  service,  submitted 
to  the  control,  and  doing  homage  to  the  supremacy  of  a  pure  and 
enlightened  conscience.  Place  powers,  thus  combined,  thus 
proportioned,  and  in  this  state  of  cooperation,  into  a  sound  and 
healthy  frame,  and  you  have  a  true  education  personified. 
Such  a  man  may  speak  many  languages  with  fluency,  or  only 
his  own  with  hesitation ;  his  talk  may  be  of  bullocks  or  of  the 
Great  Bear ;  his  hand  may  direct  a  pen  or  wield  a  sledge-ham- 
mer ;  his  occupation  and  his  outward  show  may  be  as  high  and 
glaring,  or  as  humble  and  unostentatious  as  may  be ;  still,  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  term,  he  will  be  an  educated  man.  He  will  be 
a  good  man.  He  will  be  a  good  citizen  ;  —  prepared  to  under- 
stand his  own  rights  and  maintain  them,  —  to  understand  other 
people's  rights  and  respect  them,  —  to  understand  his  own  duties 
and  discharge  them,  whether  to  his  country  or  his  God,  his  neigh- 
bor or  himself.  Above  all,  he  will  have  acquired  that  indispen- 
sable qualification  for  any  participation  in  that  great  work  of 
governing  the  State,  which  liberty  imposes  on  every  free  citizen, 
—  the  ability  to  govern  himself. 

And  this  power  of  intelligent,  individual,  self-government,  I 
regard,  in  one  word,  as  the  best  result  and  noblest  achievement 
of  all  true  education.  An  intelligent,  individual  self-government, 
implying,  as  it  clearly  does  in  its  most  liberal  interpretation,  not 
merely  a  passive  restraint  upon  whatever  dispositions  for  doing 
evil,  but  also  an  active  exercise  of  whatever  faculties  for  doing 
good,  the  poorest  or  the  wealthiest  in  either  temporal  possessions 
or  intellectual  powers  may  possess; — comprehending  industry 
as  well  as  temperance,  beneficence  as  well  as  benevolence,  self- 
devotion  as  well  as  self-denial;  —  this  is  the  right  aim,  and, 
what  is  better,  the  certain  end,  of  all  true  popular  education.  I 
leave  to  others  to  decide  by  what  particular  systems  the  greatest 
amount  of  this  sort  of  education  may  be  disseminated  ;  but  it  is 
a  consoling  reflection,  amid  the  diversity  of  opinions  on  this 
point,  that  it  is  the  tendency  of  almost  all  conceivable  systems 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS.        147 

to  produce  some  amount  of  it.  Certainly,  if  there  be  any  study 
or  any  science  which  has  no  tendency  to  produce  this  result,  it 
is  unworthy  to  be  counted  among  the  instruments  or  even  the 
ornaments  of  a  republican  Free  School.  Of  popular  education, 
and  especially  of  popular  education  in  a  free  country,  we  may 
well  adopt  the  language  of  Lord  Bolingbroke,  —  "An  applica- 
tion to  any  study  that  tends  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  to 
make  us  better  men  and  better  citizens,  is  at  best  but  a  specious 
and  ingenious  sort  of  idleness,  and  the  knowledge  we  acquire 
by  it  is  a  creditable  kind  of  ignorance,  nothing  more." 

But  I  am  in  some  degree  anticipating  remarks  which  belong 
to  a  different  part  of  my  argument,  and  I  turn  now  to  the  other 
phrase  of  which  I  proposed  to  attempt  some  definition  or  analy- 
sis, —  Free  Government  If  I  mistake  not,  this  expression  is 
ordinarily  employed  to  signify  little  else  but  a  government  in 
which  the  people  possess,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  supreme 
power.  But  I  believe  something  more  will  be  found  necessary, 
in  order  to  give  the  definition  that  completeness  and  exactness 
which  may  adapt  it  to  any  purposes  of  argument.  Indeed, 
strictly  considered,  I  doubt  if  it  may  not  be  said  that  the  people 
always  and  everywhere  possess  the  supreme  power.  In  the 
lowest  depths  of  African  bondage,  under  the  sternest  sway  of 
Asiatic  despotism,  the  people,  in  one  sense  at  least,  though  it 
seems  a  mockery  to  say  so,  still  possess  the  power.  Wherever 
the  numerical  strength  and  physical  force  of  a  nation  is,  whether 
its  nominal  government  be  that  of  an  Autocrat,  an  Oligarchy, 
or  a  Democracy,  there  is  alike  the  real  supremacy.  The  im- 
mense standing  armies  which  are  so  carefully  clustered  around 
administrations  of  an  arbitrary  sort,  are  a  most  significant  attest- 
ation of  this  truth.  Their  glistening  and  ever-pointed  bayonets 
tell  always  of  a  power  above  and  beyond  the  existing  adminis- 
tration, imperious  and  omnipotent  as  it  may  vaunt  itself,  of 
which  that  administration  stands  in  constant  awe,  and  against 
which  it  deems  it  prudent  to  maintain  a  watchful  preparation. 
And  even  those  standing  armies  themselves,  what  are  they, 
after  all,  but  the  people  themselves,  or  certainly  vast  masses  of 
the  people,  and  many  times  vast  majorities  of  the  people,  either 
by  rotation   or    simultaneously,  manifesting  their  own  power, 


148  FREE   SCIIOOLS  AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

signalizing  their  own  supremacy,  and  proclaiming,  under  the 
stimulus  of  an  actual  pay  or  an  anticipated  plunder,  their  sove- 
reign will  and  pleasure  that  the  government  should  be  admi- 
nistered through  the  medium  of  the  powers  that  be,  and  their 
willingness  to  do  watch  and  ward  in  their  support?  The  truth 
would  seem  to  be,  that  political  power  must  be  always  held 
either  by,  or  at  the  will  of,  physical  power ;  and,  paradoxical 
though  it  may  sound,  the  people,  actively  or  passively,  by  posi- 
tive administration  or  negative  acquiescence,  by  consent  ex- 
pressed or  the  silence  which  implies  it,  are  everywhere  supreme. 
The  mere  possession  of  power  by  the  people,  therefore,  cannot 
of  itself  comprehend  the  true  idea  of  Free  Government. 

Nor  (quitting,  perhaps,  too  nice  and  refined  an  abstraction,) 
does  an  active  assertion  and  positive  exercise  of  power  by 
the  people  necessarily  constitute  a  Free  Government.  I  have 
already  illustrated  this  position,  in  part,  by  the  instance  of 
standing  armies.  But  other  illustrations  may  be  found  more 
congenial  to  our  own  political  condition.  The  people  of  this 
Union,  when  they  first  fought  themselves  free  from  a  foreign 
yoke,  and  assembled  in  their  own  unlimited  sovereignty  to  frame 
a  government  for  themselves,  might  have  adopted,  had  they 
been  inclined,  a  Constitution  providing  for  an  hereditary  mo- 
narchy and  a  privileged  nobility,  as  well  as  for  an  elective  Pre- 
sident and  Senate.  They  might  have  placed  the  Trial  by  Jury 
and  the  Habeas  Corpus,  the  Liberty  of  Speech  and  the  Freedom 
of  the  Press,  at  the  disposal  of  a  single  absolute  will,  as  well  as 
have  guarded  and  guaranteed  them  each  forever  against  all  vio- 
lation or  infringement.  And  such  a  Constitution  would  have 
been  no  less  an  exercise  of  sovereign  power  by  the  American 
people,  than  that  which  they  actually  did  adopt. 

And  even  that  which  they  did  adopt,  —  the  best  which  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  and  which  will  be  held  up  through  all  times 
and  climes  as  the  great  original  Proofsheet  and  Prototype  of 
Free  Constitutions,  —  who  yet  does  not  know  that  even  under 
that  Constitution  oppressions  may  be  practised,  tyrannies  perpe- 
trated, freedom  violated  ?  Yes  —  a  people  whose  first  principle 
of  association  it  is  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and 
who  follow  up  that  principle  by  holding  all  power  in  their  own 


FREE   SCHOOLS  AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS.  149 

hands,  and  administering  their  affairs  through  their  own  freely 
and  frequently  elected  Representatives,  —  even  such  a  people  may 
yet  fail,  utterly  fail,  of  fulfilling  the  true  and  perfect  notion 
of  a  Free  Government.  It  is  a  natural  and  necessary  incident 
to  such  a  condition  that  the  will  of  the  greater  number  should 
prevail,  or,  in  other  words,  that  a  majority  should  rule.  And  it 
is  a  plain  corollary  to  this  position,  that  this  majority,  whenever 
they  may  chance  to  be  provoked  or  tempted,  may  domineer  and 
tyrannize  over  the  minority.  It  has  even  been  sometimes  as- 
serted that  greater  public  wrongs  may  be,  and  have  actually 
been,  in  this  very  way,  committed,  and  greater  pieces  of  tyranny 
perpetrated,  under  the  name  and  forms  of  Free  Government, 
than  under  any  other  political  name  or  form  whatever.  I  by  no 
means  admit  that  such  is  the  legitimate  result  of  these  forms. 
But  no  forms  can  ever  constitute  complete  securities  for  the 
existence  or  enjoyment  of  liberty.  Established  Constitutions 
and  written  Laws,  mast  doubtless  be  regarded  as  a  great  ad- 
vance in  the  progress  of  human  freedom,  when  compared  with 
the  changing  and  capricious  mandates  of  one  or  of  many.  But 
written  laws  are  no  substitute  and  no  synonyme  for  just,  and 
good,  and  equal  laws.  The  first  written  laws  of  the  ancient 
Jews,  were  the  laws  of  God.  But  the  first  written  laws  of  the 
ancient  Greeks,  were  the  laws  of  Draco.  And  from  those  days 
to  these,  laws  have  continued  to  be  written  at  one  time  with  a 
ray  from  Heaven,  and  at  another  with  a  finger  of  blood.  It  is, 
in  short,  both  proved  by  experience,  and  plain  enough  to  be  per- 
ceived without  any  proof,  that  a  majority  may  be  arbitrary  and 
tyrannical,  both  in  making  and  in  breaking  laws,  as  well  as 
an  individual ;  and  that  a  multitude,  either  in  spite  of,  or  it  may 
be  through  the  medium  of,  the  best  and  freest  forms  and  laws 
which  can  be  contrived  or  executed,  may  as  easily,  and  even  more 
securely,  wreak  upon  those  within  its  control  the  impulses  of 
its  ignorance,  its  wilfulness,  or  its  wickedness,  as  one  or  a  few. 

And  here,  if  I  mistake  not,  we  have  arrived  at  the  precise 
consideration  which  must  be  attended  to  in  obtaining  a  com- 
plete idea  of  Free  Government.  These  arbitrary  and  tyrannical 
propensities  must  be  controlled  and  quelled,  and  this  ignorance, 
wilfulness,  wickedness,  from  which  they  spring,  must  be  enlight- 
13* 


150  FREE   SCHOOLS  AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

ened,  restrained,  and  subdued,  or  Free  Government  cannpt 
exist.  The  full  idea  of  a  Free  Government,  in  other  words, 
requires,  not  merely  that  power  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
people,  but  that  it  should  be  in  the  hands  of  a  moral,  intelligent, 
and  virtuous  people.  It  requires  not  merely  that  a  people  should 
govern  themselves,  in  the  sense  in  which  that  phrase  is  generally 
used  and  understood,  —  in  the  sense,  namely,  of  a  majority  go- 
verning the  whole,  —  but  that  each  and  every  one  of  the  people 
should  govern  himself.  Self-government,  in  one  word,  in  its 
whole  meaning,  in  both  its  senses,  in  its  application  to  society 
as  a  mass,  and  to  the  individuals  who  are  its  members,  is  an 
essential  element  in  any  true  and  perfect  definition  of  free  go- 
vernment. In  its  latter,  and  least  regarded  application,  more 
especially,  it  constitutes  a  paramount  portion,  a  predominating 
ingredient  of  such  a  definition.  Individual  self-government,  — 
the  possession  of  power,  and  the  exercise  of  power  by  man  over 
himself — by  intellect  and  conscience  over  mere  appetite  and 
passion,  —  this  it  is,  and  this  alone,  which  can  convert  a  merely 
popular  government  into  a  really  Free  Government;  and  this 
alone  which  can  impart  substance,  vitality,  solidity,  to  that 
liberty  which  otherwise  is  but  a  name  and  a  form. 

One  of  the  operations  of  an  intelligent,  individual  self-govern- 
ment towards  this  end,  by  chastening  and  disciplining  those 
propensities  which  so  often  lead  a  majority  to  abuse  the  pleni- 
tude of  their  power  to  the  oppression  of  the  minority,  I  have 
just  suggested.  But  its  influence  is  even  more  important  in 
another  way,  —  I  mean  in  removing  the  necessity  of  many  laws 
which  must  otherwise  be  enacted,  and  in  forming  a  substitute 
for  much  of  what  is  ordinarily  meant  by  government,  which 
must  otherwise  be  exercised.  I  would  not  be  thought  to  imply 
by  this  remark  that  any  complete  and  perfect  substitute  for  civil 
government  would  be  created,  even  were  self-government  in 
every  person  carried  to  the  highest  practicable  extent.  I  have 
no  belief  that  what  is  fashionably  termed  moral  suasion,  were 
it  even  successful  in  finding  a  hold  upon  every  heart  in  the  com- 
munity, could  abolish  all  occasion  for  the  formal  enactment,  or 
even  for  the  forcible  execution  of  laws.  I  might  even  be  dis- 
posed to  dissent  from  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Madison  in  the  Fede- 


FREE   SCHOOLS   AND  FREE   GOVERNMENTS.  151 

ralist  —  that  "if  all  men  were  angels,  no  government  would  be 
necessary."  Certainly  while  men  are  merely  mortals,  more  or 
less  of  what  is  called  government,  organized  and  administered 
in  some  form  or  other,  will  be  found  indispensable  to  the  exist- 
ence of  any  thing  like  civilized  society.  Every  association  of 
men,  in  order  to  maintain  itself  a  moment,  must  establish  some 
rules  of  membership,  and  must  lodge  somewhere  or  other  a 
power  to  enforce  those  rules  when  disregarded ;  and  this  consti- 
tutes the  whole  idea  of  government.  Free  Government,  then, 
is  not  to  be  confounded  with  freedom  from  government,  nor 
have  they  any  thing  in  common  either  in  their  nature  or  results. 

But  as  little  is  Free  Government  to  be  confounded  with  mere 
free  forms  of  government.  The  quality  and  still  more  the 
quantity  of  the  power  which  is  exercised  over  any  people,  has 
quite  as  much  influence  in  characterizing  that  people  as  a  free 
people,  as  the  source  from  which  that  power  ultimately  emanates, 
or  the  hands  by  which  it  is  immediately  wielded.  Too  much 
government  has,  if  I  mistake  not,  been  one  of  the  chief  poli- 
tical curses  of  the  world  from  the  earliest  ages,  and  it  is  indeed 
but  another  name,  but  a  slight  circumlocution  for  tyranny  itself. 

"Mark,  then,  Judges  and  Lawgivers,"  —  says  nobly  a  great 
English  writer  whom  I  have  before  quoted,  and  so  much  of 
whose  prose  writings  is  worthy  of  being  bound  up  in  the  same 
volume  with  his  immortal  epic  —  "  Mark,  then,  Judges  and  Law- 
givers, and  ye  whose  office  it  is  to  be  our  teachers,  for  I  will 
utter  now  a  doctrine  if  ever  any  other,  though  neglected  or  not 
understood,  yet  of  great  and  powerful  importance  to  the  govern- 
ment of  mankind.  He  who  wisely  would  restrain  the  reason- 
able soul  of  man  within  due  bounds,  must  first  himself  know 
perfectly  how  far  the  territory  and  dominion  extends  of  true  and 
honest  Liberty.  As  little  must  he  offer  to  bind  that  which  God 
hath  loosened,  as  to  loosen  that  which  He  hath  bound.  The 
ignorance  and  mistake  of  this  high  point  hath  heaped  up  one 
huge  half  of  all  the  misery  that  hath  been  since  Adam." 

It  is  a  difficult  task  which  Milton  has  here  prescribed  to  the 
Civil  Lawgiver,  and  one  which  not  even  his  own  divine  genius 
and  searching  spirit  has  given  us  the  means  of  fulfilling.  The 
territory  of  true  and  honest  Liberty  has  always  been,  and  seems 


152         FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS. 

always  destined  to  be,  a  disputed  territory,  and  its  metes  and 
bounds  can  neither  be  settled  by  ancient  treaties  nor  modern  arbi- 
trations. As  well  might  we  take  the  Periplus  of  Hanno  for  the 
real  circumnavigation  of  the  earth,  or  the  observations  of  a 
Chaldee  shepherd  for  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  heavens,  as 
think  to  run  out  the  landmarks  of  true  and  honest  Liberty  at 
the  present  day  by  the  chains  and  stakes  of  a  past  age.  Since 
Ultima  Thule  and  Land's  End  were  dotted  down  on  the  old 
charts  of  Freedom,  a  whole  new  hemisphere  has  been  disco- 
vered. And  where  the  ancient  gazer  at  the  heavens  saw  only 
the  blended  radiance  of  a  "  milky  way,"  the  modern  political 
astronomer  beholds  myriads  of  distinct  and  full-orbed  stars. 
Exploring  expeditions,  too,  are  ever  traversing  the  globe,  and 
telescopes  ever  pointed  to  the  skies,  which,  though  they  may 
sometimes  bring  us  back  reports  of  floating  islands,  sunk  as 
soon  as  seen,  or  mountains  in  the  moon,  are  not  unfrequently 
discovering  new  points  of  land,  new  passages  of  sea,  and  new 
lights  in  the  firmament  of  Freedom.  The  principles  of  true  and 
honest  Liberty  are  indeed  one  and  the  same  now  and  forever; 
and  I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  they  were  not  as  well  under- 
stood by  some  of  the  philosophers  and  patriots  of  past  days,  as 
they  are  now  or  ever  will  be.  But  in  the  application  of  these 
principles  to  particular  countries  and  conditions,  a  steady  ad- 
vance has  been,  is  still,  and,  I  hope  and  believe,  is  always  des- 
tined to  be  going  on.  That  which  was  the  whole  territory  of 
true  and  honest  Liberty  a  century  ago,  is  now  but  a  narrow 
corner  of  its  possessions,  and  its  boundaries  are  still  spreading 
and  spreading  like  those  of  the  horizon  itself  to  eyes  of  greater 
and  greater  elevations. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose,  on  this  occasion,  to  give  even  my 
own  view  of  the  real  reach  or  rightful  dimensions  of  this  still 
vexed  territory,  much  less  to  volunteer  a  limit  and  circumscrip- 
tion for  the  view  of  others.  These  two  propositions  only  I  must 
advance  and  insist  on,  and  they  are  at  once  evident  enough  to 
secure  an  instant  assent,  and  ample  enough  to  sustain  the  whole 
argument  in  which  I  am  engaged.  First,  that  true  and  honest 
Liberty  in  any  age  or  country  is  nothing  less  than  the  largest 
extent,  the  highest  degree,  the  widest  enjoyment,  the  securest 


FREE    SCHOOLS   AND   FREE    GOVERNMENTS.  153 

possession  of  liberty,  which  is  compatible  with  that  amount  of 
compulsory  restraint  which  the  maintenance  of  the  social  system 
or  body  politic  imperatively  requires ;  —  and  second,  that  the 
amount  of  this  compulsory  restraint  which  the  social  system 
will  require  for  its  preservation  in  any  particular  community,  in 
the  way  of  civil  government,  will  be  precisely  proportioned  to 
the  amount  of  voluntary  restraint  which  the  individual  members 
of  that  community  impose  upon  themselves,  in  the  way  of  self- 
government. 

In  practical  conformity  with  these  two  propositions,  we  shall 
find,  that  the  freer  the  institutions  of  government  in  any  coun- 
try are,  the  more  do  they  presuppose  the  existence,  and  appeal 
to  the  exercise,  of  an  intelligent  and  rational  self-control  among 
the  citizens.  And  many  of  the  operations  of  advancing  free- 
dom, which  seem  at  first  to  have  consisted  in  abolishing  checks 
and  breaking  chains,  will  be  discovered  only  to  have  changed 
the  powers  by  which  those  checks  must  be  applied,  and  to  have 
transmuted  the  material  of  which  those  chains  must  be  com- 
posed. Thus,  in  dispensing  with  the  hourly  presence  and  per- 
petual patrol  of  a  standing  army  in  our  own  American  streets, 
than  which  nothing  forms  to  a  foreign  eye  a  more  impressive 
evidence,  and  hardly  any  thing  to  our  own  apprehension  a  more 
important  element,  of  the  freedom  of  our  government,  —  it  is 
certainly  not  intended  to  be  implied,  that  brawls  and  riots  and 
mobs  are  the  rightful  privileges  of  a  republican  people.  Nor  in 
abolishing  all  censorship  of  the  press,  and  removing  all  restric- 
tions upon  the  freedom  of  speech,  is  it  designed  to  sanction  the 
inference,  that  an  unbridled  indulgence  in  ribaldry,  defamation, 
and  blasphemy,  constitute  any  part  of  the  prerogative  of  a  free 
citizen.  No  ;  in  these  and  a  thousand  other  cases  which  might 
be  suggested,  nothing  is  implied  but  that  confidence  in  the  intel- 
ligent and  virtuous  self-control  of  the  people,  which  is  one  of  the 
peculiar  and  most  prominent  characteristics  of  a  Free  Govern- 
ment. And  whenever,  in  any  particular  case,  this  confidence 
in  the  voluntary  abstinence  of  the  people  from  the  abuse  of  the 
liberties  which  they  enjoy,  is  found  to  be  misplaced,  we  rarely 
fail  to  see  it  followed  by  a  resort  to  fresh  restrictions  of  a  com- 
pulsory character,  by  which  the  very  use  and  existence  of  those 
liberties  is  curtailed  or  suspended. 


154  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

It  is  not,  I  fear,  enough  considered,  how  great  an  influence 
may  be  exerted  by  the  conduct  and  character  of  individual  men, 
in  determining  the  nature  of  the  government  which  it  may  be 
practicable  for  any  community  to  maintain,  and  the  amount  of 
freedom  which  it  shall  be  in  their  power  to  enjoy ;  and  how  a 
few  unprincipled  and  wilful  persons,  in  any  society,  may  render 
expedient  and  even  necessary  the  adoption  of  new  measures 
and  the  exercise  of  new  powers  of  government,  by  which  secu- 
rity can  only  be  purchased  at  the  cost  of  liberty.  A  handful 
of  thoughtless  or  violent  men,  for  instance,  become  engaged  in 
a  brawl.  A  multitude  is  attracted  to  the  scene.  Spectators  are 
soon  turned  into  actors.  The  unarmed  ministers  of  the  law  are 
outnumbered  and  overpowered.  Military  force  is  called  for  and 
comes.  The  sternest  and  most  summary  justice  is  demanded 
and  executed.  Indictment,  trial,  verdict,  juries,  judges,  witnesses, 
all  the  forms  of  law,  all  the  guards  of  liberty,  are  sacrificed 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  hour,  and  that  worst  of  tyrannies,  a 
martial  domination,  supplants,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  the 
mild  and  equal  magistracy  of  the  civil  ruler;  —  and  perhaps, 
after  a  few  repetitions  of  the  scene,  a  standing  army  begins 
to  be  thought  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  domestic  peace. 
Or  it  may  be  that  a  single  reckless  or  rapacious  individual  un- 
dertakes to  fire  the  dwellings  or  pillage  the  property  of  a  town 
or  city.  Prowling  at  midnight,  he  prosecutes  his  nefarious  de- 
signs with  an  impunity  and  a  success  which  rob  every  couch 
of  rest  and  fright  every  eye  from  sleep,  until  a  strict  and  disci- 
plined patrol  is  organized,  and  the  "  all 's  well "  of  the  peaceful 
watchman  gives  place  to  the  "  stand,  who 's  there  ?  "  of  an  im- 
perious and  insolent  gendarme. 

Common-place  instances  are  these,  I  fear,  even  to  a  New  Eng- 
land apprehension,  of  the  power  of  one  or  a  few,  by  violating 
that  great  duty  of  self-government,  which  constitutes  so  essential 
an  auxiliary  to  a  free  civil  government,  not  merely  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  society  for  the  moment,  but  to  derange  the  whole  poli- 
tical system,  to  diminish  the  public  liberty,  and  to  force  their 
fellow-men  in  mere  self-defence  into  the  adoption  of  arbitrary 
and  despotic  institutions. 

I  may  sum  up  this  head  of  my  remarks  in  the  fine  language 


FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS.  155 

of  Mr.  Burke  —  "  Men  are  qualified  for  civil  liberty  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  their  disposition  to  put  moral  chains  upon  their  own 
appetites ;  in  proportion  as  their  love  to  justice  is  above  their 
rapacity ;  in  proportion  as  their  soundness  and  sobriety  of  under- 
standing is  above  their  vanity  and  presumption ;  in  proportion 
as  they  are  more  disposed  to  listen  to  the  counsels  of  the  wise 
and  good  in  preference  to  the  flattery  of  knaves.  Society  can- 
not exist  unless  a  controlling  power  upon  will  and  appetite  be 
placed  somewhere,  and  the  less  of  it  there  is  within,  the  more 
there  must  be  without.  It  is  ordained,  in  the  eternal  constitution 
of  things,  that  men  of  intemperate  minds  cannot  be  free.  Their 
passions  forge  their  fetters."  Or,  if  I  may  be  borne  with  in  bor- 
rowing again  from  a  Bard,  to  whom  I  am  already  so  much 
indebted,  I  may  express  the  same  ideas  in  other  phraseology,  — 

True  Liberty 
always  with  right  reason  dwells 


Twinn  'd,  and  fijom  her  hath  no  dividual  being ; 

Eeason  in  man  obscured,  or  not  obeyed, 

Immediately  inordinate  desires 

And  upstart  passions  catch  the  government 

From  reason,  and  to  servitude  reduce 

Man  till  then  free." 

If  I  have  not  thus  far  occupied  your  attention  to  no  purpose, 
but  a  moment  more  will  be  required  to  bring  together  the  two 
terms,  of  which  I  have  thus  attempted  some  description  and 
analysis,  and  to  exhibit  their  mutual  relation  and  reciprocal 
influence.  I  have  stated  the  highest  end  and  best  operation  of 
a  true  popular  education  to  be  the  endowment  of  the  individual 
man  with  the  power,  and  his  instruction  in  the  exercise,  of  a 
conscientious,  intelligent,  enlightened  self-government ; —  and  I 
have  endeavored  to  show  that  this  conscientious,  intelligent, 
enlightened,  self-government  constitutes  the  whole  basis,  and 
much  of  the  superstructure  also,  of  what  is  properly  understood 
by  a  free  civil  government ;  and  I  need  hardly  say  that  it  is  no 
strained  deduction  or  far-fetched  inference,  but  an  immediate 
and  irresistible  conclusion,  from  these  premises,  that  the  cause 
of  a  true  Popular  Education  and  the  cause  of  Free  Government 
are  substantially  one  and  the  same  cause,  and  that  whoever  and 


156         FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS. 

whatever  promotes  and  advances  the  one,  by  the  same  influence 
or  the  same  effort  promotes  and  advances  the  other. 

But  I  may  perhaps  here  be  told,  that  I  have  rather  stated 
what  education  ought  to  be,  than  what  it  is,  and  that  however 
the  Free  Schools  of  America  may  propose  as  their  ultimate  object, 
that  discipline  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  man  which  may 
best  adapt  him  to  the  maintenance  and  enjoyment  of  liberty,  it 
is  not  to  be  imagined,  much  less  assumed,  that  the  Free  Schools 
of  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Russia,  will  pursue  a  course  so  directly 
calculated  to  overthrow  the  very  governments  by  which  they 
were  originally  instituted  and  are  still  supported  and  controlled. 
I  will  not  undertake  to  determine  how  far  this  objection  is 
founded  on  a  just  estimate  of  the  designs  of  those  to  whom  it 
relates,  but  prefer  granting  it  at  once  all  the  force  which  it  can 
possibly  possess  in  this  respect.  Nicholas  and  Ferdinand  and  Fre- 
deric William  may  have  established  and  endowed  their  schools 
and  colleges  in  whatever  arbitrary  whim  or  tyrannical  tem- 
per may  be  conceived  of.  They  may  still  propose  to  themselves 
no  other  end,  in  these  institutions,  than  that  of  fortifying  their 
own  prerogative  and  perpetuating  their  own  dominion,  and  may 
strive  to  adapt  their  whole  system  of  education  to  the  single 
purpose  of  teaching  their  subjects  greater  loyalty  and  their  slaves 
more  submission.  So  Satan,  "  upon  the  tree  of  life,  devising 
death,  sat  like  a  cormorant."  But  fortunately  it  is  neither  in 
the  power  of  man  nor  devil  to  control  events,  nor  is  it  in  the 
mouth  of  either  to  bespeak  results  corresponding  to  their  designs 
and  contrivances.  That  branch  of  education  is  yet  to  be  dis- 
covered, that  mode  of  teaching  still  to  be  invented,  that  class 
of  studies  still  to  be  evoked  from  chaos,  which  can  be  turned  to 
any  purpose  of  tyranny.  You  cannot  educate  men  to  be  slaves. 
It  is  only  by  withholding  education  from  them  that  you  can 
make  or  keep  them  so.  You  cannot  teach  the  human  mind 
that  its  legitimate  condition  is  one  of  submission  and  servitude. 
It  is  only  from  the  want  of  a  teacher  that  it  has  ever  fallen  into 
that  condition.  Whatever  difference  of  opinion  there  may  be 
as  to  the  system  of  education  which  is  best  fitted  for  the  esta- 
blishment and  maintenance  of  free  government,  there  is  no  sys- 
tem,—  none  so  narrow,  none  so  arbitrary,  none  so  purposely  per- 


FREE    SCHOOLS   AND   FREE    GOVERNMENTS.  157 

verse  and  crooked,  —  which  is  not  in  some  degree  adapted  to  this 
end.  The  eye  that  is  only  opened  to  gaze  upon  midnight  sees 
a  world  more  than  that  which  is  wholly  shut.  Light  is  its 
natural  element,  and  that  light  it  will  seek  and  find  wherever 
a  ray  is  gleaming  through  the  darkness  ;  and  the  brilliancy  and 
the  beauty  of  that  single  ray,  enhanced  by  the  very  gloom  with 
which  it  is  surrounded,  will  make  it  look  and  long  for  another 
and  another,  and  will  prepare  it  to  hail  from  the  mountain  top 
of  an  eager  expectation  the  first  blush  or  break  of  dawn.  So 
is  it  with  the  mind  of  man.  Touch  it,  awaken  it,  agitate  it, 
open  it,  and  though  it  be  only  to  perceive  the  darkest  forms  of 
tyrannical  oppression,  and  to  ponder  upon  the  most  unqualified 
doctrines  of  arbitrary  and  absolute  power,  liberty  is  still  its  ele- 
ment, and  the  love  of  liberty  its  instinct,  and  it  will  never  cease 
to  strive  and  struggle  on  till  that  love  is  gratified  and  that  ele- 
ment gained.  No,  it  is  only  in  exile  that  Dionysius  can  safely 
turn  schoolmaster.  Education  can  never  be  converted  into  an 
engine  of  despotism,  and  the  engineer  who  essays  to  use  it  so, 
will  find  himself  "  hoist  with  his  own  petard."  The  giant  ener- 
gies of  the  human  intellect,  while  loaded  with  the  chains  and 
immured  in  the  prisonhouse  of  ignorance,  may  toil  and  grind  for 
the  lords  of  the  earth,  as  patiently  as  Samson  at  the  mill  of 
Gaza ;  but  once  unfetter  them  and  lead  them  forth,  and,  though 
it  be  for  no  better  end  than  to  subserve  the  glory  or  minister  to 
the  sport  of  those  who  have  summoned  them,  they  will  vindi- 
cate their  own  dignity,  they  will  manifest  their  own  might,  they 
will  assert  their  own  title  to  freedom,  even  if  it  be  only  to  falls 
themselves  at  the  last,  crushed  beneath  the  same  ruins  with, 
which  they  have  overwhelmed  their  oppressors ! 

But  while  I  indulge  in  these  expressions  of  seeming  defiance* 
I  am  unwilling  to  leave  the  impression  that  I  entertain  any 
belief,  that  institutions  of  education  have  been  established  in 
Europe  with  any  such  views  as  those  which  have  been  supposed, 
or  that  the  system  which  has  been  introduced  there  has  been 
designedly  framed  to  obstruct  rather  than  advance  the  progress 
of  freedom.  The  very  general  favor  which  that  system  has  met 
with  in  our  own  country,  and  the  trouble  and  expense  with 
which  its  details  have  been  procured  and  published,  are  an 
ample  answer  to  any  such  idea. 

14 


158  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

Nor  can  the  operation  of  this  system  upon  the  condition  of 
the  Old  World  be  in  any  degree  doubtful.  Silent  and  gradual, 
perhaps,  but  certain  and  thorough,  will  be  the  revolution  it  will 
effect.  Its  progress  may  not  be  tracked  in  blood,  nor  its  arrival 
at  the  successive  stages  of  its  course  be  heralded  by  a  noise  of 
battle.  Its  achievements  may  not  be  manifested  by  proscrip- 
tions and  confiscations,  nor  its  victories  signalized  either  by  the 
beheading  of  Kings,  or  the  denial  and  defiance  of  the  King  of 
Kings.  It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  cheering  hopes,  let  me 
rather  say,  one  of  the  most  glorious  assurances,  which  the  esta- 
blishment of  the  Free  School  system  in  Europe  has  inspired  us 
with,  that  that  advancement  of  human  happiness  and  human 
liberty,  which  seems  almost  as  much  a  Divine  law,  as  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  or  the  procession  of  the  seasons,  is  not 
doomed  to  be  brought  about  in  time  to  come,  as  it  so  generally 
has  been  in  time  past,  by  mere  violence  and  bloodshed.  It  was 
well  said  by  Baron  Cuvier,  who  distinguished  himself  almost 
as  highly  in  France  by  his  efforts  in  the  cause  of  education,  as 
he  did  in  the  world  at  large  by  his  triumphs  in  the  field  of  sci- 
ence :  "  Give  schools  before  political  rights  ;  make  citizens  com- 
prehend the  duties  that  the  state  of  society  imposes  on  them ; 
teach  them  what  are  political  rights  before  you  offer  them  for 
enjoyment ;  then  all  meliorations  will  be  made  without  causing 
a  shock ;  then  each  new  idea,  thrown  upon  good  ground,  will 
have  time  to  germinate,  to  grow  and  to  ripen,  without  convuls- 
ing the  social  body."  And  the  great  comparative  anatomist 
need  hardly  have  quitted  his  own  peculiar  province  of  research 
to  learn  and  to  illustrate  this  position.  He  had  only  to  com- 
pare the  millions  of  human  bones  with  which  the  French  Revo- 
lution strewed  and  almost  covered  the  earth,  with  the  few  thou- 
sands which  were  thinly  scattered  over  the  battle-fields  of  our 
own  land,  and  the  conclusion  was  inevitable.  By  rescuing  man 
from  the  yoke  of  ignorance  and  prejudice,  as  well  as  from  the 
dominion  of  arbitrary  political  power ;  by  delivering  him  from 
the  bondage  of  tyrant  passions  as  well  as  of  tyrant  princes ; 
by  supplying  the  check  of  an  enlightened  conscience  wherever 
one  of  legal  compulsion  is  removed,  and  substituting  a  sense  of 
moral  obligation  wherever  a  political  chain  is  broken,  — the  Free 


FREE   SCHOOLS  AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS.  159 

School  system,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  will  ultimately  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  those  frightful  periods  of  anarchy  and  uproar,  those 
reigns  of  terror,  which  have  so  often  formed  the  transition  state, 
the  middle  passage,  between  servitude  and  freedom.  And 
under  its  enlightening  influence,  a  system  of  individual  self- 
government  will  be  in  operation,  and  a  system  of  free  civil  go- 
vernment even  in  preparation,  to  receive  man  under  the  shelter 
of  their  twofold  shield,  in  that  moment  of  temptation  and  peril 
in  which  he  first  passes  in  triumph  from  the  power  of  his  op- 
pressor. 

Such,  we  know,  was  the  influence  of  this  system,  at  the  criti- 
cal period  of  our  own  Revolution,  when  our  fathers,  under  no 
other  influences  than  those  of  the  free  and  common  schools 
which  the  Puritans  had  founded,  and  in  which  the  principles  of 
the  people  for  a  century  and  a  half  had  been  formed,  were  seen, 
as  unflushed  by  triumph  as  they  had  been  unterrified  by  defeat, 
building  up  the  walls  of  a  free  constitutional  government  with 
one  hand,  even  while  they  were  still  obliged  to  hold  the  weapons 
of  war  against  a  yet  unsubdued  and  relentless  foe  in  the  other ! 
And  though  it  can  be  hardly  hoped  that  a  spectacle  of  equal 
sublimity,  that  an  example  of  equal  self-government,  will  soon 
again  be  exhibited  to  the  wTorld,  some  near  approach  and  close 
analogy  to  it  may  be  confidently  anticipated  in  the  future  politi- 
cal changes  of  educated,  school-taught  Europe. 

But  it  is  in  its  relation  to  the  future  condition  of  our  own 
country,  that  it  is  most  interesting  to  contemplate  the  political 
influences  of  popular  education.  Here,  where  society  needs 
not  to  be  reduced  to  political  chaos  again  in  order  that  its  crea- 
tion may  begin  aright ;  where  all  the  modes  of  inequality  and 
oppression,  which  seem  to  sanction  a  resort  to  force  and  vio- 
lence when  they  can  be  put  an  end  to  in  no  other  way,  have  been 
banished  in  advance ;  where  no  thrones  remain  to  *be  over- 
turned, and  no  revolutions  achieved,  in  order  to  establish  the 
forms  of  a  free  government  in  their  purest  and  most  perfect 
shape,  —  here,  the  legitimate  influence  of  a  Free  School  system 
in  giving  substance  and  security  to  these  forms,  by  counteract- 
ing and  controlling  those  impulses  and  propensities  by  which 
they  are  so  liable  to  be  abused  and  perverted,  and  in  gradually 


160  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

rendering  the  government  itself  freer  and  freer  by  transferring 
more  and  more  of  the  restraints  which  the  safety  of  the  body 
politic  requires,  from  powers  that  are  without  us  to  those  which 
are  within  us,  can  be  more  uniformly  exerted  and  more  plainly 
perceived.  Here,  where  there  is  no  ground  for  apprehension 
that  any  course  of  education  will  be  designedly  adopted  but 
such  as  most  of  all  others  may  conduce  to  the  maintenance  and 
advancement  of  the  public  liberty,  the  identity  of  the  great  inter- 
ests of  Free  Schools  and  Free  Governments  will  be  more  fully 
and  conspicuously  manifested. 

"  In  the  United  States,"  says  De  Tocqueville,  in  his  masterly 
account  of  American  democracy,  "  politics  are  the  end  and  aim 
of  education ;  in  Europe,  its  principal  object  is  to  fit  men  for 
private  life."  The  first  branch  of  the  antithesis  is  just  and  true, 
or  ought  to  be  so,  if  it  is  not ;  but  not  as  colored  and  qualified 
by  the  last.  Politics  are  or  ought  to  be  the  ultimate  end  and 
aim  of  all  popular  education  in  the  United  States;  not  party 
politics,  not  controversial,  electioneering,  office-seeking  politics ; 
not  politics  as  distinguished  from  private  life,  as  M.  De  Tocque- 
ville would  seem  to  distinguish  them,  but  politics  as  including 
in  one  and  the  same  comprehensive  signification,  as  in  the  voca- 
bulary of  a  free  country  they  do,  all  the  relations  and  obliga- 
tions of  the  citizen  to  the  State.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  a 
free  country  as  private  life,  in  the  sense  in  which  it  seems  here 
to  have  been  used,  and  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  always  under- 
stood in  Europe.  No  man  liveth  to  himself,  even  humanly 
speaking,  in  a  Republic.  Every  man  has  public  duties.  Every 
man  is  a  public  man.  Every  man  holds  offices ;  those  of  a 
juryman,  a  militia  man,  an  elector.  Or  rather  every  man  holds 
one,  high,  sacred,  all-embracing  office,  whose  tenure  is  nothing 
less  than  life,  and  whose  duties  are  nothing  less  than  the  whole 
duties  of  life, — the  office  of  a  free  citizen.  The  triple  respon- 
sibilities which  I  have  enumerated,  those  of  the  polls,  the  train- 
ing-field, and  the  jury-box,  by  no  means  exhaust  the  obliga- 
tions of  every  free  citizen  to  his  country.  I  have  already  ex- 
emplified, in  another  part  of  my  remarks,  the  power  of  each 
individual  member  of  a  free  community,  by  yielding  to  ungo- 
verned   passions  and   indulging   in  abandoned  courses,  to  de- 


FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS.        161 

range  the  political  system,  to  diminish  the  general  liberty,  and 
to  affect  and  alter  the  very  nature  of  the  government.  And  it 
cannot  be  too  strongly  enforced,  in  this  connection,  that  the 
whole  life  and  conversation,  the  whole  conduct  and  character,  of 
every  free  citizen  is  reflected  and,  as  it  were,  represented  in  the 
administration  of  public  affairs,  —  every  thought,  even,  of  every 
one  of  them  going  to  make  up  that  mighty  current  of  Public 
Opinion,  which  is  nothing  less  than  Law  in  its  first  reading. 

It  is  a  peculiar  and  beautiful  property  of  free  government, 
that  it  invests  the  humblest   and  most  private  virtues  with  a 
public  importance  and  dignity;   making  society,  as  Mr.  Burke 
has  well  expressed  it,  not  only  "a  partnership  in  all  science 
and   in   all    art,"   but   "in   all   virtue   and    in   all   perfection," 
and   superinducing   upon   all    ordinary   motives    to   the   prac- 
tice of  virtue  something  of  high  official  obligation  and  lofty 
patriotic  sanction.     This  very  quality  of  patriotism  —  what  a 
new  extension  and  comprehensive  character  has  liberty  imparted 
to  it !      No  longer  are  its  laurels  appropriated  to  one  or  two 
limited  lines  of  public  service,  but  they  are  planted  along  the 
borders  of  every  walk  in  life,  and  lowered  to  the  reach  of  the 
humblest  hand.     Not  alone  under  a  free  government  is  he  a 
patriot,  who  marshals  armies  in  the  field  to  a  successful  onset 
upon  some  foreign  assailant  of  the  nation's  liberties ;  not  alone 
he,  who  arrays  arguments  in  the  Senate  chamber  to  a  triumph- 
ant issue  against  some  domestic  destroyer  of  its  prosperity  and 
welfare.     He,  too,  the  most  retired  and  humble  citizen,  who 
never  lifted  his  arm  in  battle  or  his  voice  in  council,  but  who, 
neglecting  none  of  the  few  direct  political  duties  which  the 
forms  of  a  free  government  impose,  has  devoted  himself  to  the 
discharge  of  the  thousand  indirect  ones  which  the  spirit  of  such 
a  government  implies,  and  its  security  and  advancement  im- 
peratively demands,  —  who  has  combated  his  own  passions,  who 
has  taken  council  of  his  own  enlightened  conscience,  who  has 
studied  the  art  and  practised  the  exercise  of  an  intelligent  self- 
government,  —  he  has  acted  a  part,  achieved  a  victory,  afforded 
an  example,  which  have  no  less  patriotism,  and  even  more  pro- 
mise of  perpetuity  and  progress  to  free  government  in  them, 
than  the  most  brilliant  triumphs  of  the  field  or  the  forum. 


162  FREE   SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS. 

Yes ;   politics  in  this  large  and  comprehensive  signification, 
which  the  very  nature  of  free  institutions  has  given  them,  includ- 
ing all  the  duties  of  self-government  as  well  as  of  civil  govern- 
ment, ought  to  be  the  end  and  aim  of  all  education  in  the  United 
States ;  and  the  influences  of  all  education,  whatever  may  be  its 
end  and  aim,  will  be  and  must  be  political     The  present  fortunes 
of  the  Republic  may,  indeed,  be  already  beyond  the  reach  of 
parental  discipline  and  sehoolhouse  influence.     But  our  regards 
end  not  with  the  hour, — certainly  not  our  responsibilities.    And 
it  is  a  false  and  fatal  notion  that  the  future  is  beyond  our  con- 
trol.    It  would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  say,  that  the  present  is  so. 
How  much  of  all  that  we  are,  or  do,  or  enjoy,  or  suffer,  how  great 
a  portion  of  all  in  us  and  all  about  us  that  goes  to  mark  and 
determine  the  existing  condition  and  immediate  character  of 
our  country,  is  the  result,  not  of  any  action  of  our  own,  or  effort 
of  the  moment,  but  of  what  our  fathers  and  mothers  and  teach- 
ers have  done  or  left  undone  in  our  behalf!     And  the  present  is 
not  more  the  child  of  the  past,  than  it  is  the  parent  of  the  future. 
The  infant,  "  mewling  and  puking  in  the  nurse's  arms,"  or  the 
whining  shoolboy,  "  with  his  satchel  and  shining  morning  face, 
creeping  like  snail   unwillingly   to   school,"    can,  indeed,  give 
neither  vote  nor  verdict  to-day.     They  have  neither  part  nor  lot 
in  the  Republic  of  the  present  instant.     But  when,  unless  at  this 
very  moment,  are  they  to  learn  the  lessons,  imbibe  the  principles, 
acquire  the  habits,  by  which  its  future  fate  is  to  be  not  so  much 
influenced   as  decided;   not  so  much  colored  or  characterized 
as  constituted  and  made  up  ?     In  them  the  future  is  personified, 
and  posterity  put  bodily  into  our  hands.     And  over  them  our 
control  is  neither  conjectural  nor  limited.     As  the  doves  of  his 
mother  Venus  guided  the  old  iEneas  to  the  golden  branch,  so 
may  the  hovering  tenderness  and  winged  watchfulness  of   a 
faithful  mother  still  conduct  her  child  to  a  wisdom  better  than 
gold.     And  the  rod  of  the  Teacher  of  Israel  was  not  more  potent 
to  summon  from  beyond  the  sea  whatever  might  plague  and 
harass  the  oppressor  and  promote  the  deliverance  and  freedom 
of  his  people,  than  is  that  of  the  teacher  at  the  present  day  to 
call  up  from  over  the  ocean  of  the  future  a  posterity  which  shall 
preserve,  vindicate,  and  advance  the  liberties  transmitted  to  them. 


FREE    SCHOOLS   AND   FREE   GOVERNMENTS.  163 

Whatever  uncertainty  there  may  be  as  to  the  correspondence  of 
means  and  ends  in  other  matters  of  human  arrangement,  of  this 
we  are  assured, — "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it." 

Not,  then,  for  any  mere  ends  of  "  private  life,"  not  for  any 
purpose  of  individual  display  or  personal  accomplishment,  not 
for  the  mere  object  of  gratifying  parental  pride  or  family  ambi- 
tion, but  as  a  matter  of  public,  political,  patriotic  duty,  should 
education  be  pursued  in  the  United  States.  Children  should  be 
educated  as  those  by  whom  the  destinies  of  the  nation  are  one 
day  to  be  wielded,  and  free  schools  cherished  as  places  in  which 
those  destinies  are  even  now  to  be  woven.  It  has  been  recorded 
as  a  saying  of  Mahomet  that  "the  ink  of  the  scholar  and  the 
blood  of  the  martyr  are  equal."  It  would  be  difficult  to  bring 
an  American  of  this  generation,  especially  if  he  happened  to  be 
standing,  as  we  now  are,  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill,  to  acknow- 
ledge that  there  could  be  any  thing  equal  —  equal  in  its  claim 
upon  his  regard  and  reverence,  or  equal  in  its  influence  upon  our 
national  welfare  and  freedom  —  to  the  blood  of  our  Revolution- 
ary martyrs.  But  in  this  we  must  all  agree,  that  nothing  but 
the  ink  of  the  scholar  can  preserve,  what  the  blood  of  the  martyr 
has  purchased.  The  experiment  of  free  government  is  not  one 
which  can  be  tried  once  for  all.  Every  generation  must  try  it 
for  itself.  Our  fathers  tried  it,  and  were  gloriously  successful. 
We  are  now  engaged  in  the  trial,  and,  thank  God,  we  have  not 
yet  failed.  But  neither  our  success,  nor  that  of  our  fathers,  can 
afford  any  thing  but  example  and  encouragement  to  those  who 
are  to  try  it  next.  As  each  new  generation  starts  up  to  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  manhood,  there  is,  as  it  were,  a  new  launch  of 
Liberty,  and  its  voyage  of  experiment  begins  afresh.  But  the 
oracles  have  declared  that  its  safety  and  success  depend  not  so 
much  upon  the  conduct  of  those  engaged  in  it  during  the  pas- 
sage, as  upon  their  preparations  before  they  embark.  The  winds 
and  waves  must  be  propitiated  before  the  shore  is  left,  or  wreck 
and  ruin  will  await  them.  But  this  propitiation  consists,  not 
in  some  cruel  proceeding  like  that  prescribed  by  the  heathen 
oracle  to  the  Grecian  fleet,  in  binding  son  or  daughter  upon  the 
pile  of  sacrifice,  aud  offering  up  their  tortured  bodies  and  ago- 


16-4         FREE  SCHOOLS  AND  FREE  GOVERNMENTS. 

nized  souls  to  appease  an  angry  deity,  but  in  a  process  which  is 
not  more  certain  to  call  down  the  best  blessing  of  Heaven  upon 
the  enterprise,  and  to  secure  a  peaceful  and  prosperous  voyage, 
than  it  is  to  promote  the  truest  happiness  and  welfare  of  those 
upon  whom  it  is  performed.  Sons  and  daughters  devoted  to 
Education  are  the  only  sacrifice  which  God  has  prescribed  to 
render  the  progress  of  Free  Government  safe  and  certain. 


THE  BIBLE. 


AN   ADDRESS   DELIVERED   AT    THE   ANNUAL    MEETING   OF    THE    MASSACHU- 
SETTS  BIBLE   SOCIETY  IN  BOSTON,   MAY  28,  1849. 


In  rising  to  move  the  adoption  of  the  Report  which  has  just 
been  read,  I  feel  deeply,  Mr.  President,  how  apt  I  shall  be  to 
disappoint  any  part  of  the  expectations  of  this  meeting,  which 
may,  by  any  chance,  have  been  directed  towards  myself.  I  have 
not  come  here  this  afternoon  in  the  hope  of  saying  any  thing 
which  might  not  be  better  said  by  others  more  accustomed  to 
deal  with  occasions  of  this  sort ;  or  any  thing,  indeed,  which  has 
not  been,  a  hundred  times  already,  better  said  by  those  who  have 
heretofore  taken  part  in  these  Anniversary  celebrations. 

But  I  was  unwilling  to  refuse  any  service  which  your  com- 
mittee of  arrangements  might  even  imagine  me  capable  of  ren- 
dering to  the  cause  in  which  you  are  assembled.  I  could  not 
find  it  in  my  conscience,  or  in  my  heart,  to  decline  bearing  my 
humble  testimony,  whenever  and  wherever  it  might  be  called  for, 
to  the  transcendent  interest  and  importance  of  the  object  for 
which  this  Association  has  now  lived  and  labored  for  the  con- 
siderable period  of  forty  years. 

That  object  is  the  publication  and  general  distribution  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures ;  and  no  man,  I  am  sure,  who  has  had  the  privi- 
lege of  listening  to  the  Report  of  my  Reverend  friend,  (Dr.  Park- 
man,)  and  who  has  a  soul  capable  of  appreciating  the  grandeur  of 
those  aggregate  results  which  he  has  so  well  set  forth,  can  fail  to 
pronounce  it  one  of  the  greatest,  most  important,  most  compre- 
hensive and  catholic  objects,  to  which  human  means  and  human 
efforts  have  ever  been  devoted. 

The  week  on  which  we  have  just  entered,  has  been  signalized, 


166  THE   BIBLE. 

I  had  almost  said  hallowed,  among  us,  for  many  years  past,  by 
the  meetings  of  many  noble  associations ;  and  a  record  of  phi- 
lanthropy and  charity  has  been  annually  presented  to  us  in  their 
reports  and  addresses,  which  must  have  filled  every  benevolent 
bosom  with  joy.  But  it  has  been  a  most  appropriate  and  signi- 
ficant arrangement,  that  this  Society  should  take  the  lead  in  these 
Anniversary  festivals.  Undoubtedly,  Sir,  the  first  of  all  chari- 
ties, the  noblest  of  all  philanthropies,  is  that  which  brings  the 
Bible  home  to  every  fireside,  which  places  its  Divine  truths  within 
the  range  of  every  eye,  and  its  blessed  promises  and  consolations 
within  the  reach  of  every  heart. 

All  other  charities  should  follow,  and,  indeed,  they  naturally 
do  follow,  in  the  train  of  this.  Let  the  great  work  of  this  Asso- 
ciation be  thoroughly  prosecuted  and  successfully  accomplished, 
and  the  soil  will  be  prepared,  and  the  seed  sown,  for  a  golden 
and  glorious  harvest. 

Diffuse  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  the  hungry  will  be  fed, 
and  the  naked  clothed.  Diffuse  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  stranger  will  be  sheltered,  the  prisoner  visited,  and  the  sick 
ministered  unto.  Diffuse  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  Tem- 
perance will  rest  upon  a  surer  basis  than  any  mere  private  pledge 
or  public  statute.  Diffuse  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  the 
peace  of  the  world  will  be  secured  by  more  substantial  safe- 
guards than  either  the  mutual  fear,  or  the  reciprocal  interests,  of 
princes  or  of  people.  Diffuse  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  day  will  be  hastened,  as  it  can  be  hastened  in  no  other  way, 
when  every  yoke  shall  be  loosened,  and  every  bond  broken,  and 
when  there  shall  be  no  more  leading  into  captivity. 

It  is  the  influence  of  the  Bible,  in  a  word,  by  which  the  very 
fountains  of  philanthropy  must  be  unsealed,  and  all  the  great 
currents  of  human  charity  set  in  motion.  It  is  here  alone  that  we 
can  find  the  principles,  the  precepts,  the  examples,  the  motives, 
the  rewards,  by  which  men  can  be  effectually  moved  to  supply 
the  wants  and  relieve  the  sufferings  of  their  fellow-men,  and  to 
recognize  the  whole  human  race  as  members  of  a  common 
family,  and  children  of  a  common  Parent. 

Is  it  not  the  Bible,  Sir,  which  teaches  us  that  "to  visit  the 
fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,"  is  as  vital  a  part  of  pure 


THE   BIBLE.  167 

and  undefiled  religion,  as  "  to  keep  ourselves  unspotted  from  the 
world  ?  "  Is  it  not  the  Bible  which  instructs  us,  that  while  "  to 
love  God  with  all  our  heart  is  the  first  and  great  commandment," 
"to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourself  is  the  second  and  like  unto  it?" 
Is  it  not  the  Bible  which  charges  "  those  who  are  rich  in  this 
world,  that  they  be  ready  to  give  and  glad  to  distribute,  laying 
up  for  themselves  a  good  foundation  against  the  time  to  come, 
that  they  may  attain  eternal  life  ?  " 

Is  it  not  plain,  then,  Mr.  President,  that  the  original  moving 
spring,  and  the  still  sustaining  power,  of  that  whole  system 
of  moral  and  religious  machinery,  whose  grand  results  are  so 
proudly  exhibited  to  us  during  this  Anniversary  week,  must  be 
found  in  the  promulgation  and  diffusion  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ? 
May  we  not  fairly  say,  without  arrogance  on  our  own  part  or 
disparagement  towards  others,  that  all  other  benevolent  associa- 
tions are  but  distributors  and  service-pipes  (if  I  may  so  speak) 
to  that  great  Reservoir  of  living  waters,  over  which  this  Associa- 
tion has  assumed  the  special  guardianship,  and  which  it  is  its 
chosen  and  precious  province  to  keep  fresh,  and  full,  and  free  to 
all  the  world  ? 

Even  this,  however,  I  am  aware,  Sir,  is  but  a  single  and  a 
somewhat  subordinate  aspect  of  the  great  work  in  which  you 
are  engaged.  Indeed,  as  we  hold  up  this  subject  in  the  sunlight 
before  our  eyes,  we  find  a  thousand  other  views  of  its  interest 
and  importance  multiplying  and  brightening  around  us,  as  in  a 
prism. 

Regarded  only  as  a  mere  human  and  utterly  uninspired  com- 
position, (if,  indeed,  it  be  possible  for  any  one  so  to  regard  it,) 
who  can  over-estimate,  who  can  adequately  appreciate,  the  value 
of  the  Bible  as  a  book  for  general  circulation,  reading,  and  study  ? 
I  remember  to  have  seen  it  somewhere  mentioned,  that  in  an 
old  English  Statute  of  about  the  year  1516,  —  I  doubt  not  that 
you,  Mr.  President,*  could  tell  us  the  precise  date  of  its  pas- 
sage,—  the  sacred  volume,  instead  of  being  denominated  Bi- 
blion,  the  book,  was  called  Bibliotheca,  —  the  library.  And  what 
a  library  it  must  have  been  in  that  early  day  of  English  litera- 

*  Hon.  Simon  Grcenleaf  occupied  the  Chair. 


168  THE  BIBLE. 

ture!  Nay,  what  a  library  it  still  is  to  us  all  now!  Within 
what  other  covers  have  ever  been  comprised  such  diversified 
stores  of  entertainment  and  instruction,  such  inexhaustible  mines 
of  knowledge  and  wisdom  ! 

The  oldest  of  all  books,  as  in  part  it  certainly  is ;  the  most 
common  of  all  books,  as  the  efforts  of  these  associations  have 
now  undoubtedly  made  it; — how  truly  may  we  say  of  it,  that 
"  age  cannot  wither,  nor  custom  stale  its  infinite  variety ! "  The 
world,  which  seems  to  outgrow  successively  all  other  books,  finds 
still  in  this  an  ever  fresh  adaptation  to  every  change  in  its  con- 
dition and  every  period  in  its  history.  Now,  as  a  thousand  years 
ago,  it  has  lessons  alike  for  individuals  and  for  nations ;  for  ruler3 
and  for  people ;  for  monarchies  and  for  republics ;  for  times  of 
stability  and  for  times  of  overthrow ;  for  the  rich  and  the  poor ; 
for  the  simplest  and  the  wisest. 

Whatever  is  most  exquisite  in  style,  whatever  is  most  charm- 
ing in  narrative,  whatever  is  most  faithful  in  description,  what- 
ever is  most  touching  in  pathos,  whatever  is  most  sublime  in 
imagery,  whatever  is  most  marvellous  in  incident,  whatever  is 
most  momentous  in  import,  find  here  alike  and  always  their 
unapproached  and  unapproachable  original. 

It  was  but  a  day  or  two  since  that  I  was  reading  that  the 
great  German  poet,  Goethe,  had  said  of  the  little  book  of  Ruth, 
that  there  was  nothing  so  lovely  in  the  whole  range  of  epic  or 
idyllic  poetry.  It  was  but  yesterday  that  I  was  reading  the 
tribute  of  the  no  less  distinguished  Humboldt  to  the  matchless 
fidelity  and  grandeur  of  the  Hebrew  lyrics,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  speaks  of  a  single  Psalm  (the  104th)  as  presenting  a 
picture  of  the  entire  Cosmos.  I  have  heard  that  our  own  Fisher 
Ames,  who  has  left  behind  him  a  reputation  for  eloquence  hardly 
inferior  to  that  of  any  American  Orator  either  of  his  own  day 
or  of  ours,  was  accustomed  to  say  that  he  owed  more  of  the 
facility  and  felicity  of  his  diction  to  the  Bible,  and  particularly 
to  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  than  to  any  other  source,  ancient 
or  modern. 

Indeed,  Sir,  the  art,  the  literature,  and  the  eloquence  of  all 
countries  and  of  all  times,  have  united  in  paying  a  common 
homage  to  the  Bible.     It  has  inspired  the  noblest  strains  of 


THE   BIBLE.  169 

music  and  the  loftiest  triumphs  of  the  painter.  Where  would 
be  the  harmonies  of  the  great  composers,  where  would  be  the 
galleries  of  the  old  masters,  without  the  subjects  with  which  the 
Bible  has  supplied  them  ? 

Other  books,  I  know,  both  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  have 
received  striking  tributes  to  their  genius,  their  ability,  their  no- 
velty, their  fascination.  It  will  never  be  forgotten  by  the  admirers 
of  Homer,  that  Alexander  the  Great  carried  the  Iliad  always 
about  with  him  in  a  golden  casket.  It  will  never  be  forgotten 
by  the  eulogists  of  Grotius,  that  Gastavus  Adolphus,  in  the 
war  which  he  waged  in  Germany  for  the  liberty  of  Protestant 
Europe,  slept  always  with  the  treatise  De  Jure  Belli  ac  Pacis  on 
his  pillow.  But  how  many  caskets  and  how  many  pillows  have 
borne  testimony  to  the  Bible !  Yes,  Sir,  of  heroes  and  con- 
querors, not  less  mighty  than  the  Macedonian  or  the  Swede ; 
and  not  of  those  only  who  have  been  called  to  wrestle  against 
flesh  and  blood,  but  of  those  who  have  contended  "  against 
principalities  and  powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of 
this  world,  against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places,"  and 
who  have  found  in  this  holy  volume,  as  in  the  very  armory  of 
Heaven,  "  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  breastplate  of  righteous- 
ness, the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  shield  of  faith,  by  which 
they  have  been  able  to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked." 

I  perceive,  Mr.  President,  how  impossible  it  is  to  separate  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  as  a  mere  book,  from  that  which  it  owes 
to  its  divine  character  and  origin.  And  they  ought  not  to  be 
separated.  Unquestionably,  it  is  as  containing  the  word  of  God, 
the  revelation  of  immortality,  the  gospel  of  salvation,  that  the 
Bible  presents  its  preeminent  title  to  the  affection  and  reverence 
of  the  world.  And  it  is  in  this  view  above  all  others,  that  its 
universal  distribution  becomes  identified  with  the  highest  tempo- 
ral and  eternal  interests  of  the  human  race. 

I  say,  with  the  highest  temporal,  as  well  as  eternal  interests  of 
the  human  race;  and  I  desire  to  dwell  for  a  single  moment 
longer,  on  the  inseparable  connection  of  the  work  in  which  this 
and  other  kindred  associations  are  engaged,  with  the  advance- 
ment of  civilization,  with  the  elevation  of  mankind,  and  with 
the   establishment   and    maintenance  of  Free  Institutions.      I 

15 


170  THE  BIBLE. 

desire,  especially,  to  express  the  opinion,  which  I  have  been 
led  of  late  to  cherish  daily  and  deeply,  —  that  every  thing  in  the 
character  of  our  own  institutions,  and  every  thing  in  the  imme- 
diate condition  of  our  own  country,  calls  for  the  most  diligent 
employment  of  all  the  moral  and  religious  agencies  within  our 
reach,  and  particularly  for  increased  activity  in  the  distribution 
of  the  Bible. 

Mr.  President,  there  is  a  striking  coincidence  of  dates  in  the 
history  of  our  country,  and  in  the  history  of  the  Bible.  You 
remember  that  it  was  about  the  year  1607,  that  King  James  the 
First,  of  blessed  memory  for  this  if  for  nothing  else,  gave  it  in 
charge  to  fifty  or  sixty  of  the  most  learned  ministers  of  his  realm, 
to  prepare  that  version  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  is  now 
everywhere  received  and  recognized  among  Protestant  Christians 
as  the  Bible.  This  version  was  finally  published  in  1611,  and  it 
is  from  this  event  that  the  general  diffusion  of  the  Bible  may 
fairly  be  said  to  date. 

The  Bible  had,  indeed,  been  more  than  once  previously  trans- 
lated and  previously  printed.  During  the  two  preceding  centu- 
ries, there  had  been  WicklifFs  version,  and  Tyndale's  version, 
and  Coverdale's  version,  and  Cranmer's  version,  and  the  Geneva 
Bible,  and  the  Douay  Bible,  and  I  know  not  what  others ;  and 
they  had  all  been  more  or  less  extensively  circulated  and  read, 
in  manuscript  or  in  print,  in  churches  and  in  families,  sometimes 
under  the  sanction,  and  sometimes  in  defiance  of  the  civil  and 
spiritual  authorities. 

I  doubt  not  that  many  of  my  hearers  will  remember  the  vivid 
picture  which  Dr.  Franklin  has  given  us,  in  his  autobiography, 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  Bible  was  read  during  a  portion  of 
this  period.  Some  of  his  progenitors,  it  seems,  in  the  days  of 
bloody  Mary,  were  the  fortunate  possessors  of  an  English  Bible, 
and  to  conceal  it  the  more  securely,  they  were  driven,  he  tells  us 
"  to  the  project  of  fastening  it  open  with  pack  threads  across  the 
leaves,  on  the  inside  of  the  lid  of  the  close-stool." 

"  When  my  great-grandfather  (he  proceeds)  wished  to  read 
the  Bible  to  his  family,  he  reversed  the  lid  of  the  stool  upon  his 
knees,  and  passed  the  leaves  from  one  side  to  the  other,  which 
were  held  down  on  each  by  the  pack  thread.     One  of  the  child- 


THE   BIBLE.  171 

ren  was  stationed  at  the  door  to  give  notice  if  he  saw  the  proctor 
(an  officer  of  the  spiritual  court)  make  his  appearance ;  in  that 
case,  the  lid  was  restored  to  its  place,  with  the  Bible  concealed 
under  it  as  before." 

It  is  plain,  that  however  precious  the  Bible  must  have  been  to 
those  who  possessed  it  in  those  days,  and  however  strong  the 
influence  which  it  may  have  exerted  over  individual  minds,  it 
had  little  chance  to  manifest  its  power  over  the  masses,  under 
circumstances  like  these.  Indeed,  the  whole  number  of  "printed 
Bibles  in  existence  in  Great  Britain,  up  to  the  commencement 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  estimated  at  only  about  one  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  thousand;  —  a  little  more  than  one  fifth  the 
number  distributed  by  the  American  Bible  Society,  and  only  a 
little  more  than  one  tenth  the  number  distributed  by  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  during  the  single  year  last  past. 

It  is,  thus,  only  from  the  publication  of  the  authorized  and 
standard  version  of  King  James,  that  the  general  diffusion  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  can  be  said  to  have  commenced.  It  was  then 
that  the  printed  word  of  God  "  first  began  to  have  free  course 
and  to  be  glorified."  And  that,  you  remember,  Mr.  President, 
was  the  very  date  of  the  earliest  settlement  of  these  North  Ame- 
rican Colonies.  It  was  just  then,  that  the  Cavaliers  were  found 
planting  themselves  at  Jamestown  in  Virginia;  and  it  was  just 
then,  that  the  Pilgrims,  with  the  Bible  in  their  hands,  were  seen 
flying  over  to  Leyden,  on  their  way  to  our  own  Plymouth  Rock. 

And  now,  Sir,  it  is  not  more  true,  in  my  judgment,  that  the 
first  settlement  of  our  country  was  precisely  coincident  in  point 
of  time,  with  the  preparation  and  publication  of  this  standard 
version  of  the  Bible,  than  it  is  that  our  free  institutions  have 
owed  their  successful  rise  and  progress  thus  far,  and  are  destined 
to  owe  their  continued  security  and  improvement  in  time  to 
come,  to  the  influences  which  that  preparation  and  publication 
could  alone  have  produced. 

The  voice  of  experience  and  the  voice  of  our  own  reason  speak 
but  one  language  on  this  point.  Both  unite  in  teaching  us,  that 
men  may  as  well  build  their  houses  upon  the  sand  and  expect 
to  see  them  stand,  when  the  rains  fall,  and  the  winds  blow,  and 
the  floods  come,  as  to  found  free  institutions  upon  any  other 


172  TIIE   BIBLE. 

basis  than  that  morality  and  virtue,  of  which  the  Word  of  God 
is  the  only  authoritative  rule,  and  the  only  adequate  sanction. 

All  societies  of  men  must  be  governed  in  some  way  or  other. 
The  less  they  may  have  of  stringent  State  Government,  the  more 
they  must  have  of  individual  self-government.  The  less  they 
rely  on  public  law  or  physical  force,  the  more  they  must  rely 
on  private  moral  restraint.  Men,  in  a  word,  must  necessarily  be 
controlled,  either  by  a  power  within  them,  or  by  a  power  without 
them ;  either  by  the  word  of  God,  or  by  the  strong  arm  of  man  ; 
either  by  the  Bible,  or  by  the  bayonet.  It  may  do  for  other  coun- 
tries and  other  governments  to  talk  about  the  State  supporting 
religion.  Here,  under  our  own  free  institutions,  it  is  Religion 
which  must  support  the  State. 

And  never  more  loudly  than  at  this  moment  have  these  insti- 
tutions of  ours  called  for  such  support.  The  immense  increase 
of  our  territorial  possessions,  with  the  wild  and  reckless  spirit 
of  adventure  which  they  have  brought  with  them ;  the  recent 
discovery  of  the  gold  mines  of  California,  with  the  mania  for 
sudden  acquisition,  for  "  making  haste  to  be  rich,"  which  it  has 
everywhere  excited ;  the  vast  annual  accession  to  our  shores  of 
nearly  half  a  million  of  foreigners,  so  many  of  whom  are  with- 
out any  other  notion  of  liberty,  at  the  outset,  than  as  the  absence 
of  all  restraint  upon  their  appetites  and  passions; — who  does 
not  perceive  in  all  these  circumstances  that  our  country  is  threat- 
ened, more  seriously  than  it  ever  has  been  before,  with  that  moral 
deterioration,  which  has  been  the  unfailing  precursor  of  political 
downfall  ?  And  who  is  so  bold  a  believer  in  any  system  of  hu- 
man checks  and  balances  as  to  imagine,  that  dangers  like  these 
can  be  effectively  counteracted  or  averted  in  any  other  way,  than 
by  bringing  the  mighty  moral  and  religious  influences  of  the 
Bible  to  bear  in  our  defence. 

As  patriots,  then,  no  less  than  as  Christians,  Mr.  President,  I 
fee}  that  we  are  called  upon  to  unite  in  the  good  work  of  this 
Association.  And  let  us  rejoice  that  it  is  a  work  in  which  we 
can  all  join  hands  without  hesitation  or  misgiving.  There  is  no 
room  here,  I  thank  heaven,  for  differences  of  parties  or  of  sects. 
There  is  no  room  here  for  controversies  about  systems  or  details. 
Your  machinery  is  of  all  others  the  most  simple.     Your  results 


THE  BIBLE.  17 B 

are  of  all  others  the  most  certain.  In  a  period  of  little  more 
than  forty  years,  by  the  agency  of  associations  like  this,  more 
than  thirty-five  millions  of  Bibles  and  Testaments  have  been 
distributed  throughout  the  world,  and  more  than  six  millions  of 
them  within  the  limits  of  our  own  land.  Let  us  persevere  in 
this  noble  enterprise.  And  let  each  one  of  us  resolve  to  secure 
for  himself,  against  the  hour  which  sooner  or  later  must  come 
to  us  all,  that  consolation  which  I  doubt  not  is  at  this  moment 
cheering  the  decline  of  your  late  venerable  President,  (Dr. 
Pierce,)  —  the  consolation  of  reflecting,  that  it  has  not  been  for 
the  want  of  any  proportionate  contributions  or  proportionate 
efforts  on  our  part,  if  every  human  being  has  not  had  a  Bible 
to  live  by,  and  a  Bible  to  die  by. 
I  move  the  adoption  of  the  Report. 


COMPENSATION 


FOR   THE 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  URSULINE  CONVENT. 


A   SPEECH    DELIVERED    IX    THE    nOUSE    OF   REPRESENTATIVES    OF   MASSA- 
CHUSETTS,   MARCH   12,  1835. 


I  would  willingly  be  excused,  Mr.  Speaker,  from  any  partici- 
pation in  this  debate.  I  am  entirely  aware  that  little  personal 
satisfaction,  and  certainly  no  personal  popularity,  is  to  be  gained 
by  an  expression  of  the  sentiments  which  I  entertain  upon  the 
question  at  issue.  But  having,  by  a  position  not  of  my  own 
seeking,  been  led  into  some  investigation  of  the  occurrence 
under  consideration^im  mediately  after  it  took  place,  I  feel  that 
it  would  be  a  desertion  of  duty  for  me  to  remain  entirely  silent. 

I  beg  the  House  to  believe  that  I  have  not  seized  upon  the 
topic  as  an  excuse  for  making  a  speech.  Materials,  indeed, 
there  are  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  which  well  might 
serve  such  a  turn.  Old  and  hackneyed  as  they  may  seem  ;  — 
threadbare  as  they  may  be  supposed  to  have  become,  by  their 
continual  wear  and  tear,  for  the  last  six  or  seven  months,  in  the 
public  papers,  in  private  conversation,  in  the  reports  of  Com- 
mittees, and  in  the  arguments  of  the  Bar,  —  I  yet  venture  to  say 
that  there  are  not  only  unexhausted,  but  almost  unnoticed, 
incidents  in  the  history  of  this  transaction,  which,  in  the  hands 
of  one  skilled  and  practised  in  touching  the  strings  and  sound- 
ing the  stops  of  the  human  breast,  might  be  made  to  harrow  up 
the  sternest  soul,  and  freeze  the  youngest  blood  among  us. 

But  I  have  no  such  skill,  and  have  risen  for  no  such  purpose. 
1  would,  on  the  contrary,  separate  this  question,  as  far  as  possi- 


DESTRUCTION   OP   THE   URSULINE  CONVENT.  175 

ble,  from  every  circumstance  appealing  to  the  mere  feelings  of 
men.  I  would  throw  out  from  both  sides  of  it  all  that  is  calcu- 
lated to  excite  either  sympathy  or  prejudice,  and  would  hold  an 
even  hand  between  a  blind  commiseration  on  the  one  side,  and 
an  averted  hostility  on  the  other. 

And  now,  Sir,  what  is  the  exact  question  before  us  ?  It  ap- 
pears that  on  the  night  of  the  eleventh  of  August  last,  an  insti- 
tution, established  partly  for  purposes  of  religion,  partly  for  pur- 
poses of  education,  and  partly  for  purposes  of  charity, —  an 
institution  established  under  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  paying 
the  price  of  protection  to  the  government  in  the  prescribed  form 
of  annual  taxes,  —  was  besieged  by  a  mob,  sacked,  pillaged, 
and  burned  ;  and  this  —  not  silently,  not  secretly,  not  in  a  mo- 
ment, in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  —  but  by  a  course  of  con- 
certed measures,  openly  and  publicly  carried  on  for  a  period  of 
six  or  seven  hours  in  succession,  in  the  presence  of  thousands 
of  spectators,  while  not  a  single  arm  was  lifted  in  its  defence. 

Upon  these  facts,  universally  admitted,  the  proprietors  of  the 
institution  have  presented  a  claim  for  indemnification,  and  upon 
this  claim  the  two  counter  Reports,  now  under  consideration, 
have  been  submitted  to  this  House. 

There  are  some  things  in  both  of  these  Reports  with  which  I 
cordially  agree ;  there  are  other  things  in  both  of  them  from 
which  I  entirely  disagree.  Not  that  I  intend,  by  this  remark,  to 
couple  the  two  documents  as  having,  in  my  humble  judgment, 
equal  claims  upon  our  favorable  consideration.  By  no  means. 
The  whole  spirit  of  that  presented  by  the  majority  of  the  com 
mittee,  I  am  happy  to  agree  with ;  in  one  single  principle  only 
do  I  differ  from  them.  The  whole  spirit,  on  the  other  hand,  of 
that  submitted  by  the  minority  of  the  committee,  I  am  as  happy 
to  dissent  from  ;  in  one  accidental,  and  perhaps  unintentional, 
admission,  only,  can  I  at  all  agree  with  them.  I  do  not  pro- 
pose, Sir,  to  enter  into  any  very  detailed  analysis  of  either  of 
these  papers.  But  before  I  proceed  further,  I  beg  leave  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  House  to  two  or  three  paragraphs  in  the 
report  of  the  minority.  And  especially  would  I  call  to  them 
the  attention  of  the  signers  of  that  report  themselves ;  for  I  am 
willing  to  believe  that  they  are  as  yet  unaware  of  its  full  import. 


176  COMPENSATION  FOR  THE 

On  the  nineteenth  page  of  the  printed  document  containing 
these  reports,  is  this  extraordinary  sentence,  —  "The  moment 
this  Commonwealth  consents  to  tax  herself  for  the  repair  of 
damages,  which  have,  or  have  not,  resulted  from  her  own  injus- 
tice or  criminal  neglect,  she  countenances  a  belief  that  she  is 
willing  to  admit  her  own  responsibility  as  an  accessory  to  the 
wrong.  Dignity,  then,  is  not  preserved  nor  regained  in  this 
way."  Countenance  a  belief!  Why,  Sir,  if  damages  have  re- 
sulted from  the  injustice  or  criminal  neglect  of  the  Common- 
wealth, she  is  already  an  accessory  to  the  wrong ;  and  no  ad- 
mission of  her  responsibility  is  required  to  countenance,  nor 
will  any  denial  of  her  responsibility  suffice  to  discountenance, 
such  a  belief.  And  as  to  her  dignity,  —  I  leave  the  gentlemen 
to  judge  whether  it  is  least  compromised  in  such  a  case  by 
denying  and  refusing  to  repair  the  wrong,  or  by  confessing  and 
making  amends.  One  thing,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  will  grant  to  the 
gentlemen,  and  that  is,  that  the  whole  strength  of  this  para- 
graph, inconsistent  and  absurd  as  it  is,  is  needed  to  sustain  the 
conclusions  at  which  they  have  arrived. 

Again,  on  the  twenty-third  page  of  the  document,  it  is  thus 
written,  —  "  Let  the  fathers  and  guardians  of  our  State  help  the 
friends  and  professors  of  their  own  religion."     Pray,  Sir,  what 
is  their  own  religion?     What  distinction  less  broad  than  that 
which  includes  the  whole  Christian  church,  throughout  all  the 
world,  —  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  Catholic  alike,  —  com 
prehends  the  religion  of  the  fathers  and  guardians  of  our  State? 
The  people  of  Massachusetts  are  indeed,  for   the  most   part 
Protestants,  and  ever  may  they  continue  so !     But  the  State 
thank  heaven,  is  yet  allied  to  no  Church,  and  never  may  it  be 
come  so!     Religious  freedom,  and  not  merely  religious  tolera 
tion,  is  her  motto,  and  the  minority  of  the  committee  will  strive 
in  vain  to  blot  it  out. 

But  the  argument  of  the  minority  report  is  mainly  based 
upon  a  form  of  oath,  which  previously  to  1820  was  a  part  of 
the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  and  which  was  ordered  to 
be  taken  and  subscribed  by  all  the  officers  of  the  Common- 
wealth. Now,  the  Convention  of  1820  abolished  this  oath ;  but 
the  minority  report,  having  been  written  originally  in  professed 


DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   URSULINE   CONVENT.  177 

and  admitted  ignorance  of  its  abolition,  asserts,  in  its  amended 
form,  that  it  was  only  "  laid  aside  for  one  more  concise."  Sir, 
my  friend  from  Worcester  (Mr.  Kinnicutt)  has  sufficiently  an- 
swered this  singular  position.  He  has  told  us  truly  that  the 
Convention  of  1820,  composed  as  it  was  of  the  most  distin- 
guished men  of  Massachusetts,  did  not  assemble  for  the  pur- 
pose of  criticizing  and  amending  the  phraseology  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  spent  none  of  their  time  in  that  frivolous  employ- 
ment. But  even  if  it  were  not  so,  even  if  the  oath  itself  still 
disfigured  our  charter,  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  doctrines  of 
the  minority  report  could  not  be  legitimately  drawn  irom  it. 
Some  years  ago,  there  was  published,  under  the  direction  of  this 
Legislature,  a  little  volume  containing  the  records  of  the  Con- 
vention which  originally  framed  our  Constitution.  In  this 
meagre  skeleton  of  a  book,  there  is  one  fact  clearly  and  dis- 
tinctly set  forth.  In  every  instance  in  which  the  word  Christian 
is  used,  or  in  which  any  allusion  to  religion  or  to  the  privileges 
of  its  professors  occurs  in  the  Constitution,  it  appears  that  an 
effort  was  made  to  introduce  an  exception,  excluding  Roman 
Catholics  from  the  common  family  of  Christians.  And  in 
every  instance  it  failed.  And  what  does  that  prove,  Sir  ?  Why, 
that  our  fathers  in  1780  were  unwilling  to  assume  the  ground, 
which  the  minority  of  this  committee  in  the  year  1835  have 
taken,  that  Roman  Catholics  were,  ipso  facto,  aliens  from  our 
Commonwealth,  honoring  "  the  Pope  as  their  liege  lord,"  and 
having  "  their  country  in  Italy."  Even  at  that  day,  if  any  Ro- 
man Catholic  chose  to  renounce  his  allegiance  to  all  foreign 
sovereigns,  potentates,  and  prelates,  or  to  declare  upon  oath  that 
no  such  allegiance  existed,  our  fathers  were  willing  to  believe 
him;  and  he  was  eligible  to  the  chief  magistracy,  or  any  other 
office  in  the  State.  And  even  this  renunciation,  or  declaration, 
was  only  required  of  Roman  Catholics  in  common  with  all 
other  candidates  for  office,  whatever  might  be  their  creed.  So 
much,  Sir,  for  the  basis  and  superstructure  of  the  minority 
report ! 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  let  me  declare  distinctly  the  opinion 
which  I  have  formed  upon  the  question  before  us.  I  go  for  the 
claim  of  the  Petitioners,  and   I   think  this  Commonwealth  is 


178  COMPENSATION  FOR  THE 

bound  in  equity  to  make  good  the  losses  which  they  have  sus- 
tained. And  in  support  of  this  opinion,  I  rely  upon  the  first 
principles  of  society  and  of  our  own  government,  as  applied  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  case.  What  are  those  principles,  and 
where  shall  we  find  them  laid  down  ?  They  are  inscribed  on 
the  very  portals  of  our  Constitution.  The  Bill  of  Rights  con- 
tains a  clear  and  explicit  declaration  of  them.  Besides  asserting 
that  government  is  instituted  for  the  protection  and  safety  of 
the  people,  who  are  consequently  bound  to  contribute  their  share 
of  personal  service  or  pecuniary  equivalent  to  the  expense  of  this 
protection,  —  it  has  this  plain  and  express  provision  :  "  each  in- 
dividual of  the  society  has  a  right  to  be  protected  by  it,  in  the 
enjoyment  of  his  life,  liberty,  and  property,  according  to  stand- 
ing laws."  Now  if  every  individual  has  a  right  to  be  protected, 
society  is  under  an  obligation  to  afford  that  protection ;  and  this 
obligation  of  society  is  admitted  on  all  sides  of  the  House,  and 
in  both  reports.  But,  we  are  told,  society  is  bound  to  protect  by 
standing  laws,  and  in  no  other  way.  That  may  be  very  true,  Sir, 
but  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  justice  of  this  claim.  The 
Petitioners  have  not  come  here  to  ask  for  protection.  It  is  alto- 
gether too  late  for  them  to  present  such  a  claim.  Their  pro- 
perty has  been  destroyed,  and  their  claim  is  for  indemnification ; 
and  the  question  now  is  whether  society,  being  under  an  admit- 
ted obligation  to  afford  them  protection,  and  having  failed  to 
discharge  that  obligation,  is  or  is  not  justly  responsible  for  the 
damages  arising  from  that  failure. 

Well,  Sir,  how  is  it  with  other  obligations  ?  Suppose,  for  a 
moment,  that  any  gentleman  in  this  House  is  under  an  obligation 
to  convey  to  me  a  certain  piece  of  estate,  and  he  fails  from  any 
cause  to  discharge  that  obligation  ;  —  will  he  presume  to  tell  me 
that,  though  he  was  bound  to  convey  that  estate,  he  was  bound 
to  do  nothing  else,  and  that  having  failed  in  that,  my  claim  upon 
him  is  at  an  end.  Why,  the  idea  is  too  absurd  to  require  an 
answer.  It  needs  no  lawyer  to  tell  him  that  any  court  of  com- 
petent jurisdiction  would  make  him  respond  to  me  in  damages. 
And  how  do  the  obligations  of  society  or  of  the  State  differ  from 
those  of  an  individual  ?  The  State  has  entered  into  a  direct 
contract  with  every  one  of  its  citizens,  and  every  one  of  the 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE   TJRSULINE   CONVENT.  179 

citizens  with  the  State  ;  —  protection  is  the  consideration  on  one 
side,  and  allegiance  on  the  other.  If  the  citizen  fails  to  dis- 
charge his  part  of  the  contract,  the  State  proceeds  at  once  to 
compel  or  to  punish  him ;  and  if  the  State  fails  to  discharge 
her  part,  she  is  bound,  in  good  faith,  to  make  reparation.  There 
is  indeed  no  court  of  law  into  which  the  citizen  can  summon 
her.  This  "  Great  and  General  Court"  is  his  first  place  of  hear- 
ing, and  his  final  place  of  appeal.  And  that  appeal  is  at  best  but 
an  appeal  from  Caesar  to  Caesar.  But  this  does  not  at  all  affect 
the  justice  of  the  claim,  however  it  may  affect  the  fairness  of 
the  hearing. 

There  is  no  doubt,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  this  doctrine  needs  some 
qualification  and  some  limitation.  But  none  other  are  required 
as  I  think,  than  such  as  common  law  and  common  sense  will 
readily  suggest.  It  is  equally  a  maxim  of  both,  Lex  cog-it  ne- 
minem  ad  impossibilia ;  —  no  one  is  bound  to  do  that  which  is 
impossible.  Society  cannot  always  stop  the  hand  of  the  secret 
assassin,  the  midnight  incendiary,  the  expert  thief,  or  the  cun- 
ning counterfeiter.  Protection  of  this  sort  is  often  in  its  own 
nature  impossible,  and  all  that  society  can  do,  in  cases  of 
this  kind,  is  to  hunt  out  and  punish  the  guilty.  But  wherever 
protection  is  practicable,  she  is  absolutely  bound  to  provide  it. 

And  it  is  in  relation  to  this  particular  principle  that  I  dissent 
from  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  majority  of  the  committee. 
They  tell  us  that  "  it  is  true  that  by  the  theory  of  our  institu- 
tions, the  government  is  bound  to  afford  protection  to  the  citizen 
in  consideration  of  his  allegiance," — but  then  they  go  on  to 
say,  "  your  committee  suppose  that  this  protection  is  afforded 
to  every  practicable  extent,  by  the  enactment,  from  time  to  time, 
as  they  shall  be  deemed  necessary,  of  wholesome  and  proper 
laws,  with  remedies  for  their  infraction."  Now  it  seems  to  me 
Sir,  that  this  assertion,  and  I  say  it  with  all  due  deference  to  the 
Committee,  is  a  begging  of  the  whole  question  at  issue, — which 
is,  as  I  conceive,  whether  the  government  has  afforded  to  these 
petitioners  every  practicable  protection.  The  argument  of  the 
Report  seems  to  be  this,  —  that  the  existing  laws  at  any  par- 
ticular period,  whether  good,  bad,  or  indifferent,  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  affording  to  the  citizens  every  practicable  protection. 


180  COMPENSATION  FOR  THE 

In  this  opinion  I  cannot  concur.  Suppose,  for  a  moment,  there 
had  been  no  law  at  all  about  riots,  and  no  power  vested  in  any 
body  to  quell  them.  Would  that  be  affording  all  practicable  pro- 
tection to  the  citizen  ?  And  what  difference  is  there,  either  in 
principle  or  in  practice,  whether  there  be  no  law  at  all,  or  whe- 
ther the  law  be  defective  and  impotent?  I  resign  my  right  of 
self-defence,  —  I  put  my  wrists  in  fetters,  and  allow  my  arms  to 
be  tied  behind  me,  —  on  condition  that  society  will  protect  me ; 
and  I  pay  my  taxes  annually  for  the  same  consideration.  It 
matters  not  to  me  whether  it  be  from  the  want  of  any  law,  or 
from  the  defect  of  an  existing  law,  or  from  an  inefficient  execu- 
tion of  the  law,  —  if  the  State  could  have  protected  me  from  in- 
jury, and  did  not,  she  is  bound  to  make  reparation. 

And  this  doctrine  is  implied,  unintentionally  perhaps,  but  still 
plainly  implied,  in  the  report  of  the  minority.  And  in  this 
implication,  and  in  this  only  can  I  find  any  thing  in  their  argu- 
ment to  agree  with.  They  tell  you  "  that  they  know  the  State 
should  guard  against  such  evils, —  yet  not  by  making  itself 
liable,  if  they  happen  in  spite  of  the  wisest  precautions  that 
can  be  employed  to  prevent  them."  And  they  add,  "  the  duty 
of  the  Legislature  is  to  enact  the  best,  the  most  energetic  laws 
to  restrain  and  punish  the  lawless."  Sir,  I  entirely  agree  in  this 
position.  But  will  these  gentlemen  or  any  other  person  pretend, 
that  this  destruction  of  property  took  place  in  spite  of  the  wisest 
precautions,  and  in  defiance  of  the  best  and  most  energetic  laws? 
"Will  any  one  of  common  sense  be  willing  to  admit,  that  hun- 
dreds of  men  may  meet  together,  light  up  their  signal- fires,  sound 
their  alarm-bells,  and  proceed  deliberately  to  rob,  plunder,  break, 
and  burn,  in  presence  of  thousands  of  spectators,  public  officers 
and  others,  for  six  or  eight  hours  in  succession,  in  spite  of  the 
wisest  precautions  and  in  the  face  of  the  best  and  most  energetic 
laws?  Why,  Sir,  the  wisdom  of  this  world  must  indeed  be 
foolishness,  and  its  power  impotency,  and  its  strength  must  be 
to  sit  still,  if  this  be  the  case.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  there 
must  either  have  been  some  great  deficiency  in  the  laws  them- 
selves, or  some  palpable  neglect  in  the  execution  of  those  laws. 
And  for  the  latter  the  State  is  equally  responsible  as  for  the 
former, — both  because  the  mode  of  execution  is  itself  a  matter 


DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   URSULINE    CONVENT.  181 

of  legal  provision,  and  because  those  to  whom  that  execution 
is  intrusted  are  her  own  agents,  and  of  her  own  appointment. 

It  is  to  this  extent,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  I  would  carry  the  obli- 
gation of  society  to  afford  protection ;  —  an  extent  marked  and 
measured,  as  it  seems  to  me,  by  the  maxims  of  common  sense 
and  common  justice.  And  if  it  be  not  so,  all  protection,  all 
society,  all  government  appears  to  me  to  be  little  better  than  a 
cheat  and  a  mockery.  For  what  is  the  right  of  the  citizen  to 
protection  worth,  if  he  has  no  remedy  for  the  infraction  of  that 
right?  What  does  the  obligation  of  society  to  protect  him 
amount  to,  if  there  is  no  responsibility  for  the  discharge  of  that 
obligation  ?  Sir,  it  may  be  true,  in  one  sense,  that  kings  can  do 
no  wrong ;  but  it  is  not  true  in  any  sense,  nor  in  any  country, 
that  governments  can  do  no  wrong.  Power  is  one  thing,  and 
right  is  another.  Every  human  being  has  rights.  Human  breath 
is  God's  passport  to  human  rights.  And  the  State  is  bound  to 
protect  those  rights.  She  may  fail  to  do  so  by  omission,  as 
well  as  by  commission.  If,  in  this  very  case,  she  had  presumed 
to  lay  her  hands  upon  the  property  of  these  petitioners,  and  ap- 
propriate it  to  her  own  use,  every  one  knows  they  would  have 
been  entitled  to  compensation.  And  if  she  suffer  others  to  lay 
their  hands  upon  it  and  appropriate  it  to  their  own  use,  even 
though  that  use  be  only  the  feeding  of  their  own  rancorous  and 
ravenous  passions,  the  State  is,  and  ought  to  be,  equally  an- 
swerable. 

But,  we  are  told,  she  has  provided  a  remedy.  The  courts  of 
law,  with  all  their  pleas  and  processes,  are  at  the  service  of  the 
injured,  and  society  is  not  responsible  for  the  deficiency  of  evi- 
dence, or  the  escape  of  the  guilty.  This  again  is  all  very  true, 
but  it  has  no  bearing  upon  the  claim  of  the  petitioners.  They 
do  not  come  here  for  indemnification,  because  their  remedies 
elsewhere  have  failed.  They  impute  no  fault  to  the  State  on 
this  score.  The  guilt  of  the  State  was  at  a  much  earlier  stage 
of  the  transaction.  It  consisted  in  not  affording  protection,  when 
it  had  power  and  opportunity  to  do  so.  And  no  remedy  against 
others  will  atone  for  this  guilt  of  its  own.  Society  has  two 
duties.  They  are  described  in  two  distinct  and  separate  articles 
of  the  Bill  of  Rights.  They  are,  in  their  own  essence,  distinct  and 
16 


182  COMPENSATION   FOR  THE 

separate.  And  society  is,  and  ought  to  be,  distinctly  and  sepa- 
rately responsible  for  the  discharge  of  both.  The  first  duty  is 
to  afford  protection  wherever  it  is  practicable.  The  second  is  to 
provide  a  remedy  against  the  aggressor  wherever  that  is  practi- 
cable. And  it  is  the  confounding  of  these  distinct  and  separate 
duties  of  the  government,  and  of  the  consequent  rights  of  the 
citizens,  which  has  led  to  what  I  hold  to  be  the  mistaken  con- 
clusion of  both  reports,  in  relation  to  the  claim  of  these  peti- 
tioners. 

Gentlemen  talk  about  a  remedy  in  the  courts  of  justice.  Why, 
Sir,  what  is  this  remedy  worth  in  a  case  like  this  ?  "What  has  it 
proved  to  be  worth  in  this  very  case  ?  We  all  know ;  — and  we 
all  knew  as  well  before  the  trials  as  since.  It  will  always  be  so. 
Wherever  the  public  mind  is  so  prejudiced  and  poisoned  against 
any  individual  or  any  institution,  that  the  hand  of  violence  may 
be  openly  and  successfully  raised  against  them,  and  no  one  will 
come  to  their  aid,  it  is  matter  almost  of  certainty,  that  the  same 
prejudice  will  infect  the  channels  of  evidence,  and  obstruct  the 
course  of  justice. 

I  forbear,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  urge  this  argument  further,  though 
I  am  sensible  that  it  is  susceptible  of  being  much  further  and 
much  better  enforced  and  illustrated.  There  is  another  view  of 
this  case  which  I  proceed  to  present  to  the  House.  And  I  am 
aware  that  in  doing  so,  I  shall  tread  upon  dangerous  ground. 
Sir,  this  act  was  not  the  mere  momentary  violence  of  an  ordinary 
mob.  The  committee  have  truly  told  us,  that  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  the  idle  reports  concerning  Miss  Harrison  could 
have  led  to  its  perpetration.  They  were  but  sparks  to  the  tinder, 
and  only  kindled  and  inflamed  those  combustible  materials  which 
had  long  been  accumulating.  The  destruction  of  the  Ursuline 
Convent  had  a  deep-struck  and  wide-spread  source  in  public 
opinion.  Hundreds  of  men  were  actually  concerned  in  the  deed  ; 
thousands  were  quiet  spectators  of  its  accomplishment ;  and  tens 
of  thousands,  I  had  almost  said,  had  ministered  to  the  delusion, 
fanaticism,  and  fury,  which  caused  it  to  be  attempted.  We  may 
almost  say  of  it,  what  was  said  of  one  of  the  dark  deeds  of  other 
times  by  a  great  Roman  historian,  —  Is  habitus  animorum  fuit,  ut 
pessimum  f acinus  auderent  pauci,  plures  vellent^  omnes  pater entur. 


DESTRUCTION    OF    THE   URSULINE   CONVENT.  183 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  that  though  few  dared 
to  engage  in  the  transaction,  many  more  desired  that  it  might  be 
accomplished,  and  all,  all  permitted  it  to  be  done. 

I  would  not  be  thought  to  imply,  that  I  believe  that  the  people 
of  Massachusetts,  or  any  considerable  portion  of  them,  would 
have  deliberately  sanctioned  such  an  act.  No  ;  if  it  could  have 
been  previously  put  to  vote,  not  one  hand  do  I  believe  would 
have  been  held  up  in  its  favor,  not  even  in  Middlesex,  or  in  Suf- 
folk, or  wherever  the  infected  district  was,  —  unless,  indeed,  by  the 
perpetrators  themselves.  Upon  nobody  but  them  do  I  charge  de- 
liberate wrong,  or  malice  aforethought.  But  we  all  know  some- 
thing of  the  influences  by  which  events  are  brought  to  pass. 
Some  men  speak  daggers  which  they  will  not  use, — nay,  which 
they  may  not  intend  or  expect  that  any  body  else  shall  use.  A 
few  warmer  and  less  prudent  spirits  take  them  at  their  word,  and 
deal  home  the  blow.  If,  Sir,  as  I  am  disposed  to  think,  it  was 
as  common  a  thing  before  the  11th  of  August,  to  say,  that  "the 
Convent  ought  to  come  down,"  as  it  has  been  since  to  say,  that 
"  we  are  glad  it  is  down,"  reserving,  perhaps,  in  this  latter  case, 
some  faint  and  feeble  salvo  as  to  the  manner  of  its  destruction, 
it  is  only  a  wonder  that  it  was  permitted  so  long  to  cumber  the 
ground  on  which  it  stood. 

It  is  this  view  of  the  matter,  Sir,  which,  to  my  mind,  makes  it 
reasonable  that  the  whole  community  should  contribute  to  repair 
the  losses  which  have  been  sustained.  Asleep  in  my  bed,  though 
I  was,  when  the  act  was  committed,  I  can  hardly  help  feel- 
ing a  personal  share  in  its  guilt,  and  would  gladly  contribute  my 
proportion  of  the  indemnity. 

But  we  are  told,  Sir,  that  if  we  make  an  indemnification,  or 
grant  any  gratuity,  in  this  case,  it  will  be  recorded  as  a  precedent, 
and  will  thus  involve  the  State  in  endless  responsibilities.  Why, 
if  it  only  be  right,  equitable,  and  just,  to  do  this,  the  sooner  it  is 
recorded  as  a  precedent,  the  better ;  and  the  more  such  precedents 
there  are  upon  our  records,  the  more  will  it  be  for  the  honor  of 
the  State,  and  the  welfare  of  the  people. 

But  do  not  gentlemen  perceive  the  horror  with  which  this 
idea  is  fraught ;  and  what  a  fearful  looking-for  in  all  time  to 
come  it  implies  ?     Recorded  as  a  precedent !     This  indemni- 


184  COMPENSATION   FOR   THE 

fication,  or  this  gratuity,  can  never  be  fairly  adduced  as  a  prece- 
dent, except  when  the  outrage  itself  has  been  followed  as  a 
precedent.  And  will  gentlemen  not  only  contemplate,  but  cal- 
culate, upon  its  recurrence?  I  can  only  say  for  one,  Sir,  that  if 
I  believed  that  this  event  were  about  to  be  a  precedent  in  our 
history,  and  other  acts  of  a  similar  character  were  about  to  be 
perpetrated  within  the  borders  of  Massachusetts,  I  should  be  for 
plucking  up  at  once  such  small  stakes  as  I  may  have  planted  in 
her  soil,  for  fleeing  from  the  protection  of  her  free  and  enlight- 
ened government,  and  for  seeking  shelter  under  any,  the  sternest 
tyranny,  the  darkest  despotism  on  earth.  Yes,  upon  the  same 
principle  that  I  would  sooner  pitch  my  tent  at  the  foot  of  a 
volcano,  whose  friendly  quake  or  monitory  rumbling  would 
warn  me  when  its  flames  were  about  to  burst  above  my  head, 
than  maintain  a  residence  in  one  of  your  clear  and  balmy  atmo- 
spheres, where  ruin,  ruin  like  this,  might  blaze  down  upon 
me  at  any  moment,  as  lightning  from  a  cloudless  sky! 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  we  are  wise,  if  we  do  our  duty,  no  such 
event  will  again  occur.  The  fires  of  that  fatal  night  have  dis- 
played to  us  our  danger.  They  have  made  manifest  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  our  laws  and  the  insecurity  of  our  possessions.  They 
have  shone  in  upon  and  illumined  a  fearful  chasm  in  our  sys- 
tem, yawning  at  our  very  feet ;  and  if  we  do  not  neglect  our 
duty,  we  shall  fill  it  up,  or  bridge  it  over,  before  we  quit  these 
seats.  Its  first  victims  will  thus  be  its  last ;  and  if  we  should 
pay  them  to  the  uttermost  farthing  of  their  loss,  we  shall  have 
cheaply  purchased  the  experience.  * 

But  if  the  laws  are  to  be  left  in  their  present  impotent  condi- 
tion, let  the  House  look  well  to  another  consideration.  Do  gen- 
tlemen flatter  themselves  that  the  Roman  Catholics  are  to  be 
the  only  sufferers  ?  Are  there  to  be  no  losses  but  what  light  on 
their  shoulders;  no  sighs  but  of  their  breathing;  no  tears  but  of 
their  shedding?  Sir,  if  the  spirit  of  violence  is  to  have  free 
vent ;  if  religious,  or  moral,  or  political  intolerance  is  to  rage 
unchecked ;  if  every  now  and  then  some  portion  of  the  people 

*  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  1839,  passed  a  Law  making  towns  and 
cities  responsible  to  the  amount  of  three  quarters  of  the  value  of  any  property  within 
their  limits  destroyed  by  rioters. 


DESTRUCTION   OF   THE  UR3ULINE   CONVENT.  185 

are  to  cry  havoc,  and  let  slip  the  brands  of  their  vengeance  upon 
the  objects  of  their  suspicion  or  their  hate,  who  of  us  is  safe  ? 
"What  one  man  is  there  in  this  House,  or  in  this  whole  State, 
who  may  not  be  glad  that  such  a  precedent  has  been  esta- 
blished ?  If,  Sir,  we  are  to  be  warned  out  of  our  beds  at  mid- 
night, and  our  wives  and  children  sent  shivering  from  beneath 
our  blazing  roofs,  who  is  there  that  does  not  pray  God  that  he 
may  be  able  to  point  to  a  precedent  somewhere,  which  shall 
ensure  him  a  covering  from  the  storm  ? 

In  stating  my  views  of  this  question,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have 
thus  far  made  little  allusion  to  the  particular  character  of  the 
institution  in  question.  I  have  no  partiality  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  creed.  I  have  no  fondness  for  convents,  or  monastic 
institutions  of  any  kind.  I  wish  sincerely  that  not  an  inch  of 
ground  on  the  whole  continent  of  America  was  covered  by  them. 
But  this  is  no  part  of  this  question.  Justice  is  no  respecter  of 
persons.  Equity  is  blind  and  bandaged  to  all  distinctions  of 
creed  as  well  as  of  condition. 

But,  as  there  are  doubtless  some  members  of  the  House  who 
cannot  rid  themselves  of  the  prejudice  which  the  peculiar  tenets 
of  these  petitioners  are  calculated  to  excite,  I  put  to  them  one 
simple  question.  Do  intolerance  and  persecution  tend  to  eradi- 
cate heresy?  Is  this  the  maxim  which  history  has  taught  us? 
No !  Persecution,  if  it  does  not  crush  at  once,  creates  new 
strength  ;  if  it  does  not  kill,  it  gives  fresh  life  ;  and  I  call  upon 
every  individual  in  this  assembly,  who  deprecates  the  spread  of 
Roman  Catholicism  in  this  country,  to  disarm  its  propagators  of 
the  powerful  weapon  which  persecution  has  now  placed  in  their 
hands. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  cannot  conclude  without  presenting  one  more 
consideration  to  all  who  hear  me.  This  act  it  is  too  late  to  pre- 
vent. It  is  already  upon  the  records  of  the  irrevocable  past. 
And  wherever  the  name  of  Massachusetts  shall  be  known  or 
heard  in  all  ages  to  come,  wherever  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims, 
the  struggles  of  the  Colonists,  or  the  great  battles  of  Inde- 
pendence shall  be  described,  there,  also,  this  dreadful  deed, 
with  all  its  circumstances  of  cowardice  and  cruelty,  will  bear 
them  company. 

16* 


186         DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  URSULINE  CONVENT. 

It  is  of  a  character  never  to  be  lost  sight  of  by  those  who  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  human  events.  The  poet  will  embalm 
it  in  deathless  song.  The  novelist  will  embody  it  in  immortal 
story.  Will,  do  I  say  ?  He  has  already  done  so.  Who  is 
there,  henceforth,  who  can  read  again  the  Abbot  of  Walter 
Scott,  without  thinking  that  the  same  spirit  of  superstition  and 
bigotry,  which  revelled  and  rioted  in  that  scene  of  moral  and 
religious  darkness,  has  risen  again  from  its  sleep  of  ages,  and 
having  found  no  foothold  among  its  ancient  haunts,  has  crossed 
the  wide-spread  ocean  to  find,  on  the  soil  of  free  and  enlightened 
Massachusetts,  a  stage  for  the  reenactment  of  its  terrible  trage- 
dies ?  And  even  on  the  page  of  history,  sober  and  truth-telling 
history,  softened  and  palliated  as  it  may  be  by  some  fond  and 
filial  hand,  it  will  still  overtop  the  level  of  ordinary  incident, 
and  cast  a  deep  shade  over  our  brightest  and  proudest  achieve- 
ments. 

In  behalf,  then,  of  this  ancient  Commonwealth,  —  unused  to 
any  association  but  with  the  great  and  generous  of  the  earth;  — 
in  behalf  of  her  living  children,  and  in  behalf  of  her  dead 
fathers,  whose  names  will  be  alike  bound  up  with  that  of  the 
State  itself,  for  honor  or  dishonor,  for  glory  or  shame,  in  all 
future  time;  —  I  invoke  this  House  to  do  something  to  rescue 
her  from  this  otherwise  inevitable  reproach. 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  INFIDELS. 

A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    IN    THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES   OF    MASSA- 
CHUSETTS, FEBRUARY   11,  1836. 


Allow  me,  Mr.  Speaker,  before  entering  upon  the  discussion 
of  the  general  merits  of  the  bill  under  consideration,  to  set  the 
House  right  with  regard  to  the  laws  of  Connecticut  upon  this 
subject.  That  State  has  long  enjoyed  a  most  enviable  reputa- 
tion for  holding  fast  to  that  which  is  good.  And  it  was  not,  I 
confess,  without  some  alarm  that  I  heard  her  example  appealed 
to  in  favor  of  the  bill.  But  upon  subsequent  investigation,  I 
am  entirely  willing  that  her  example  should  be  followed.  She 
has  passed  no  such  law.  Her  last  statute  upon  the  subject, 
the  statute  of  1830,  has  carried  her  not  a  jot  beyond  the  point 
at  which  our  common  law  now  stands.  It  declares  every  man 
to  be  a  competent  witness  who  believes  in  a  Supreme  Being, 
and  our  courts  have  declared  the  same. 

But  I  wish  not  to  rest  my  opposition  to  this  bill  upon  either 
example  or  authority ;  much  less  am  I  disposed  to  defend  the 
present  rule  of  law,  merely  because  it  happens  to  be  an  ancient 
rule.  I  agree  with  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  (Mr.  Ran- 
toul,)  that  principles  are  none  the  better  for  their  antiquity. 
But  let  me  remind  him,  too,  that  they  are  none  the  worse  either. 
Let  me  remind  him  that  there  are  at  least  two  classes  of  minds 
in  this  House,  with  reference  to  this  matter  of  antiquity.  And 
that,  while  some  may  be  disposed  to  adhere  too  blindly  and 
cling  too  closely  to  whatever  is  old  or  established,  adopting,  as 
he  says,  the  maxim  of  the  poet  —  u  Whatever  is,  is  right,"  — 


188  THE  TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS. 

there  are  others  who  leap  a  little  too  easily  to  the  opposite  of 
whatever  is  old  and  established,  adopting,  as  their  motto,  the 
very  reverse  of  that  maxim  —  "  Whatever  is,  is  wrong."  Sir, 
there  are  men  here  who  seem  to  find  their  sole  and  sufficient 
reason  for  attacking  any  principle  or  any  practice,  in  the  mere 
fact  that  it  did  not  originate  in  their  day,  or  was  not  the  off- 
spring of  their  own  brain;  —  who,  while  they  profess  great  re- 
spect for  the  wisdom  of  their  fathers,  place  no  dependence  upon 
any  but  their  own;  —  who  seem  to  consider  our  Government,  its 
institutions  and  its  principles,  free,  prosperous,  and  pure  though 
they  be,  as  the  subjects,  —  not  of  the  whole  people's  sober  en- 
joyment, but  of  their  own  fanciful  experiments ;  and  who  hunt 
out  the  imperfections  which  are  inseparable  from  all  human 
works,  with  the  same  eagerness  and  zeal  with  which  sportsmen 
run  down  their  game,  —  not  for  any  advantage  to  others,  but 
only  to  enjoy  their  own  agility  and  skill. 

For  one,  Sir,  I  care  not  in  what  age,  before  the  flood  or  since, 
any  practice  or  any  principle  drew  breath,  or  with  what  barbarous 
systems  it  was  once  intermingled ;  if  it  be  good  in  itself,  and 
works  well  in  our  own  system,  it  is  -all  that  can  be  asked.  Our 
own  Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights  contains  more  than  one  arti- 
cle from  an  instrument  more  than  six  hundred  years  old,  and 
almost  in  the  very  words  in  which  it  was  extorted  from  the  lips 
of  King  John  at  Runnymede  by  his  brave  though  barbarous 
barons.  But  do  we  rely  on  those  articles  any  the  less  confi- 
dently on  that  account,  or  sleep  any  the  less  soundly  under  their 
protecting  influence  ? 

But  there  is  one  thing  which  antiquity  affords,  which  even  the 
gentleman  himself  must  acknowledge  to  be  valuable,  —  experi- 
ence —  experience  —  a  teacher  compared  with  which  the  brain- 
spun  theories  of  men  are  but  stumbling-blocks  and  foolishness ; 
and  let  me  say  that  neither  industry  nor  ingenuity  have  been 
able  to  torture  from  her  any  response  in  favor  of  this  bill. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  beg  leave  to  recall  the  attention  of 
the  House  to  the  real  reason  of  the  existing  rule  of  law  as  to 
this  inquiry  into  a  man's  religious  belief,  as  it  is  falsely  called. 
Gentlemen  seem  to  regard  it  as  an  independent  and  arbitrary 
rule,  established  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  exclude  atheists 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS.  189 

from  the  witness-stand.  This  is  wholly  false.  An  atheist  is 
not  excluded  simply  because  he  is  an  atheist.  There  is  another 
most  material  and  massy  link  in  the  chain  which  shuts  him  out. 
The  rule  of  law  is  now,  and  has  been  for  centuries,  that  no  tes- 
timony shall  be  received  in  courts  of  justice  except  under  the 
sanction  of  an  oath  ;  —  a  rule  which  has  never  been  relaxed  ex- 
cept in  favor  of  the  Quakers,  whose  conscientious  scruples  about 
oaths  have  stood  the  test  of  two  centuries  of  trial,  and,  during 
a  part  of  the  time,  of  the  sharpest  persecution.  But  an  atheist 
cannot  take  an  oath,  and  that,  not  because  he  has  any  con- 
scientious scruples  about  swearing,  but  because  he  has  no  God 
to  swear  by.  There  is  nothing  in  his  breast  upon  which  the 
obligations  of  an  oath  can  take  hold.  Its  terms  are  wholly 
unmeaning  to  him  —  its  sanctions  wholly  unbinding  upon  him. 
He  cannot,  therefore,  as  he  must,  if  he  give  it  at  all,  give  testi- 
mony under  oath.  It  is  the  oath,  then,  and  not  his  religious 
belief,  which  excludes  him. 

And  here,  Sir,  I  advance  this  proposition, — that  so  long  as 
oaths  are  administered  in  our  courts,  so  long  it  is  essential  to 
the  ends  of  justice  that  this-  right  of  inquiry  should  be  main- 
tained ;  and  so  long  it  is  the  religious  duty  of  society  to  main- 
tain it.  Why,  what  is  an  oath,  and  in  what  consists  the  taking 
of  an  oath  ?  Is  it  the  mere  stepping  upon  a  stand  to  be  seen  of 
men,  the  assumption  of  an  arbitrary  attitude,  and  the  repetition 
of  a  formula  of  words  to  render  one  liable  to  the  pains  and 
penalties  of  perjury  ?  I  fear  it  is  too  often  considered  so.  I 
have  often  regretted  the  hasty  and  careless  manner  in  which 
oaths  are  administered  and  taken.  I  have  often  desired  that 
some  change  might  be  made,  which  would  assign  to  the  taker 
something  more  than  a  mere  raising  of  the  hand  and  a  bending 
of  the  head.  But  what  is  an  oath  ?  It  is  a  religious  obligation, 
and,  in  taking  it,  a  man  is  supposed  to  lift  himself  above  the 
level  of  men,  and  to  speak,  as  it  were,  in  the  presence  of  God,  — 
to  raise,  not  only  his  hand,  but  his  heart,  to  heaven,  — to  invoke 
the  attestation  of  God  to  truth,  and  to  imprecate  his  vengeance 
upon  falsehood. 

Seriously  considered,  Sir,  there  is  no  more  awful  act  per- 
formed by  man  on  earth  than  this.     No  form  of  prayer  or  of 


190  THE   TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS. 

I 

sacrament  surpasses  it  in  solemnity.  And  is  it  not  the  right, 
then,  is  it  not  the  imperative  duty,  of  society,  to  take  good  heed 
that  it  be  not  lightly  or  vainly  administered  ?  Nay,  does  not 
society  make  its  officers,  (and  through  them,  itself,)  not  only 
witnesses,  but  parties,  to  the  most  shocking  mockery,  to  the 
most  profane  blasphemy,  by  sufFering  oaths  to  be  administered 
to  those  who  deny  the  existence  of  the  God  in  whose  name 
they  are  couched  ? 

Gentlemen  will  tell  me,  that  the  second  section  of  this  bill 
will  provide  against  such  an  event.  But  wide  as  that  section 
reaches,  extraordinary  and  extravagant  as  its  provisions  are, 
allowing  every  man  to  affirm  who  may  object  to  being  sworn, 
whether  his  objection  arise  from  conscience  or  from  caprice, 
whether  from  a  weak  superstition,  or  from  a  wicked  design  to 
escape  the  imprecation  of  Divine  wrath  upon  a  deliberate  and 
premeditated  perjury,  —  it  does  not  go  far  enough  to  prevent  the 
profanation  to  which  I  have  referred. 

Suppose,  Sir,  a  bold  and  barefaced  infidel,  an  open  and  notori- 
ous infidel,  to  be  summoned  as  a  witness  in  our  courts,  and  that, 
declining  to  avail  himself  of  the  privilege  of  the  second  section 
of  this  bill,  and  resisting  all  inquiry  into  his  religious  belief  under 
the  first,  he  should  insist,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  ridiculing 
religion  and  mocking  God,  or  for  any  other  reason  you  choose,  on 
having  the  oath  administered  to  him,  —  is  there  any  thing  in  this 
bill,  or  out  of  it,  if  the  bill  passes,  to  hinder  him  from  doing  so? 
Nothing.  And  if  gentlemen  tell  me  that  I  suppose  an  extreme 
case,  I  reply  that  it  is  an  extreme  case  in  more  senses  of  the 
word  than  one,  and  that  the  very  possibility  of  its  occurrence 
ought  to  be  scrupulously  guarded  against.  And  to  this  end, 
until  all  oaths  are  abolished,  the  right  of  inquiry  which  this  bill 
proposes  to  do  away,  must  be  preserved. 

Again,  Sir,  I  maintain  that  the  right  of  inquiry  is  essential  to 
the  ends  of  justice.  Why  are  oaths  administered  at  all  ?  Is  it 
not  because  they  are  believed  to  have  peculiar  efficacy  to  elicit 
and  extort  truth  from  those  who  might  otherwise  speak  falsely  ? 
And  is  it  not  a  mere  imposition  on  both  judges  and  jury,  and  a 
most  gross  injustice  to  those  interested  in  any  suit,  to  introduce 
testimony  under  the  form  of  an  oath,  without  giving  them  the 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF   INFIDELS.  191 

means  of  knowing  whether  it  were  taken  by  one  who  was  capa- 
ble of  feeling  its  force,  or  by  one  to  whom  it  was  mere  mum- 
mery and  jargon  ?  And  how  but  by  this  very  inquiry  can  such 
knowledge  be  ascertained?  I  repeat  the  proposition,  then, 
that  while  oaths  continue  to  be  administered,  it  is  essential  to 
the  ends  of  justice,  as  well  as  a  religious  duty  of  society,  to 
maintain  the  right  of  making  this  inquiry.  If  the  second  sec- 
tion of  this  bill  be  adopted,  it  is  not  difficult  to  foresee  that 
oaths  will  be  in  a  considerable  degree  discontinued  in  our  courts, 
but  if  the  first  section  prevail  they  ought  forthwith  to  be  entirely 
abolished. 

And  here,  Mr.  Speaker,  we  are  brought  to  the  question, 
whether  we  are  willing,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  give  up 
oaths  as  the  instruments  of  investigation  in  our  courts  of  jus- 
tice? Are  we  ready  to  substitute,  as  the  sanctions  of  testimony 
on  which  not  only  the  properties,  but  the  liberties  and  lives  of 
men  may  depend,  the  uncertain  and  merely  momentary  penal- 
ties of  man,  for  the  sure  and  fearful  looking-for  of  Divine  judg- 
ment ?  I  appeal  to  those  who  haply  may  be  something  more 
than  witnesses  in  our  courts,  —  to  those  who,  by  some  turn  of 
fortune,  by  some  sudden  heat  of  passion  in  their  own  breasts,  or 
of  prejudice  or  persecution  in  the  breasts  of  others,  may,  as  any 
one  of  us  may,  stand  one  day  or  other  at  the  bar  of  their  coun- 
try, with  the  awful  issue  to  be  determined  whether  they  shall 
stand  next  at  the  bar  of  their  God.  Are  they  quite  willing  to 
take  men  as  they  come,  under  the  influence  of  such  motives  as 
happen  to  be  uppermost  in  their  minds,  and  to  unseal  those  lips 
upon  which  the  name  of  the  God  of  Truth  never  rested  but  in 
derision  or  as  a  curse  ?  For  myself,  Sir,  I  must  bow  to  the  de- 
cision of  the  majority,  but  I  protest  while  I  can,  against  one 
hair  of  my  head  being  harmed,  against  one  day  of  my  life  be- 
ing cut  off  or  doomed  to  darkness,  upon  the  mock  oath  or  even 
the  conscientious  affirmation  of  an  atheist.  I  must  be  par- 
doned, Sir,  if  I  put  no  faith  in  him  who  puts  no  faith  in  his 
God, —  if  I  refuse  to  risk  all  that  is  valuable  to  me  here,  upon 
the  word  of  one  who  knows  nothing  valuable  hereafter.  It  may 
be  called  bigotry  or  intolerance,  or  what  you  please.  When  I 
regard  infidelity  as  a  state  of  mind  wholly  independent  of  the 


192  TIIE  TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS. 

will,  I  may  feel  differently  disposed.  Now  it  seems  to  me  to 
be  wilful  and  wanton.  There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  in  the 
system  of  Providence,  nothing  more  worthy  of  the  devout  grati- 
tude of  man,  than  that  God  has  so  adapted  the  Gospel  of  his  Son, 
and  the  knowledge  of  Himself,  to  the  nature  and  the  necessities 
of  the  human  heart.  It  is  against  man's  reason,  it  is  against 
his  instincts  to  deny  or  disbelieve  them.  And  it  seems  as  if 
such  disbelief  or  denial  could  result,  at  some  stage  or  other  of 
its  existence,  from  nothing  but  a  perverse  shutting  of  the  eyes 
and  the  ears  to  those  streams  of  light  and  those  sounds  of  truth, 
which  come  up  alike  from  every  pore  of  nature  and  from  every 
page  of  revelation.  Or  perhaps,  Sir,  I  may  be  more  charitable 
in  this  respect,  when  I  consider  the  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being 
as  having  no  efficacy  to  promote  purity  of  life  or  truth  of  lan- 
guage, —  when  I  regard  atheism  as  having  no  concern  with  a 
man's  character  for  truth  and  veracity.  Now  I  consider  it  as 
the  very  test  and  criterion  of  that  character,  or  rather  as  that 
character  itself. 

I  speak  generally,  Sir,  and  not  without  remembering  that 
there  are  exceptions  to  all  rules.  And  I  was  particularly  struck 
with  the  paragraph  from  Washington's  Farewell  Address,  which 
my  friend  from  Newbury  read  to  us  the  other  day,  as  contain- 
ing a  clear  and  true  statement  of  both  the  rule  and  the  excep- 
tions. After  asking,  as  he  emphatically  does,  "  where  is  the 
security  for  property,  for  reputation,  for  life,  if  the  sense  of  reli- 
gious obligation  desert  the  oaths  which  are  the  instruments  of 
investigation  in  courts  of  justice?"  he  proceeds,  "let  us  with 
caution  indulge  the  supposition  that  morality  can  be  maintained 
without  religion.  Whatever  may  be  conceded  to  the  influence 
of  refined  education  on  minds  of  peculiar  structure,  reason 
and  experience  both  forbid  us  to  expect  that  national  morality 
can  prevail  in  exclusion  of  religious  principle."  As  if  he  had 
said,  whatever  may  be  the  influence  of  refined  education  on  the 
Humes,  the  Gibbons,  the  Jeffersons,  (if,  indeed,  Jefferson  is  to 
be  so  classed,  as  I  am  by  no  means  ready  to  admit,)  — whatever 
may  be  the  influence  of  refined  education  upon  minds  of  this 
peculiar  structure,  the  morality  of  men  in  general  can  only  result 
from  religious  principle,  preceded,  of  course,  by  religious  belief. 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  INFIDELS.  193 

But  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  has  put  to  the  House  a 
puzzling  interrogatory  relative  to  the  opinion  that  belief  and 
disbelief  are  not  altogether  independent  of  the  will,  and  has 
called  upon  us,  if  this  be  so,  to  will  ourselves  into  a  belief  that 
he  is  five-and-seventy  feet  high!  Well,  Sir,  I  call  upon  him,  in 
return,  to  be  good  enough  to  reason  himself  into  such  a  belief, 
or  to  get  at  it  in  any  way  independent  of  the  will.  None  but 
a  madman  certainly  could  ever  entertain  the  idea.  There  is  one 
step,  however,  which  any  man  might  take  towards  it;  —  he 
might  will  to  say  that  he  believed  so.  And  if  such  a  belief  is  to 
be  considered  analogous  to  a  disbelief  in  deity,  it  only  proves  that 
disbelief  ought  rather  to  be  called  denial,  and  that  there  is  really 
no  such  being  as  a  sane,  and  yet  sincere  and  conscientious  infidel. 

But  let  us  quit  these  abstractions  and  come  back  to  the  real 
questionbefore  us. 

We  are  told,  Mr.  Speaker,  and  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester 
has  entered  into  an  elaborate  argument  to  prove,  that  the  exist- 
ing rule  of  law  is  unconstitutional.  A  rule  of  law,  Sir,  which 
was  in  existence  ages  before  the  Constitution  was  adopted, — 
which  has  been  in  existence  during  the  whole  fifty  years  since  it 
was  adopted,  —  and  which  must  have  been,  all  along,  well  known 
and  understood  by  the  Convention  who  framed,  and  by  the  People 
who  ratified  that  Constitution,  —  has  at  length  in  this  day,  and 
almost  in  this  very  hour,  been  discovered  to  be  wholly  at  war 
with  the  true  spirit  and  just  construction  of  that  sacred  instru- 
ment! Parsons,  Lowell,  Sewall,  Cushing,  who  afterwards  so 
ably  presided,  Adams,  Strong,  Sullivan,  Lincoln,  who  both 
before  and  afterwards  so  largely  practised,  in  our  highest  courts, 
and  to  whom  the  rules  of  evidence  were  as  familiar  as  house- 
hold words,  —  they  all  failed  to  comprehend,  or  forgot  to  vindi- 
cate, the  principles  of  that  Bill  of  Rights,  which  they  had 
themselves  so  carefully  framed!  Mr.  Speaker,  the  argument 
will  not  even  bear  to  be  stated  ;  it  perishes  in  the  very  utter- 
ance. Sir,  there  were  brave  men  before  Agamemnon.  There 
were  wise  men  before  Solomon.  And  it  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
that  there  were  men  who  could  construe  our  Constitution  and 
comprehend  our  liberties,  before  even  the  gentleman  from  Glou- 
cester or  myself.  Yes,  Sir,  to  use  the  language  of  Edmund 
17 


194  THE  TESTIMONY   OP  INFIDELS. 

Burke,  true  ideas  of  liberty  "  were  understood  long  before  we 
were  born,  altogether  as  well  as  they  will  be  after  the  grave  has 
heaped  its  mould  upon  our  presumption,  and  the  silent  tomb 
shall  have  imposed  its  law  on  our  pert  loquacity." 

But,  waiving  an  answer  which  to  my  mind  is  so  conclusive, 
the  gentleman  has  himself  furnished  us  with  a  weapon  which 
is  equally  fatal  to  his  constitutional  argument.  He  has  re- 
minded us  of  that,  indeed,  which  we  all  probably  remembered 
for  ourselves,  that  up  to  the  year  1820  there  existed  a  provision 
in  our  Constitution,  that  no  man  should  enter  these  Halls  of 
Legislation  without  making  a  previous  declaration  of  his  belief 
in  the  Christian  Religion ;  —  a  provision  which,  for  one,  I  heartily 
regret  was  ever  struck  out  from  that  instrument.  Well,  now, 
Sir,  the  first  and  second  articles  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  upon  which 
his  argument  has  been  mainly  based,  are  entirely  unchanged ; 
they  are  precisely  and  literally  the  same  as  when  they  were 
first  ratified  by  the  people.  These  articles  at  their  adoption,  then, 
were  entirely  consistent  with  the  religious  test,  as  gentlemen  in- 
sist upon  calling  it,  which  the  Convention  of  1820  abolished. 
No  construction  of  them,  certainly,  is  to  be  admitted,  which 
would  render  them  inconsistent  with  a  provision  which  so  long 
stood  by  their  side,  of  equal  authority  and  in  the  same  instru- 
ment. And  if  they  were  consistent  with  this  provision  at  their 
adoption,  are  they  any  the  less  so  now  ?  If  it  were  proposed  to 
re-insert  this  provision,  would  any  gentleman  have  the  face  to 
say  that  it  was  unconstitutional,  or  inconsistent  with  the  existing 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  ?  And  if  that  declaration  might 
still  be  required  without  any  violation  of  the  Bill  of  Rights, 
how  much  more  such  an  expression  of  belief  as  the  Bill  before 
us  would  forbid  ? 

I  confess,  Sir,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  any  man,  who 
has  ever  read  our  Constitution  as  originally  framed,  or  as  it  now 
exists,  can  listen  a  moment  to  such  an  argument.  If  any  thing 
be  clearer  than  another  on  its  face,  it  is,  that  it  was  intended  to 
constitute  a  Christian  State.  I  deny  totally  the  gentleman's 
position,  that  the  religious  expressions  it  contains  were  intended 
only  to  show  forth  the  pious  sentiments  of  those  who  framed  it. 
They  were  intended  to  incorporate  into  our  system  the  principles 


THE  TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS.  195 

of  Christianity,  —  principles  which  belonged  not  only  to  those  who 
framed,  but  to  the  whole  people  who  adopted  it.  Sir,  the  people 
of  that  day  were  a  Christian  people  ;  they  adopted  a  Christian 
Constitution;  they  no  more  contemplated  the  existence  of  infi- 
delity than  the  Athenian  laws  provided  against  the  perpetration 
of  parricide.  They  established  a  Christian  Commonwealth; 
they  wrote  upon  its  walls,  Salvation,  and  upon  its  gates,  Praise ; 
and  Christianity  is  as  clearly  now  its  corner-stone,  as  if  the  ini- 
tial letter  of  every  page  of  our  Statute  Book,  like  that  of  some 
monkish  manuscript,  were  illuminated  with  the  figure  of  the 
Cross ! 

And  yet,  Sir,  we  are  told  that  it  is  a  mere  quibble  to  interpret 
the  phrase,  "religious  sentiments,"  in  the  second  article  of  the 
Bill  of  Rights,  in  any  other  way  than  "  sentiments  about  reli- 
gion,"—  its  truth  or  its  falsity;  and  a  gross  equivocation  not  to 
admit  atheists  to  be  one  of  those  "  sects  or  denominations,"  of 
which  "  no  subordination  of  any  one  to  another  shall  ever  be 
established  by  law !  "  Why,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  these  views  of  our 
Constitution  be  correct,  how  is  it  that  yonder  Chaplain  is  suffered, 
morning  after  morning,  to  lift  his  voice  in  prayer  in  this  hall,  and 
to  invoke  the  blessing  of  the  Christian's  God  upon  us  and  upon 
our  labors  ?  How  is  it  that,  week  after  week,  a  day  is  set  aside 
for  the  worship  of  that  God,  and  its  solemn  observance  enjoined 
and  enforced  by  our  laws  ?  How  is  it  that  profane  and  blas- 
phemous words  or  writings  concerning  that  God  and  his  Gospel 
are  punished  as  crimes  against  the  State?  Nay,  the  very  sys- 
tem of  oaths  which  our  Constitution  itself  prescribes  as  the 
passports  to  every  office  which  it  creates,  —  why  are  they  not 
abolished  as  interfering  with  the  "unalienable  rights"  of  man? 
Gentlemen  seem  to  think  that,  because  the  declaration  of  belief 
in  the  Christian  Religion  is  not  now  required  in  order  to  obtain 
admittance  within  these  seats,  there  is  no  longer  any  exclu- 
sion. But  the  oath  still  remains,  and  there  is  no  provision  by 
which  any  person  but  Quakers  can  be  permitted  to  affirm.  It  is 
clear  then,  that  all  persons  except  Quakers,  who  from  any  cause 
are  incapable  of  taking  an  oath,  are  incompetent  to  the  offices 
of  government.  They  may,  indeed,  chicane  themselves  into 
them.     They  may  go  through  the  forms  of  the  oath,  and  as 


196  THE  TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS. 

the  Constitution  now  stands,  perhaps  no  man  can  gainsay  or 
resist  them.  But  they  must  enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  knowing, 
that  they  violate  the  spirit  and  intent  of  the  Constitution,  in 
the  very  act  by  which  they  bind  themselves  to  support  it. 

And  here  let  me  say,  to  those  who  so  rigidly  maintain  the  doc- 
trine that  the  inquiry  into  a  man's  religious  belief,  which  this 
Bill  proposes  to  abolish,  is  an  interference  between  a  man  and 
his  Maker,  (a  plea,  by  the  way,  which  no  atheist  certainly  will  pre- 
sume to  set  up  for  himself,  since  he  acknowledges  no  Maker,)  — 
that  the  oath  itself  to  which  this  inquiry  is  previous,  is  a  ten- 
fold greater  interference,  and  that  they  take  their  exception 
at  the  wrong  place.  An  oath  is  an  acknowledgment  of  God. 
A  compulsory  oath  is  a  compulsory  acknowledgment  of  God. 
And  those  who  submit  to  the  administration  of  an  oath,  and  yet 
refuse  to  submit  to  the  previous  inquiry,  may  fairly  be  said  to 
"  strain  at  a  gnat  and  swallow  a  camel." 

But  it  is  a  test.  Well,  Sir,  and  what  if  it  is  ?  I  do  not  know 
that  a  thing  is  any  the  worse  in  itself  for  having  an  odious 
name  applied  to  it.  I  admit  that  it  is  a  test.  And  if  gentlemen 
point  me  to  the  persecution  and  oppression  of  which  tests  have 
been  the  instruments  in  other  ages  and  other  climes,  all  I  can  say 
is,  that  this  is  not  such  a  test.  Because  things  may  bear  the 
same  appellation,  they  are  not  necessarily  the  same  or  similar 
things,  any  more  than  it  follows,  because  the  gentleman  from 
Gloucester  and  myself  were  christened  alike,  that  he  and  I 
should  necessarily  advocate  the  same  doctrines,  or  that  I  should 
be  gifted  with  the  same  ingenuity  and  eloquence  that  he  is.  It 
is  a  test.  But  it  is  not  a  religious  test,  any  more  than  it  is  a 
chemical  test.  It  is  a  test  of  a  man's  capacity  to  take  an  oath, 
and  that  is  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end  of  the  whole  matter. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  seems  to  me  that  under  the  present  system  of 
oaths,  this  test,  instead  of  being  a  persecution  and  oppression  of 
an  atheist,  is  a  positive  protection  and  favor  to  him,  enabling 
him  to  escape  from  a  ceremonial  acknowledgment  of  a  God  in 
whom  he  does  not  believe.  And  why  any  Christian  should  ob- 
ject to  it,  I  confess  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive.  There  seems  to 
be  a  morbid  and  mawkish  sensibility  in  some  men's  minds  upon 
this  and  other  subjects,  which  if  the  law  should  regard,  instead  of 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF   INFIDELS.  197 

being  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  the  perfection  of  human  reason, 
it  would  become  the  mere  patchwork  of  human  whims. 

But,  says  the  gentleman  from  Cambridge,  as  the  rule  now 
stands,  the  atheist  is  an  outlaw.  From  what  right,  Sir,  or  what 
privilege  ?  I  had  generally  supposed  that  to  be  a  witness  was 
an  unpleasant  and  onerous  duty,  from  which  men  were  not  sorry 
to  be  exempt.  But  an  atheist  may  be  murdered  in  the  streets, 
or  assassinated,  or  assaulted,  when  none  but  atheists  are  near,  and 
how  shall  justice  be  administered  in  his  behalf?  Why,  so  may 
a  Christian  be  injured  or  killed  under  precisely  the  same  circum- 
stances. And  if  the  atheist  be  therefore  an  outlaw,  we  are  all 
outlaws.  You  and  I,  Sir,  may  need  the  testimony  of  atheists  as 
much  as  any  of  their  own  tribe.  For  myself,  I  am  content  to 
take  the  risk.  But  admitting  that  there  may  be  some  cases  in 
which  the  rule  will  work  hardly  upon  the  atheist  exclusively, 
whose  fault  is  it?  Who  outlaws  him?  Has  society  withheld 
from  him  any  of  those  means  of  religious  knowledge  and  edu- 
cation which  she  has  so  liberally  provided  for  others  ?  Has  God 
denied  to  him  those  inlets  of  truth  and  those  influences  of 
grace,  which  he  has  so  freely  bestowed  upon  the  rest  of  his  child- 
ren ?  But  I  refrain  from  a  topic  on  which  I  have  already  ex- 
pressed an  opinion. 

It  is  a  little  curious,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  so  much  of  this  debate 
upon  a  subject  so  closely  connected  with  the  practice  of  our 
Courts,  should  have  been  taken  up  with  a  discussion  of  abstract 
principles.  At  the  outset  of  the  debate,  indeed,  nothing  but 
these  abstract  principles  was  relied  on  in  favor  of  the  bill.  Gen- 
tlemen gave  us  an  abundance  of  "  wise  saws,"  but  no  "  modern 
instances ; "  nor,  indeed,  ancient  ones  either,  though  the  annals 
of  infidelity  seemed  to  have  been  raked  back  for  centuries.  Dur- 
ing the  last  day  or  two,  however,  the  discussion  has  assumed 
rather  a  more  practical  cast.  And  the  friends  of  the  Bill  have 
exhibited  to  us  some  cases  of  the  bad  operation  of  the  present 
rule.  But,  Sir,  with  one  or  two  trivial  and  wholly  unimportant 
exceptions,  the  cases  are  all  supposed  cases ;  the  facts  are  all 
imaginary  facts;  the  evils  are  all  invented  evils.  And  what  is 
there  under  the  sun,  which  will  stand  against  such  arguments  ? 
There  is  nothing  so  pure,  nothing  so  holy,  nothing  so  useful,  no* 

17* 


198  THE   TESTIMONY   OF  INFIDELS. 

thing  of  such  good  report  on  earth  or,  I  had  almost  said,  in 
Heaven,  which  an  ingenious  imagination,  which  a  subtle  inven- 
tion, may  not, —  I  do  not  say  merely,  find  fault  with,  and  pick 
flaws  in,  —  but  which  they  may  not  show  up  in  such  a  deformed, 
distorted,  and  monstrous  shape,  as  to  startle  every  one  whom 
they  address.  And,  Sir,  if  we  are  to  yield  ourselves  up  to  the 
influence  of  such  suggestions,  we  shall  "  subtilize  ourselves  into 
savages."  Our  ship  of  state,  instead  of  holding  on  that  high 
career  of  Constitutional  liberty,  which  now  lies  open  before  it, 
will  be  swung  off  upon  a  sea  of  speculation,  —  the  sport  of 
every  wind  of  doctrine  and  every  wave  of  opinion,  which  may 
blow  or  beat  upon  her  sides. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  already  dwelt  too  long  upon  a  subject 
which  had  been  wellnigh  exhausted  before  I  gained  the  floor. 
Yet  I  cannot  conclude  without  alluding  to  some  remarks  which 
fell  from  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  at  the  very  open- 
ing of  the  debate,  and  which  yesterday  received  some  notice 
from  the  gentleman  from  Newburyport.  I  refer  to  his  com- 
ments upon  a  recent  charge  of  one  of  the  Judges  of  our  Su- 
preme Court.  I  understood  him  to  say,  that  the  learned  Judge 
used  language  of  this  sort,  —  that,  if  any  man  entertained  doubts 
or  a  disbelief  of  the  Christian  Religion,  he  ought  to  keep  such 
sentiments  to  himself.  And  the  gentleman  has  inferred  from  this 
language,  that  the  Judge  would  recommend  hypocrisy  to  the 
people,  and  perhaps,  therefore,  would  not  shrink  from  practising 
it  himself.  Sir,  if  any  such  inference  may  fairly  and  reasonably 
be  drawn,  I  freely  submit  myself,  in  company  with  the  learned 
Judge,  to  whatever  censure  it  involves.  I  indorse  the  sentiment, 
if  it  be  not  presumption  so  to  speak,  and  adopt  it  as  my  own. 
I  hold  it  to  be  the  duty,  the  moral,  the  social  duty,  (and  to  such 
a  man  there  can  be  no  higher,)  of  every  one  who  may  have  fallen 
into  such  a  state  of  mind,  to  conceal  it,  I  had  almost  said,  even 
from  himself.  Nay,  further,  I  maintain  that  any  intelligent  man, 
whose  mind  has  thus  been  turned  back  from  its  highest  and 
noblest  object  of  knowledge  and  devotion,  but  who  still  sees 
clearly,  as  any  intelligent  man  must  see,  the  infinite  blessings 
which  Christianity  has  bestowed  upon  mankind,  the  comforts 
and  joys  in  life,  the  consolation  and  hopes  in  death,  which  it  has 


THE   TESTIMONY    OF   INEIDELS.  199 

afforded  to  the  individual  man,  the  civilization,  refinement,  peace, 
prosperity,  and  freedom  which  it  has  given  to  the  world  at  large, 
—  yes,  freedom,  Sir,  —  for  under  what  other  auspices  than  those 
of  the  Gospel,  have  the  rights  of  men  been  most  successfully 
asserted  and  maintained?  —  at  what  other  beams  than  those  of 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  was  our  own  loved  star  of  liberty 
first  kindled  into  being  and  brilliancy  ? —  any  intelligent  man, 
I  repeat,  who,  seeing  all  this,  can  yet  go  about  preaching  up 
and  making  proselytes  to  his  own  accursed  infidelity, —  how- 
ever he  may  have  the  image  of  God  upon  his  brow,  can  have 
nothing  but  the  spirit  of  a  demon  in  his  breast. 
I  hope  the  House  will  reject  the  Bill. 


PROTECTION  TO  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 

A    SPEECH   DELIVERED    IN    THE    HOUSE   OF    REPRESENTATIVES   OF    MASSA- 
CHUSETTS, FEBRUARY     15,  1837. 


I  have  hinted,  Mr.  Speaker,  more  than  once  in  the  course  of 
this  debate,  while  expressing  my  views  of  the  various  amend- 
ments which  have  been  offered  to  the  paper  on  your  table,  that 
I  might  trouble  the  House  with  a  few  remarks  upon  the  general 
question,  whenever  that  question  should  come  up.  It  is  now 
before  as.  The  proposed  amendments  have  all  been  rejected, 
and  the  original  resolutions,  in  the  form  in  which  they  first 
came  from  the  committee-room,  unmutilated  and  unaltered, 
are  now  awaiting  oar  ultimate  action.  I  confess,  Sir,  that  I 
had  expected,  in  this  stage  of  the  question,  to  see  some  re- 
demption of  the  pledges  which  were  so  abundantly  given  out 
when  the  subject  was  introduced  into  the  House.  I  had  ex- 
pected that  those  who  were  so  eager  and  so  bold  to  throw  down 
the  gauntlet  of  defiance  at  the  outset  of  this  business,  and  to 
cast  such  unmeasured  terms  of  contumely  and  contempt  upon 
the  principles  which  these  resolutions  embody,  would  have 
favored  us,  at  this  point  of  the  controversy,  with  something 
beside  hard  words,  gratuitous  assertions,  or  even  jocular  sallies 
to  quarrel  with.  But  though  every  opportunity  has  been  af- 
forded, and  almost  every  provocation  offered,  though  the  gaunt- 
let originally  thrown  down  has  not  only  thrice  been  taken  up, 
but  fearlessly  and  repeatedly  brandished  in  the  very  eyes  of  those 
from  whom  it  fell,  no  champion  of  free  trade  has  yet  appeared 
in  the  lists,  and,  so  far  as  the  principles  of  the  Protecting  Sys- 
tem are  concerned,  we  are  still  left  to  make  battle  upon  an 
imaginary  foe.  Sir,  I  have  no  disposition  to  protract  this  one- 
sided contest.      I  willl  not  conjure  up  shapes  of  opposition.     I 


PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY.  201 

will  not  enter  gratuitously  upon  the  dull  discussion  of  abstract 
principles,  or  the  dry  narration  of  statistical  details.  Whatever 
pains  I  may  have  taken  in  preparation  for  such  a  task,  I  gladly 
forget;  —  whatever  satisfaction  I  may  have  anticipated  in  the 
performance  of  it,  I  willingly  forego.  I  will  only  pray  the  pa- 
tience of  the  House  for  a  few  minutes,  while,  quitting  the  path 
which  I  had  marked  out  for  myself  in  advance,  burning  my 
books,  blotting  out  my  figures,  and  religiously  eschewing  all 
entertainment  of  abstract  principles,  I  take  up  the  question 
where  I  find  it  this  morning,  or  rather  where  the  gentleman 
from  Gloucester  left  it  yesterday. 

Sir,  I  understood  that  gentleman  (Mr.  Rantoul)  to  say,  in 
reply  to  the  honorable  member  from  Nantucket,  (Mr.  Burnell,) 
who  had  ventured  to  introduce  the  names  of  John  Hancock  and 
Samuel  Adams  into  this  discussion,  that  could  those  sacred 
shades  be  summoned,  at  this  moment,  from  their  abode,  they 
would  be  among  the  first  and  foremost  to  protest  against  the 
unconstitutional  system  of  taxation  which  these  resolutions 
support  and  advocate,  —  that  they  would  resist  it  in  the  same 
tones  and  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  they  once  resisted  the 
tyrannical  taxation  of  Great  Britain.  It  would  be  easy,  Mr. 
Speaker,  to  argue  out,  to  almost  any  length,  the  countless  dis- 
tinctions between  the  Tariff  of  our  own  Congress  and  the  taxa- 
tion without  representation  imposed  upon  the  American  Colo- 
nies by  a  British  Parliament.  But  I  propose  to  answer  this 
singular  position  by  no  such  process.  I  propose  to  confine  my- 
self, on  this  point  of  the  question,  to  the  simple  recital  of  one 
or  two  authentic  anecdotes,  which  I  am  sure  will  not  be  unin- 
teresting in  themselves,  and  which  are  worth  a  brainful  of  argu- 
ments upon  this  precise  issue.  They  are  not  new,  Sir.  I  can 
claim  no  credit  for  having  hunted  them  out  from  the  heap  of 
forgotten  history.  The  research  of  others  has  done  this,  and 
the  eloquence  of  others  has  embalmed  them  beyond  all  danger 
of  future  oblivion.  But  so  entirely  pertinent  are  they  to  the 
remark  of  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  and  to  the  whole 
question  before  us,  that  I  trust  I  shall  be  pardoned  the  plagia- 
rism, if  such  it  ought  to  be  called,  of  relating  them  on  this  occa- 
sion, as  nearly  as  I  can  remember,  in  the  form  in  which  I  have 
found  them  elsewhere. 


202  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

The  Protecting  System  an  unconstitutional  system,  and  John 
Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  rising  from  their  graves  to  resist 
it!  Let  us  go  back  in  imagination,  Mr.  Speaker,  about  three- 
and-fifty  years.  Let  us  transport  ourselves  to  the  scenes  and 
the  circumstances  of  that  distant  day.  The  War  of  the  Revo- 
lution is  ended.  The  banners  of  liberty  are  at  last  waving  in 
triumph  over  the  fields  upon  which  they  have  so  often  drooped 
in  blood.  The  strife,  the  clash,  the  groan,  the  shout,  are  all 
over.  But  not  so  the  private  distress  and  the  public  depression. 
These,  if  not  absolutely  greater  than  during  the  heat  of  the 
war,  are  certainly  more  severely  felt.  No  all-absorbing  excite- 
ment drives  them  from  the  thought,  —  no  all-animating  hope 
alleviates  them  to  the  feeling.  That  hope  is  realized,  and  the 
fruition  has  commenced. 

The  Atlantic  seaboard  is  the  principal  scene  of  this  distress, 
and  the  ship-owners,  the  ship-builders,  and  the  various  classes 
of  mechanics  to  which  commerce  gives  support,  are  the  princi- 
pal sufferers.  They  are  all  destitute  of  employment,  and  some 
of  them  of  bread.  British  ships  are  entering  their  ports  daily 
and  are  deeply  laden  with  British  goods,  but  their  own  ships 
and  their  own  goods  have  neither  protection  at  home  nor  free 
trade  abroad.  There  is  no  power  under  the  existing  confedera- 
tion to  adopt  a  general  system  of  imposts,  nor  can  any  indi- 
vidual State  successfully  establish  such  a  system  for  itself.  Un- 
der these  circumstances  the  idea  of  a  Voluntary  Association, 
which  had  been  so  effective  in  the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act  and 
the  Tea  Tax,  is  proposed,  and  a  public  meeting  is  held  on  the 
subject  by  the  merchants  and  ship-builders  of  Boston.  A  Com- 
mittee is  appointed  to  draft  an  address  to  the  people,  and  they 
are  expressly  instructed  to  call  upon  them,  in  the  strongest 
terms,  not  to  buy  or  consume  any  articles  which  were  imported 
in  British  ships.  And  who  is  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
to  whom  this  work  is  intrusted  ?  It  is  John  Hancock,  Sir,  — 
the  same  who  is  now  summoned  from  his  grave  to  protest 
against  the  abominable  policy  of  a  Protecting  System. 

The  address  is  drafted,  the  appeal  is  made,  and  the  me- 
chanics of  Boston  are  now  assembled  to  respond  to  it.  They 
cordially  concur  in  the  doctrines  of  the  merchants,  —  they  agree 


PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY.  203 

to  the  principle  that  American  shipping  ought  to  be  protected, 
and  that  British  goods  ought  not  to  be  bought  or  consumed 
when  imported  in  British  ships.  Bat  they  do  not  stop  here. 
They  are  for  carrying  the  system  of  protection  a  step  farther, 
and  they  insist,  in  their  turn,  that  these  British  goods  ought  not 
to  be  bought  or  consumed  at  all.  "  For,"  say  they,  "  Mr.  Han- 
cock, what  difference  does  it  make  to  us,  whether  hats,  shoes, 
boots,  shirts,  handkerchiefs,  tin-ware,  brass-ware,  cutlery,  and 
every  other  article,  come  in  British  ships  or  come  in  your  ships ; 
since,  in  whatever  ships  they  come,  they  take  away  our  means 
of  living."  It  does  not  appear,  Mr.  Speaker,  what  answer  was 
given  by  Mr.  Hancock  to  this  pregnant  interrogatory.  I  know 
not  what  answer  he  could  have  given  but  one  of  assent  and 
approbation.  At  all  events  we  see  him  here  one  of  the  earliest 
advocates  of  a  protecting  policy ;  and  who  can  doubt  that  could 
the  conjuration  of  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  summon  him 
out  of  his  grave  in  the  faith  in  which  he  went  down  into  it,  he 
would  be  found  so  still?  But  let  us  turn  to  another  scene,  and 
another  character. 

Let  us  come  down,  Sir,  to  the  beginning  of  the  year  1788. 
The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  in  the  process  of 
adoption.  Four  or  five  States  have  already  given  it  their 
sanction,  but  as  many  more  are  required  to  carry  it  into  ope- 
ration. The  decision  in  other  States  is  extremely  doubtful,  and 
nowhere  more  so  than  in  Massachusetts,  whose  Convention 
is  now  in  session.  John  Hancock,  it  is  well  known,  is  Pre- 
sident of  this  Convention,  but  Samuel  Adams  also  is  a  con- 
spicuous member.  He  is  naturally  of  a  cautious  and  doubting 
disposition,  and  has  many  fears  of  the  practicability  and  safety 
of  the  proposed  form  of  government.  The  whole  weight  of  his 
name  and  character  are  consequently  arrayed  at  the  outset 
against  its  adoption,  when  suddenly  a  change  comes  over  his 
views,  and  is  visible  in  his  conduct.  The  mechanics  of  Boston 
have  held  a  meeting  at  the  Green  Dragon.  They  have  passed 
resolutions.  They  have  sent  those  resolutions  to  Mr.  Adams  by 
the  hand  of  Paul  Revere.  "  How  many  mechanics,"  says  Mr. 
Adams,  "  were  there  at  the  Green  Dragon  when  these  resolu- 
tions were  adopted?"  "More  than  the  Green  Dragon  could 
hold."     "  And  where  were  the  rest  ?  "     "  In  the  streets."     "  And 


204  PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

how  many  were  there  in  the  streets  ?  "  "  More  than  there  are 
stars  in  the  sky."  *I  see  before  me,  Mr.  Speaker,  one  of  the  very 
mechanics  who  met  at  the  Green  Dragon  on  this  eventful  occa- 
sion. My  venerable  friend  and  colleague  (Zachariah  Hicks) 
was  not  merely  a  witness  but  a  party  to  this  scene.  He  was  a 
"Whig  in  that  day,  as  he  is  in  this.  And  what  were  the  resolu- 
tions which  he  assisted  in  passing  ?  They  declared  that,  if  the 
Constitution  were  adopted,  "  trade  and  navigation  would  revive 
and  increase,  and  employ  and  subsistence  be  afforded  to  many 
of  the  townsmen  then  suffering  for  the  want  of  the  necessaries 
of  life,"  while,  on  the  contrary,  should  the  Constitution  be  re- 
jected, H  the  small  remains  of  commerce  yet  left  would  be  anni- 
hilated —  the  various  trades  and  handicrafts  dependent  thereon 
decay  ;  the  poor  be  increased,  and  many  worthy  and  skilful  me- 
chanics be  compelled  to  seek  employ  and  subsistence  in  strange 
lands."  These  were  the  doctrines  of  the  mechanics  of  that  day; 
—  these  were  the  hopes  which  they  entertained  in  advocating 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  ; — encouragement  to  their  own 
labor  and  protection  from  foreign  competition.  And  partly,  at 
least,  under  the  influence  of  these  doctrines  and  these  hopes, 
thus  expressed  and  thus  conveyed,  Samuel  Adams  abandons  all 
opposition  to  the  Constitution,  and  John  Hancock  unites  with 
him  in  its  favor.  There  is  no  longer  any  doubt ;  the  question 
is  decided;  and  Massachusetts  gives,  as  it  were,  the  very  casting 
vote  in  favor  of  the  Constitution.  The  example  of  conciliatory 
moderation  which  she  sets,  in  proposing  amendments  to  be 
acted  on  after  its  adoption  instead  of  before,  is  followed  by  other 
States,  and  the  ratification  is  soon  complete.  And  yet  we  are 
now  told,  Sir,  that  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock,  could 
they  rise  from  the  dead,  would  be  among  the  first  and  foremost 
to  protest  against  the  Protecting  System  as  an  unconstitutional 
system  of  taxation ! 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  anecdotes  which  I  have  related  do  not 
simply  demonstrate  the  absurdity  of  this  idea.  They  do  not 
only  prove  to  us  which  side  these  distinguished  persons,  if  per- 
mitted to  revisit  this  scene  of  their  patriotic  labors,  would  take 
in  the  questions  before  us.  They  also  exhibit  to  us  distinctly 
the  circumstances  and  the  sentiments  under  which  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  was  adopted,  and  the  immediate  ad- 


PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY.  205 

vantages  which  were  expected  from  its  adoption.  Compare, 
now,  these  two  incidents  together  ;  look  at  the  cause  of  the  de- 
pression and  distress  which  pervaded  the  country,  as  explained 
in  the  first,  and  at  the  remedy  which  was  prescribed  and  adminis- 
tered in  the  last,  and  then  add  a  single  other  fact  to  your  view  — 
a  fact,  which  the  published  statutes  of  the  country  attest, — 
that  the  very  first  Revenue  Act  which  was  adopted  by  Congress 
after  the  Constitution  went  into  operation,  contained  in  its  pre- 
amble the  express  declaration,  that  the  duties  it  imposed  were 
laid  not  only  for  the  support  of  government  and  the  discharge 
of  the  public  debts,  but  for  the  encouragement  and  protection 
of  manufactures;  —  and  then  give  sentence  with  me,  Sir,  as  to 
the  unconstitutionality  of  this  system  of  taxation ! 

But  let  me  turn  from  argument  to  authority  upon  this  point. 
The  gentleman  told  us  the  other  day  that  Daniel  Webster 
once  asserted  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  Tariff.  Now,  it  is 
true,  I  believe,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  this  distinguished  statesman 
did  venture  to  say,  some  twenty  years  ago,  in  the  deliberate 
form  of  a  Caucus  Speech,  that,  as  an  original  question,  —  the 
practice  of  government  set  aside,  —  the  power  of  Congress  to  lay 
duties  for  protection  was,  in  his  opinion,  a  more  doubtful  one 
than  that  to  expend  money  in  Internal  Improvements.  Some- 
thing of  this  sort  he  has  himself  confessed.  But,  most  for- 
tunately, Sir,  he  has  also  confessed  under  what  influence  it  was 
that  he  resolved  these  doubts,  —  at  the  feet  of  what  Gamaliel  he 
unlearned  this  opinion.  It  was  James  Madison,  we  are  told, 
who  satisfied  Mr.  Webster  on  this  point,  so  far  as  the  practice 
of  government  had  left  it  an  open  question — James  Madison  — 
whose  opinions,  I  had  supposed  to  be  the  very  scale  and  stand- 
ard of  true,  old-fashioned  Republicanism.  The  vaunted  demo- 
cracy of  the  present  day,  it  seems,  is  seeking  newer  lights,  and 
it  is  welcome  to  the  whole  benefit  of  their  brilliancy.  But  there 
are  those  in  this  House,  and  a  majority,  too,  I  believe,  who  de- 
sire no  better  authority,  on  this  subject  at  least,  than  that  of 
James  Madison,  and  who  will  rest  their  belief  in  the  constitu- 
tionality of  the  Tariff  on  his  opinions,  without  any  fear  or  any 
misgiving. 

But  the  anecdotes  which  I  have  related  have  still  another  ap- 
18 


206  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

plication.  They  teach  us,  Sir,  what  class  of  our  citizens  were 
most  deeply  interested  in  that  general  system  of  imposts  which 
the  Constitution  established,  and  in  the  encouragement  and 
protection  of  manufactures  which  that  system  was  intended  to 
involve.  They  teach  us  whose  "  means  of  living  were  taken 
away  "  by  the  free  importation  of  British  goods  and  the  free 
entry  of  British  ships,  and  who  "  would  be  compelled  to  seek 
employ  and  subsistence  in  strange  lands  "  unless  'the  power  of 
regulating  trade  and  protecting  manufactures  were  conferred 
upon  the  general  government.  And,  Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  now  as 
it  was  then.  It  is  not  the  rich  capitalists  and  corporations,  who 
are  so  artfully  chimed  upon  in  every  other  sentence  of  Mr.  Cam- 
breleng's  Report,  and  to  whom  the  people  of  the  country  are 
falsely  represented  as  paying  an  involuntary  and  odious  tribute, 
—  no,  Sir,  it  is  the  artisan,  the  mechanic,  and  the  tradesfolk, 
who  will  suffer  before  all  others  and  more  than  all  others  if  the 
protecting  system  be  abolished.  It  is  the  wages  and  earnings 
of  the  laboring  poor  which  will  be  affected  first  and  affected 
most  by  such  a  step.  It  is  one  of  the  blessings  which  this 
country  has  hitherto  enjoyed,  that  the  natural  rate  of  wages  is 
high,  —  higher  than  anywhere  else  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 
The  gentleman  from  Gloucester  will  not  disagree  with  me  in 
the  position  that  this  is  a  blessing,  and  that  the  condition  of 
that  country  is  most  prosperous  and  most  happy  where  labor 
receives  the  largest  reward.  But  it  is  this  same  high  rate  of 
wages  which  makes  us  enter  upon  the  manufacturing  system  to 
so  great  disadvantage.  I  find,  in  the  last  number  of  the  Ameri- 
can Almanac,  a  statement  which  speaks  volumes  on  this  subject. 
That  excellent  periodical  contains  a  table  of  the  average  wages 
of  all  persons  employed  in  the  Cotton  manufacture,  in  almost 
every  country  where  the  Cotton  manufacture  exists.  It  is  as 
follows :  — 

In  India  —  from  1  to  2  shillings  sterling  per  week. 

In  Saxony  —  2s.  6d. 

In  Austria  —  3s.  9c?. 

In  Switzerland — 4s.  5d. 

In  France  —  5s.  6^. 

In  England  —  about  10s.  sometimes  12s. 

In  the  United  States  —  about  14s.  lit?. 


PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY.  207 

I  know  no  reason,  Sir,  for  supposing  that  this  disparity  is 
confined  to  the  wages  of  those  employed  in  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  ;  —  every  reason,  on  the  other  hand,  for  believing  it  to  run 
through  the  whole  range  of  human  labor.  Indeed,  we  need  no 
statistical  tables  to  teach  us  this  fact.  The  unebbing  tide  of 
immigration  which  is  daily  flinging  upon  our  shores  such  masses 
of  life  and  limb,  proves  to  us  beyond  all  doubt,  that  there  is 
something  in  our  condition  which  Labor  will  leave  home  and 
kindred  and  country  to  obtain.  Nor  are  we  at  a  loss  to  account 
for  this  thriving  condition  of  American  labor.  To  say  nothing 
of  moral,  social,  or  political  causes,  —  the  cheapness,  fertility,  and 
abundance  of  our  Western  lands,  holding  out  to  the  laborer  a 
temptation,  which  nothing  but  a  rate  of  wages  bearing  some 
degree  of  equality  to  the  certain  profits  of  his  own  produce 
upon  that  luxuriant  soil  can  check  or  counteract,  is  alone  suffi- 
cient to  explain  it.  —  But  I  find  myself  departing  from  my  pro- 
mise to  abstain  from  abstract  discussion.  I  will  only  repeat  my 
conviction,  that  it  is  labor  more  than  any  other  element  in  our 
manufacturing  capacities,  which  demands  protection  of  the 
government ;  that  it  is  labor  which  has  hitherto  received  the 
greatest  share  of  that  protection  which  the  Tariff  has  been  ar- 
ranged to  afford ;  and  that  it  is  labor  which  must  bear  the  heavi- 
est burden  of  discouragement  and  loss  whenever  that  protection 
is  abandoned.  The  profits  of  capitalists  and  corporations !  De- 
pend upon  it,  Mr.  Speaker,  domestic  competition  will  take  care 
that  these  are  not  too  high,  and  if  there  be  not  capital  enough  at 
home  to  furnish  that  competition,  foreign  capital  will  flow  freely 
in  to  its  aid.  It  is  no  part  of  the  protecting  system  to  prevent 
that  kind  of  competition,  nor  does  it  in  any  considerable  de- 
gree do  so.  But  the  competition  of  the  half-clad,  half-starved, 
and  wholly  uneducated  labor  of  the  Old  World,  with  the  well- 
dressed,  well-fed,  virtuous,  and  educated  labor  of  our  own  land  — 
a  competition  which,  with  but  a  slight  tendency  to  elevate  or 
improve  the  one,  would  have  the  certain  effect  of  dragging  down 
and  degrading  the  other,  —  this  the  Protecting  System  does 
provide  against,  and  God  grant  that  such  a  provision  may  never 
be  abandoned ! 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  paper  on  your  table  has  more  than  once  been 


208  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

denominated,  both  by  its  friends  and  foes,  a  confession  of  faith, 
and  I  am  inclined  to  ascribe  to  the  associations  which  this  term 
always  brings  along  with  it,  a  good  deal  of  that  microscopic 
criticism  which  we  have  witnessed  for  a  few  days  past.  Sir,  if 
by  this  term  —  a  confession  of  faith  —  it  only  be  intended  that 
the  paper  contains  propositions  which  ought  to  be  believed  before 
they  are  assented  to,  it  is  as  true  of  this  as  it  is  of  every  other 
document  which  is  introduced  within  these  walls.  But  if  this 
appellation  be  intended  to  convey  the  idea  that  there  is  any 
thing  theoretic  or  speculative,  any  thing  abstract  or  abstruse,  any 
thing  of  mere  closet  meditation  or  moonlight  philosophy,  about 
these  Resolutions,  I  entirely  dissent  from  the  justice  of  the 
nomenclature.  It  is  no  such  cobweb  affair.  Adam  Smith  and 
John  Baptiste  Say  may  be  the  very  old  and  new  Testament  of 
Political  Economy,  and  yet  this  Protest  may  be  as  true  as  either 
of  them.  It  is  a  plain,  practical  statement  of  the  effect  of  an 
existing  law  upon  the  business  interests  of  the  Commonwealth, 
and  of  the  probable  influence  upon  those  interests  of  a  pro- 
posed change  in  that  law.  It  is  rather  a  confession  of  works, 
than  a  confession  of  faith.  It  deals  with  what  is  done,  with  * 
what  is  doing,  and  with  what  is  proposed  to  be  done.  And  no 
gentleman  ought  to  be  permitted,  and  depend  upon  it,  Sir,  no 
gentleman  will  be  permitted  by  his  constituents,  to  escape  from 
the  responsibility  in  which  this  question  involves  him,  by  shel- 
tering himself  behind  the  antique  armor,  the  rusty  mail  of  ab- 
stract principles. 

Gentlemen  who  vote  against  these  resolutions  must  take  one 
of  two  courses.  They  must  either  adopt  the  opinion  that  what 
is  called  the  Protecting  System  is  falsely  so  called,  that  it  is  not 
necessary,  that  it  protects  nobody,  that  it  does  no  good  to  the 
country  generally,  or  to  this  Commonwealth  in  particular,  and 
that  its  abandonment  will  injure  nobody,  —  and  in  adopting 
such  an  opinion  they  will  go  counter  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
very  Report  on  which  Mr.  Cambreleng's  Bill  is  based,  to  the 
sentiments  of  almost  all  the  discreet  and  considerate  men  of  all 
interests  and  all  parties,  and  to  the  thousand  evidences  which 
our  statistical  tables,  to  say  nothing  of  our  own  senses,  are  an- 
nually presenting  us ;  —  or,  admitting  that  the  system  deserves 


PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY.  209 

its  name,  that  it  has  protected  American  industry  in  general 
and  the  industry  of  Massachusetts  particularly,  that  it  has  been 
a  main  spring  in  the  prosperity  of  both  our  Commonwealth  and 
our  country,  and  that  its  abandonment  would  occasion  a  great 
diminution  of  that  prosperity  and  a  great  depression  of  that 
industry,  —  they  must  confess  themselves  guilty  of  giving  their 
voluntary  sanction  to  these  results,  and  of  basely  assenting, 
under  some  personal  or  political  influence,  to  the  sacrifice  of 
the  interests  and  property  of  the  people. 

And  who  doubts  that  such  a  sacrifice  would  ensue  ?  Who 
doubts  that  if  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  were 
prematurely  abandoned  to  their  fate,  not  only  millions  of  capi- 
tal would  be  sunk,  but  thousands  of  hands  would  be  thrown 
out  of  employment,  the  wages  of  labor  be  everywhere  reduced, 
the  hands  thus  diverted  from  manufacturing  occupations  be 
forced  into  agricultural  pursuits,  the  number  of  agricultural  pro- 
ducers be  thus  increased,  the  number  of  consumers  diminished, 
and  the  prices  and  profits  of  our  farmers  be  cut  down  ?  But 
even  this  is  not  all.  There  are  hands,  Sir,  which,  if  taken  away 
from  the  loom  and  the  spindle,  cannot  be  turned  so  readily  to  the 
plough  or  the  spade.  There  are  natural  powers,  too,  which 
never  tire  in  the  work  for  which  God  has  created  them,  but 
which  will  not  consent  to  be  made  the  sport  of  man's  caprice. 
The  factory  girl  and  the  water-fall  which  now  lighten  each 
other's  labors  and  respond  to  each  other's  song,  and  together 
contribute  so  much  to  the  prosperity  and  property  of  our  Com- 
monwealth, —  what  but  the  Protecting  System  has  called  them 
into  action,  and  under  what  other  system  can  that  action  be 
maintained '! 

And  even  that  portion  of  our  labor,  thus  wrested  from  its 
present  employment,  which  is  capable  of  being  diverted  into 
agricultural  occupations,  —  where,  think  you,  it  will  find  those 
occupations?  On  the  barren  and  rocky  soil  of  Massachusetts  ? 
No,  Sir.  Anywhere  but  there.  It  will  betake  itself  thousands 
of  miles  off;  it  will  seek  refuge  in  the  rich  valleys  of  the 
West ;  the  tide  of  domestic  emigration,  to  which  the  manu- 
facturing policy  of  Massachusetts  has  been  a  bar,  will  be  let 
flow,  our  population  will  begin  to  retrograde,  and  we  shall  be 


210  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

driven  back  into  that  old  colonial  condition,  when  it  having 
been  discovered  by  the  British  Parliament  "  that  the  erecting 
manufactories  in  the  colonies,  tended  to  lessen  their  dependence 
on  Great  Britain,"  our  hat-makers  were  put  under  restrictions, 
the  manufacture  of  iron  and  steel  was  prohibited,  our  slitting 
mills,  plating  forges,  and  furnaces  were  declared  common  nui- 
sances, and  even  the  best  friends  of  our  liberties  in  the  mother 
country  maintained  that  we  ought  not  to  be  suffered  to  make 
a  horseshoe  or  a  hobnail  for  ourselves;  —  when  the  fish  that 
hangs  on  yonder  wall,  and  the  acorn  that  forms  the  apex  of  our 
dome,  were  the  emblems  of  our  only  staples,  and  when  the 
Indian  that  still  is  pictured  upon  our  arms,  was  roaming  at  will 
through  our  primeval  forests. 

Let  me  not  be  thought,  Sir,  to  allude  to  the  fisheries  with  dis- 
respect.    I  like  to  look  at  yon  time-honored  emblem  of  the  early 
industry  and  enterprise  of  our  citizens.     The  simplicity  of  the 
fisherman  has  claims  to  our  regard  which  have  been  endorsed 
by  a  higher  than  human  authority.     And  there  is  something 
beside  simplicity  in  his  character.     It  was  well  said  by  my  ex- 
cellent friend  from  Nantucket,  (Mr.  Gardiner)  the  other  day, 
that  the  Nantucket  boys  feared  nothing  and  flinched  from  no- 
thing, for  they  had  been  taught  from  their  youth  to  battle  with 
the  monsters  of  the  deep.     That  little  barren  island,   Sir,  of 
which  he  spoke,  is  a  perfect  miracle  on  the  face  of  creation. 
Without  containing  within  its  own  limits,  I  believe,  a  single 
material  for  building,  or  rigging,  or  furnishing  a  ship,  without 
even  a  decent  harbor  to  float  one  in,  it  has  yet  done  more  for 
the  commercial  and  navigating  interests  of  the  country  than 
any  other  spot  on  its  whole  surface.     Success  to  the  fisheries 
wherever  they  may  be,  at  either  cape  and  on  any  coast,  and 
may  yonder  emblem  always  be  suspended  before  the  eyes  of 
the  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  not  only  reminding  them 
of  past  energy  and  enterprise,  but  representing  itself  one  of 
their  present  most  valuable  staples !     But  I  <jannot  regard  with 
any  less  satisfaction,  Mr.  Speaker,  those  other'  emblems  which 
are  quartered  and  clustered  around  it,  —  the  emblems  of  agricul- 
ture, of  commerce,  of  education,  religion,  and  justice,  no,  Sir, 
nor  even  that  of  the  despised  and  neglected  militia,  —  after  all, 


PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY.  211 

the  only  safeguard  of  a  free  State.    And  there  is  one,  too,  which 
is  not  yet  among  them,  but  which  is  even  more  distinguished 
by  its  absence,  —  the  emblem  of  an  industry  which  was  not 
even  in   embryo  when  these  fresh-looking  walls  were  reared; 
of  an  industry  which  is  still  in  its  infancy,  but  whose  infant  step 
is  even  now  a  giant's  stride ;  which  has  done  as  much  for  the 
prosperity  of  our  Commonwealth  in  its  earliest  youth,  as  others 
in  their  maturest  age,  and  which,  at  the  same  time,  instead 
of  an  envious  and  grasping  rival  to  others,  has  proved  itself 
their  best  patron  and  friend.     Sir,  the  question  now  before  us 
is,  whether,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  decide,  this  industry  shall 
be  cherished  or  crushed ;  whether  its  emblem  shall  be  permit- 
ted  to   take  its  place  among  our  most   honored  insignia,   or 
whether  it  shall  be  consigned  anew  to  that  obscurity  to  which 
British  interests  and  British  tyranny  originally  doomed  it,  and 
from  which  it  is  now  so  auspiciously  emerging.     For  one,  Sir, 
I  desire  that  the  escutcheon  of  my  native  State  may  be  adorned 
with  the  emblems  of  every  industry  which  can  afford  employ- 
ment to  the  faculties  or  reward  to  the  enterprise   of  man ;  of 
every  art  which  can  improve  his  condition  or  increase  his  happi- 
ness ;    of  every  science  which  can  give  a  higher  reach  to  his 
intellect,  or  a  wider  range  to  his  investigation  ;  of  every  institu- 
tion and  every  influence  which  can  fit  him  for  a  better  enjoyment 
of  that  glorious  liberty  which  is  his  heritage  here,  or  of  that  more 
"  glorious  liberty  "  which  is  his  hope  hereafter  !     The  factories 
and  the  fisheries,  agriculture  and  commerce,  —  they  have  no 
opposite  nor  even  separate  interests ;  any  more  than  the  machine 
has  a  separate  interest  from  the  oil  which  destroys  its  friction,  or 
the  ship  has  a  separate  interest  from  the  cargo  which  pays  its 
freight.     Alone,  they  may  be  crushed  or  broken.     Alone,  they 
are  at  the  mercy  of  every  change  of  domestic  or  foreign  policy ; 
now   stimulated   by    a   war  —  now    depressed   by  a  peace  — 
deranged  by  the  mere  breath  of  cabinets  —  disturbed  by  the 
mere  vapors  of  the  press.     Separate,  and  you  may  snap  them 
at  will.     But  bind  them  up  in  the  same  bundle  of  life,  and 
place  them  in  the  firm  talon  of  Liberty,  and  they  will  be  strong 
in  each  other's  strength,  and  will  form,  too,  the  brightest  orna- 
ment and  the  best  defence  of  that  liberty  itself. 


212  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

Look  at  our  history,  Mr.  Speaker,  and  say  if  this  be  not  its 
lesson.  Has  not  our  commerce  been  stimulated  to  excess  by 
the  wars  of  Europe,  as  often  as  they  have  occurred,  only  to  be 
involved  in  depression  and  disaster  on  the  return  of  peace? 
Have  not  the  products  of  our  agriculture  been  multiplied  in 
amount  and  in  value,  by  the  necessities  of  those  who  have  been 
forced  to  beat  their  own  ploughshares  and  pruning-hooks  into 
swords  and  spears,  at  one  moment,  only  to  be  left  to  rot  in  our 
granaries,  or  to  be  sacrificed  in  our  markets,  at  the  next  ?  What 
was  it,  too,  that  first  called  our  manufactories  into  existence?  — 
What  but  our  own  war  with  Great  Britain  and  the  commercial 
restrictions  by  which  it  was  preceded,  involving,  as  they  did,  the 
prevention,  if  not  the  prohibition,  of  all  imports  of  foreign  ma- 
nufactures, and  not  so  much  the  protection,  as  the  absolute 
creation  of  almost  all  our  own  ?  And,  when  peace  was  restored, 
what  but  this  very  Tariff  System,  which  then  had  its  origin,  and 
which  it  is  now  proposed  to  abolish,  preserved  our  war-begotten 
establishments  from  entire  destruction  and  overthrow  ? 

These  lessons,  if  read  aright,  teach  us  that  something 
beside  dollars  and  cents  is  involved  in  this  system.  We 
gained  but  half  our  independence,  Sir,  when  we  fought  our- 
selves free  from  the  political  yoke  of  Great  Britain.  Nor,  can 
that  independence  be  regarded  as  complete,  as  long  as  we  have 
not  within  our  own  limits  all  the  means  of  self-defence,  in  the 
largest  sense  of  that  term,  including  not  merely  arms  for  our 
hands  and  ammunition  for  our  arms,  but  clothing  for  our  limbs 
as  well  as  food  for  our  mouths.  And  those  means  we  never 
can  be  sure  of,  until  American  industry  is  placed  beyond 
the  reach  of  these  controlling  and  over-shadowing  influences. 
Free  from  these  influences  entirely,  indeed,  it  never  can  be. 
And  we  should  willingly  submit  to  such  portion  of  them  as  a 
wiser  Power  may  have  designed,  as  ties  of  brotherhood  and 
bonds  of  peace  among  the  nations.  We  need  be  in  no  fear, 
Sir,  of  counteracting  that  Power  in  this  respect.  It  is  the  last 
way  to  preserve  peace,  to  show  ourselves  unprepared  for  the  de- 
fence of  our  rights  or  territory.  That  dependence  which,  while 
we  were  colonies,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  the  policy  of  the 
British  Parliament  to  promote,  by  forbidding  "  the  erecting  of 


PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY.  213 

manufactories,"  it  ought  to  be  our  own  policy,  now  we  are  a 
nation,  to  prevent.  And  while  we  protest  against  Mr.  Cambre- 
leng's  bill  as  destructive  to  the  interests  of  our  citizens,  we 
ought  not  to  forget,  that  it  would  impair  the  independence  of 
our  country. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  sum  of  the  whole  matter  contained  in  these 
resolutions  is  this ;  —  that  a  system  of  encouragement  and  pro- 
tection to  domestic  manufactures  was,  long  ago,  deliberately 
adopted  by  the  national  government ;  that  under  the  shadow 
—  I  should  rather  say,  under  the  sunshine  —  of  that  system, 
vast  amounts  of  the  capital  and  industry  of  Massachusetts  have 
been  invested  and  engaged  in  these  manufactories,  and  in  the 
production  of  those  supplies  for  which  a  manufacturing  popula- 
tion creates  a  market ;  and  that  the  abandonment  of  this  sys- 
tem will  lead  to  the  destruction  of  much  of  that  capital,  and  to 
the  diversion  and  depression  of  much  of  that  industry.  And  it 
is  no  answer  to  this  position,  even  if  it  were  true,  that  the  sys- 
tem was  originally  inexpedient  and  impolitic,  or  that  it  was 
founded  upon  false  and  ill-considered  principles.  Why,  Sir, 
would  it  be  quite  consolatory  to  our  farmers,  our  mechanics, 
our  tradesfolk,  and  laboring  poor,  when  they  should  be  deprived 
of  the  means  of  sending  their  children  to  school,  perhaps  even  of 
giving  them  comfortable  food  and  clothing  at  home,  by  the  reduc- 
tion of  their  prices,  their  wages,  and  their  earnings  and  profits  of 
all  sorts,  to  show  them  that  volume  of  Adam  Smith,  which  the 
gentleman  from  Gloucester  threatened  to  read  to  us  the  other 
day,  and  point  them  to  the  page  and  paragraph  in  which  it  is 
clearly  demonstrated  that  upon  every  principle  of  political  eco- 
nomy they  ought  to  be  now  more  prosperous  and  thriving  than 
ever ;  that  it  was  under  the  existence  of  the  Protecting  System 
they  ought  to  have  felt  these  pinchings  of  poverty  and  of  want, 
but  that,  by  its  abandonment,  they  ought  forthwith  to  be  re- 
stored to  abundance  and  wealth  ?  Would  the  wise  saws  and 
plausible  sentences  of  a  Professor  of  Economics  render  them 
entirely  satisfied  with  this  change  of  condition,  or  work  the 
more  soothing  miracle  of  convincing  them  that  it  was  only 
changed  for  the  better?  Would  that  labored  report  of  Mr. 
Cambreleng's,  with  all  its  facts  and   all  its  fancy,  completely 


214  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

reconcile  them  to  their  wretchedness,  and  even  make  them  in 
love  with  their  misery  ?  Or  is  it  that  little  lying  title  of  the 
bill  which  is  looked  to  as  the  antidote  of  the  bane  beneath  it  ? 
The  wants  of  the  government!  Sir,  that  significant  phrase, 
properly  and  truly  applied,  has  been,  and  would  again  be,  a 
perfect  open  sesame  to  the  purses  of  the  people.  Their  last  dol- 
lar and  their  last  drop  of  blood  would  be  alike  at  the  service  of 
the  country,  whenever  they  were  really  wanted. 

But  what  have  the  wants  of  the  government  to  do  with  this 
matter  ?  Because  there  is  more  money  in  the  treasury  of  the 
nation  than  the  newly  conceived  constitutional  scruples  of  a 
particular  administration  will  permit  it  to  spend,  or  even  than 
its  unscrupulous  and  corrupt  extravagance  will  suffer  it  to 
squander,  shall  the  pockets  of  the  citizen  be  rifled,  or  the  earn- 
ings of  his  industry  be  curtailed  ?  In  order  to  reduce  the  public 
revenue  some  six  or  seven  million  a  year,  shall  an  annual  pro- 
duction of  private  labor  and  capital,  amounting,  by  the  enor- 
mous estimate  of  Mr.  Cambreleng  himself,  to  three  hundred 
millions,  be  subjected  to  ruin  or  even  to  risk?  Is  this  good 
statesmanship?  Is  this  sound  policy?  Can  no  other  Ways 
and  Means  be  devised,  which  would  answer  the  purpose  with 
less  loss  and  more  certainty  ?  A  surplus  in  the  public  purse,  is, 
doubtless,  a  great  evil ;  but  I  imagine,  Sir,  the  people,  if  it  were 
put  to  them,  would  decide  that  a  deficit  in  their  own  was  a 
greater.  The  people  of  Massachusetts,  I  know,  would  so  de- 
cide. They  would  respond  to  the  deceptive  argument,  which  is 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  bill,  against  which  we  are  now  pro- 
testing, in  the  language  of  one  of  their  own  statesmen,  which, 
though  written  more  than  four  years  ago,  has  a  singular,  and 
almost  prophetic  applicability  to  the  case  before  us.  They 
would  say  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Adams,  in  his  masterly  report 
on  manufactures  in  1833,  — "  It  is  the  right  of  the  citizen, 
and  not  the  necessities  of  the  community,  which  constitutes  the 
fundamental  principle  upon  which  the  obligation  to  protect  the 
interest  of  the  manufacturer,  or  of  any  other  member  of  society, 
is  incumbent  upon  the  nation."  "  It  is  the  interest  of  the  citi- 
zen, and  not  the  wants  of  the  country,  which  circumscribes  the 
legitimate  objects  of  protection." 


PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY.  215 

Particular  pains  seem  to  have  been  taken,  in  the  course  of  this 
debate,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  hold  up  an  idea  to  the  House,  that  our 
distinguished  Senator,  Mr.  Webster,  has  been  guilty  of  some 
gross  inconsistency  in  relation  to  this  protecting  system.  I  have 
already  alluded  to  one  expression  of  this  kind.  But  that  was 
but  trivial  and  unworthy  of  comment,  compared  with  many 
other  and  more  general  strictures  to  the  same  effect.  We  were 
elegantly  told,  for  instance,  the  other  day,  that  Daniel  Webster, 
having  expended  his  whole  power  in  defending  the  principles  of 
Free  Trade  in  1824,  had  since  found  himself  unable  to  answer 
his  own  arguments,  and  had  been  forced  to  eat  his  own  words. 
Sir,  this  charge  is  old  and  stale ;  too  old  and  too  stale,  I  should 
have  supposed,  to  have  had  any  temptation  for  the  origin- 
ality and  ingenuity  of  the  gentleman  from  whom  it  fell.  Why, 
as  long  ago  as  the  famous  Debate  on  Mr.  Foot's  Resolution 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  this  same  charge  was  made 
by  Mr.  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina.  It  was,  even  then,  old  and 
stale,  Sir.  But  fortunately,  it  was  not  then  made  behind  Mr. 
Webster's  back,  an4  in  that  ever-memorable  speech  in  reply  to 
Mr.  Hayne,  which  still  stands  unparalleled  on  the  pages  of  Ame- 
rican eloquence,  he  indignantly  and  triumphantly  repelled  it. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  be  wondered  at,  that  it  should  be  revived 
and  repeated  by  one  who  has  taken  occasion,  in  the  same  breath, 
to  re-construct  the  charge  of  "  an  accursed  policy,"  which  was 
brought  against  the  tariff  by  that  same  distinguished  nullifier,  in 
the  hardly  softer  terms  of  "  an  infernal  system."  The  charges  be- 
long together,  and  will  doubtless  be  appreciated  together  by  the 
people  of  Massachusetts.  Sir,  the  speeches  of  Mr.  Webster  on 
the  subject  of  the  Tariff,  in  1824,  and  in  1828,  are  now  bound 
up  together  in  the  same  volume,  and,  as  if  to  challenge,  certainly 
to  facilitate,  the  closest  and  most  searching  criticism,  they  have 
been  placed  side  by  side,  without  a  single  intervening  page.  I 
commend  them  to  the  fresh  reading  of  the  gentleman  from  Glou- 
cester, and,  indeed,  of  the  whole  House.  They  will  amply  re- 
pay it ;  richly  reward  it.  And  no  candid  reader,  I  am  persuaded, 
let  his  opinions  about  politics  generally,  or  the  protecting  system 
in  particular,  be  what  they  may,  will  rise  from  their  perusal, 
without  acknowledging,  at  once,  the  utter  injustice,  the  entire 


216  PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

falseness  of  such  a  charge.  The  course  of  Mr.  Webster,  Sir,  in 
relation  to  the  Tariff,  and  I  might  as  well  say,  in  relation  to  al- 
most every  other  question  of  national  policy,  has  been  the  course 
of  Massachusetts.  Massachusetts,  in  common  with  the  other 
New  England  States,  opposed  the  tariff  at  its  origin,  and  con- 
tinued to  oppose  it  until  after  the  act  of  1824,  —  an  act  by  which 
it  was  virtually  declared  that  a  protecting  system  was  thereafter 
to  be  considered  as  the  settled  policy  of  the  country.  From  that 
moment  her  opposition  ceased,  and  her  citizens  generally,  instead 
of  persevering  in  unavailing  efforts  to  destroy  that  system, 
resorted  to  the  more  prudent  and  more  patriotic  course  of  accom- 
modating themselves  to  it.  They  invested  large  amounts  of  capi- 
tal under  its  inducements,  and  their  interests  soon  became  inse- 
parably identified  with  its  preservation.  And  for  such  preserva- 
tion, both  in  letter  and  in  spirit,  she  has  ever  since  voted.  Such 
has  been  the  course  of  Massachusetts,  and  such  has  been  the 
course  of  her  distinguished  Senator,  and  the  whole  sum  of  their 
inconsistency  is  contained  in  the  acknowledged  fact,  that  they 
would  not  take  part  in  pulling  down  upon  their  own  heads,  and 
upon  the  heads  of  thousands  of  citizens  who  had  been  compelled 
to  seek  its  shelter,  a  vast  and  costly  structure,  merely  because 
they  had  declined  to  approve  its  model,  or  to  assist  in  laying  its 
corner-stone. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  career  of  Mr.  Webster  is  before  the  country  ; 
it  may  be  his  whole  career.  Rumors  are  already  rife  of  his 
intention  to  retire  from  public  life,  temporarily  at  least,  perhaps 
forever.  Let  him  retire  when  he  will,  he  needs  no  defence,  he 
requires  no  eulogy,  he  fears  no  investigation.  He  has  not,  indeed, 
squared  his  consistency  upon  the  modern  fashionable  block.  He 
has  left  it  to  others  to  suit  their  sentiments  to  the  times,  or  to 
reserve  all  knowledge  of  those  sentiments  within  their  own  breast. 
He  has  left  it  to  others  to  pander  to  popular  prejudices,  to  fan 
popular  discontents,  to  stimulate  the  poor  against  the  rich,  to 
sacrifice  principle  to  policy,  and  to  follow  the  shadow  of  consist- 
ency by  abandoning  its  substance.  His  course  is  before  the 
country,  and  let  him  retire  when  he  will  —  may  it  be  still  a  distant, 
distant  day  —  he  will  leave  light,  imperishable,  unfading  light, 
behind  him  ;  and  that  not  only  gilding  his  own  memory,  and 


PROTECTION  TO  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY.  217 

casting  glory  upon  the  Commonwealth  of  his  adoption,  but 
cheering  and  guiding  and  illuminating  the  path  of  Constitutional 
patriotism  throughout  all  generations.  Other  stars,  Sir,  may- 
have  reached  a  higher  ascension,  may  have  sparkled  with  a  more 
dazzling  lustre,  may  have  shot  with  a  wilder  fire.  Meteors,  too, 
may  have  flashed,  and  flamed,  and  glared,  and  cost  a  moment's 
wonder  or  a  moment's  fear,  and  passed  away.  But  as  long  as 
our  glorious  Constitution  shall  be  borne  up  upon  the  waves  of 
time,  and  its  banner  of  Union  and  Liberty  be  seen  streaming 
to  the  winds,  in  every  moment  of  doubt,  in  every  hour  of  dan- 
ger, the  passengers  and  the  pilot  will  be  found  turning  alike  fo 
their  direction  to  our  own  Northern  Star  —  always  clear, 
always  above  the  horizon  — 


"  Of  whose  true-fixed  and  resting  quality, 
There  is  no  fellow  in  the  firmament." 


In  conclusion,  Mr.  Speaker,  let  me  express  the  hope  that  the 
resolutions  on  your  table  may  not  only  pass,  and  pass  in  their 
present  shape,  but  pass,  too,  with  the  general  and  cordial  assent 
of  the  House.  Sir,  if  from  any  spot  on  the  wide  surface  of  this 
Union  a  sound  of  undivided,  unbroken,  unanimous  remon- 
strance ought  to  go  up  to  the  National  Councils  against  the 
measure  to  which  these  resolutions  relate,  it  is  from  this  very 
spot.  If,  upon  any  occasion,  the  voices  of  all  political  parties, 
and  of  all  personal  and  public  interests  throughout  this  Common- 
wealth, ought  to  lose  their  conflicting  tones,  and  leave  their 
jarring  discords,  and  mingle  in  one  deep  diapason  of  depreca- 
tion and  protest,  it  is  upon  this  very  occasion.  Here,  in  the  hall 
of  the  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  assembled  to  watch 
over  the  interests  and  to  provide  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
people,  —  here,  when  those  interests  and  that  welfare  are  menaced 
with  destruction,  a  voice,  as  it  were  of  one  man  in  unity,  as  it 
were  of  that  whole  people  in  volume,  ought  to  be  uttered ;  —  and 
here,  it  would  seem  to  me,  if  those  Representatives  are  true  to 
their  trusts  and  faithful  to  their  constituents,  such  a  voice  ought 
to  be  uttered  now.  And  notwithstanding  some  symptoms  of 
opposition  in  other  stages  of  this  business,  and  notwithstanding 

19 


218  PROTECTION   TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY. 

that  in  this  last  stage,  also,  one  gentleman,  at  least,  who  is  not 
accustomed  to  act  alone,  or  to  cry  "  follow "  to  no  effect,  has 
argued  with  all  his  energy  and  all  his  ardor  against  the  resolu- 
tions, I  can  hardly  help  believing  that  such  a  voice,  substan- 
tially, will  now  be  heard.  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe,  Sir, 
that  any  considerable  division  of  opinion  exists  or  will  be  ex- 
pressed upon  this  subject.  Gentlemen  may  have  differed  as  to 
the  expediency  of  introducing  it  here,  may  have  been  desirous, 
some  of  them,  to  prevent  its  introduction,  and  may  still  regret 
the  necessity,  in  which  it  involves  them,  of  choosing  between 
allegiance  to  their  party  leaders  elsewhere,  and  fidelity  to  their 
constituents  here.  But  now  that  the  question  is  brought  fairly 
before  them,  now  that  they  are  compelled  to  give  their  yea  or 
nay  to  the  propositions  which  these  resolutions  contain,  I  can- 
not believe  that  they  will  hesitate  long  which  to  choose,  or  falter 
in  the  expression  of  their  choice. 

I  hope  and  trust,  Sir,  that  we  are  to  see  no  party  lines  drawn 
in  the  decision  of  this  question.  I  hope  and  trust  that  neither 
the  wool  growers  of  Berkshire,  nor  the  manufacturers  of  Mid- 
dlesex, all  or  any  of  them,  are  to  have  their  opinions  belied  and 
their  interests  betrayed,  out  of  mere  party  feeling.  I  hope  and 
trust  that  the  great  manufacturing  Capital  of  New  England, 
which  at  the  touch  of  the  protecting  system  has  risen  up  almost 
in  an  instant  to  her  present  station  of  prosperity  and  pride, — 
should  she  be  doomed  in  some  future  day  to  take  up  her  la- 
mentation and  say,  "  how  doth  the  city  sit  solitary,  that  was  full 
of  people,"  —  will  be  spared  the  pain  of  going  on  with  the 
words  of  the  Prophet  and  adding,  "  all  her  friends  have  dealt 
treacherously  with  her,  they  are  become  her  enemies."  One 
gentleman  from  Lowell,  (Mr.  Mansur,)  indeed,  has  frankly 
avowed  his  purpose  of  voting  for  the  resolutions ;  let  us  hope 
that  he  will  not  stand  alone.  Gentlemen  may  have  agreed 
with  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  that  we  ought  not  to 
compromise  the  dignity  of  the  State  by  interfering  with  Con- 
gress upon  trivial  occasions,  and  thrusting  our  impertinent  peti- 
tions in  its  face  to  no  purpose,  that  we  should  reserve  our 
applications  for  cases  of  the  last  importance,  —  the  passage  of  a 
resolution,  for  instance  Mr.  Speaker,  to  falsify  and  mutilate  the 


PROTECTION  TO   DOMESTIC   INDUSTRY.  219 

Constitutional  Records  of  Congress,  in  order  to  appease  the 
wrath  and  conciliate  the  countenance  of  censured  sovereignty  — 
and  that  we  ought  not  to  waste  them  upon  such  paltry  matters 
as  the  prosperity  and  property  of  the  whole  people ;  —  but  now, 
Sir,  that  this  remonstrance  is  destined  to  reach  Congress,  as  no 
one  can  doubt  it  is,  I  cannot  believe  that  they  will  deny  their 
assent  to  its  principles,  or  their  vote  to  its  passage. 


CONGKATULATIONS  TO  THE  WHIGS  OF  NEW  YOEK. 


A   SPEECH   DELIVERED   AT   MASONIC   HALL,  NEW   YORK,  NOVEMBER  22,  1837. 


Mr.  Mayor  and  Gentlemen,  — 

I  stand  before  you  as  the  organ  of  a  delegation  from  the 
Whigs  of  Boston,  to  offer  you  their  congratulations  on  the  event 
which  has  given  occasion  to  this  festival.  I  might  well  wish, 
with  the  gentleman  from  Rhode  Island,  who  has  just  taken  his 
seat  —  and  much  better  wish  it  than  he  now  could,  since  he  has 
already  performed  his  own  part  so  honorably  —  that  this  duty 
had  fallen  upon  stronger  shoulders.  Pressed  into  the  service,  as 
I  was,  at  short  notice,  and  with  no  opportunity  for  preparation 
at  home,  and  tossed  upon  the  Sound,  as  I  have  been  until  within 
an  hour  past,  ever  since  I  left  home,  with  no  source  of  inspi- 
ration at  hand  but  the  fog  through  which  we  were  groping,  I 
feel  myself  no  fit  representative  either  of  those  who  have  sent 
me  here,  or  of  those  by  whom  I  am  accompanied.  Much  less 
do  I  feel  competent  to  answer  the  expectations,  or  to  do  justice 
to  the  deserts,  of  those  whom  I  address.  But  I  have  at  least 
this  consolation,  Sir,  —  that,  a  thousand  times  better  qualified 
for  the  position  which  I  have  the  honor  to  hold,  as  are  many  of 
those  whom  we  have  left  behind  us,  and  many  too,  let  me  add, 
of  those  whom  we  have  brought  with  us,  no  one,  no  one  of  them 
all,  whether  present  or  absent,  could  do  entire  and  perfect  justice 
to  this  occasion.  Human  language  is  adapted  to  the  descrip- 
tion of  ordinary  events,  and  to  the  expression  of  ordinary 
emotions.  But  its  strongest  terms  seem  weak,  and  its  choicest 
phrases  sound  common,  and  its  warmest  figures  fall  cold  and 
frozen  from  our  lips,  when  we  are  called  upon  to  deal  with  an 


CONGRATULATIONS  TO  THE  WHIGS  OF  NEW  YORK.     221 

event  of  such  startling  character,  of  such  momentous  conse- 
quence, as  that  which  you  are  assembled  to  celebrate.  And  that 
tongue  has  never  found  a  place  in  mortal  mouth,  that  voice  has 
never  vibrated  on  earthly  air,  that  language  has  never  been  re- 
duced within  the  compass  of  human  sounds  or  human  signs, 
which  can  express,  with  any  approach  to  justice,  the  triumphant 
thrill  of  joy  which  that  event  produced  in  the  bosom  of  every 
Boston  Whig.  In  the  name  of  every  Boston  Whig,  then,  I 
congratulate  you  on  its  occurrence,  and  from  the  bottom  of  all 
their  hearts,  I  thank  you  for  the  exertions  by  which  it  was 
brought  about. 

What  is  that  event,  Sir  ?  Is  it  the  election  of  a  handful  of 
Whig  Senators  or  a  hundred  of  Whig  Representatives  to  the 
Legislature  of  New  York  ?  What  possible  interest  could  the 
Whigs  of  Boston  have  in  such  a  result  ?  The  jurisdiction  of 
those  magistrates  could  never  extend,  either  for  good  or  for  evil, 
one  inch  beyond  the  boundaries  of  your  own  Commonwealth ; — 
no,  Sir,  not  even  were  they  to  stretch  and  strain  their  prerogative 
to  the  fall  dimensions  and  stature  of  the  most  approved  demo- 
cratic standards.  Is  it  the  mere  success  of  a  few  thousand  po- 
litical friends,  and  the  consequent  defeat  of  a  few  thousand  poli- 
tical foes  ?  Why,  Sir,  such  things  have  happened  before  since 
the  world  was  made,  and,  thank  Heaven,  they  have  been  getting 
to  be  pretty  frequent  within  the  last  few  months.  But  though 
the  Whigs  of  Boston  have  always  been  rejoiced  to  hear  of  them, 
they  have  never  regarded  it  as  altogether  indispensable,  or,  in- 
deed, as  anywise  important,  to  despatch  an  embassy  hundreds  of 
miles  over  sea  and  land  to  say  so.  Is  it  the  downright  rejection 
and  reprobation  by  a  great  majority  of  that  very  people  who, 
above  all  others,  were  relied  on  for  its  approbation  and  adoption, 
of  a  financial  policy  which  has  already  brought  embarrassment 
and  bankruptcy  upon  half  the  country,  and  which  seemed  des- 
tined in  its  further  progress  and  final  consummation  to  crush  every 
energy  and  cripple  every  industry  it  had  hitherto  spared  ?  Not 
even  this  definition,  Sir,  just  and  true  as  it  is  as  far  as  it  goes, 
conveys  any  adequate  idea  of  the  event,  which,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Whigs  of  Boston,  you  are  now  engaged  in  celebrating* 
Embarrassment  and  bankruptcy,  indeed,  we  have  all  seen  and 
19* 


222  CONGRATULATIONS   TO    THE    WHIGS    OF   NEW  YORK. 

suffered  enough  of.  The  people  for  whom  I  speak,  have  not 
merely  sympathized  with  them  elsewhere ;  they  have  shared  them 
at  home.  And  their  share,  you  well  know,  Sir,  has  been  neither 
light  nor  inconsiderable.  But  had  it  been  ten  times  greater  than 
it  was,  had  it  pleased  Heaven  to  steep  them  in  poverty  to  the 
very  lips,  so  it  had  really  been  the  work  of  Heaven,  so  it  had 
resulted  from  their  own  rashness  or  mismanagement,  so  no 
wilful  and  wanton  act  of  authority  in  other  men  had  produced 
it,  so  any  advantage,  so  even  no  detriment,  were  thereby  accru- 
ing to  the  Republic  and  its  liberties,  they  would  have  borne  it 
all,  and  more  than  all,  patiently  and  cheerfully.  Massachusetts 
Whigs  have  learned  of  their  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  murmur  at  no 
dispensation  of  an  overruling  Providence.  And  they  have 
learned,  too,  of  their  Patriot  Fathers,  neither  to  gainsay  nor  to 
grudge  any  amount  of  costs  and  charges  which  the  maintenance 
of  their  rights  and  liberties  may  require ;  and  that,  Sir,  whether 
payment  be  demanded  in  gold  and  silver,  or  whether  it  may  only 
be  rendered  in  the  harder  coinage  of  their  hearts,  or  in  the  purer 
currency  of  their  blood. 

It  is  then,  Mr.  Mayor  and  Gentlemen,  in  no  spirit  of  mere  party 
triumph;  it  is  with  no  feeling  of  mere  pecuniary  relief;  it  is  not  to 
make  merry  with  victorious  friends ;  it  is  not — certainly,  certainly, 
it  is  not  —  to  exult  over  vanquished  enemies;  nor  is  it  only  to 
testify  our  exceeding  joy  that  the  rash  and  ruinous  policy  of  the 
national  administration  has  received  a  blow  from  which  it  can 
never  rise,  and  never  in  any  degree  recover,  that  we  have  come 
all  the  way  from  Faneuil  Hall  to  offer  you  our  hands,  and  to 
open  to  you  our  hearts  on  this  occasion.  The  Whigs  of  Boston 
have  felt  that  something  more  than  all  this  has  been  accom- 
plished ;  that  something  more  worthy  of  the  illuminations  and 
bonfires  and  bell-ringings,  and  all  the  signs  and  modes  and  shows 
of  a  people's  joy,  to  which  this  whole  day  and  this  whole  City 
is  devoted,  has  been  achieved.  We  have  come,  Sir,  to  congra- 
tulate you  on  a  Constitution  restored  to  supremacy,  on  the  inte- 
rests of  a  whole  people  redeemed  from  oppression,  on  the  rights 
of  a  whole  people  rescued  from  overthrow,  on  this  great  and 
glorious  Republic,  with  all  its  appurtenances  and  all  its  attri- 
butes, checked,  arrested,  stopped  —  I  do  not  say  on  the  brink, 


CONGRATULATIONS  TO  THE  WHIGS  OF  NEW  YORK.     223 

but  —  midway  down  the  steep  of  a  fatal  chasm,  and  raised  up 
and  replaced  in  safety  on  that  old  straightforward,  constitu- 
tional, track  of  Liberty  and  Law,  for  which  alone  it  was  first 
constructed,  and  along  which  it  has  run  with  unmatched  speed 
for  more  than  forty  years  ! 

Such,  Sir,  it  has  seemed  to  us,  is  the  event  you  this  day  cele- 
brate. Such  and  so  great  —  if  New  York  be  but  true  to  herself 
hereafter,  and  who  shall  dare  to  suggest  that  she  will  ever  again 
be  false  ?  —  such  and  so  great  will  be  the  results  of  her  late 
unexampled  achievement. 

Sir,  this  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place  for  an  argument. 
But  no  argument  can  be  needed  to  sustain  any  thing  that  is 
expressed  or  any  thing  that  is  implied  in  the  view  we  have 
taken  of  your  victory.  We  all  know  that  not  only  the  prosper- 
ity, but  the  liberty  of  this  country  has,  for  eight  years  past,  been 
overshadowed  by  an  arbitrary  and  despotic  power,  and  the  rights 
of  the  people  trampled  in  the  dust  by  the  iron  heel  of  a  usurp- 
ing military  favorite.  We  have  all  heard  the  will  of  one  man 
proclaimed  absolute  throughout  the  land.  We  have  all  seen 
that  single  will  guiding,  governing,  controlling,  every  thing,  — 
vetoing  laws  proposed,  nullifying  laws  passed,  dictating  the  pro- 
ceedings of  one  branch  of  the  legislature,  expunging  the  records 
of  the  other,  overleaping  treaty  obligations,  denying  the  validity 
of  judicial  decisions,  defying  the  very  precepts  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, crushing  old  institutions,  creating  new  institutions,  remov- 
ing everybody  that  could  in  any  way  be  removed,  appointing 
everybody  that  was  in  any  way  to  be  appointed,  yes,  Sir,  up 
even  to  the  successor  to  that  exalted  station,  which,  fortunately 
for  the  nation,  it  could  itself  no  longer  hold,  as  the  vantage- 
ground  of  its  own  unsatiated  dominion. 

And  that  successor  —  what  have  we  seen  or  known  of  him  ? 
I  will  not  speak  of  him  as  a  man.  I  will  say  nothing  of  his 
political  character  or  personal  qualities.  I  leave  all  these  consi- 
derations to  New  York  justice — to  the  justice  of  those  who 
have  seen  him  most,  and  who  know  him  best  —  to  that  justice  of 
which  the  venerable  gentleman  from  Dutchess  County  has  already 
given  us  a  fair  sample,  if  not  a  full  measure.  But  what  has  he 
done  as  President  of  this  Republic  ?    What  has  he  promised,  pro- 


224  CONGRATULATIONS    TO    THE   WHIGS   OF  NEW   YORK. 

posed,  or  performed,  as  the  chosen  chief  magistrate  of  this  great 
people?  Coming  into  power,  and  called  upon  to  declare  his 
purposes,  at  a  moment  when  that  whole  Republic  was  wrapped 
in  thick,  wide-spread,  midnight  gloom,  and  that  whole  people 
bowed  down  beneath  a  weight  of  affliction  almost  unprecedented 
in  the  history  of  the  commercial  world,  what  light  did  he  throw 
in  upon  that  darkness?  what  consolation  did  he  offer  to  that 
affliction  ?  Light !  Sir,  it  was  the  light  of  another  night,  new- 
fallen  upon  midnight.  Consolation !  Sir,  it  was  the  consolation 
of  that  angel- voice  in  Revelation,  which,  after  four  trumpets  of 
wrath  had  already  sounded,  after  the  third  part  of  the  trees 
were  scathed  and  withered,  and  all  the  green  grass  was  burnt 
up,  after  the  third  part  of  the  sea  had  become  blood,  and  the 
third  part  of  the  ships  were  destroyed,  after  the  third  part  of  the 
glorious  sun  and  stars  were  smitten  and  had  ceased  to  shine, 
was  heard  crying  in  Heaven, — "  Woe,  woe,  woe,  to  the  inhabit- 
ed of  the  earth,  by  reason  of  the  other  voices  of  the  trumpets 
which  are  yet  to  sound!" 

Happily,  Sir,  this  voice  was  not  uttered,  in  the  present  case, 
under  any  sanction  of  Divine  right.  Happily,  the  inhabiters 
of  the  earth  to  whom  it  related,  were  not,  in  this  instance, 
the  doomed  subjects  of  a  supreme,  original,  unquestionable 
authority.  The  power  from  which  it  proceeded  was  a  mere 
human  power— an  entirely  derivative  power  —  an  easily  con- 
trollable power.  And  more  than  all,  it  was  a  power  derived 
from  that  very  people,  and  responsible  to  that  very  people,  upon 
whom  all  these  past  woes  had  fallen,  and  all  these  future  woes 
were  about  to  fall.  If  that  people  would,  they  could  hear  the 
voice.  If  they  would,  they  could  interpret  its  tones.  If  they 
would,  they  could  avert  its  dreadful  denunciations,  and  put  it 
to  shame  and  to  silence  forever.  And,  Sir,  it  is  the  very  event 
upon  which  we  have  been  sent  to  congratulate  you  this  day, 
that  the  people  of  this  great  State  of  New  York  have  heard  it, 
have  understood  it,  and  have,  as  far  as  on  them  depends,  con- 
demned it  to  shame  and* to  silence  for  the  future. 

Mr.  Mayor,  the  triumph  of  this  day,  neither  in  itself  nor  in  its 
influences,  relates  to  your  own  State  only.  No,  Sir,  I  see  the 
whole  people  of  this  country  rising  up  to  claim  a  share  in  it. 


CONGRATULATIONS    TO    THE    WHIGS    OP   NEW   YORK.  225 

The  State  of  New  York,  by  its  wide-spread  territory  and  thick- 
settled  population,  by  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  its  soil,  by 
the  indomitable,  and,  I  had  almost  said,  illimitable,  enterprise  of 
its  seaboard,  and  by  all  the  countless  attributes  of  wealth  and 
pride  and  power  with  which  it  is  crowded,  exerts  an  influence 
over  the  concerns  of  this  Republic,  to  which  not  even  its  great 
number  of  actual  votes  in  the  national  councils  furnishes  any 
adequate  index.  But  this  is  not  all.  It  has  been  reserved  to 
this  great  State  to  give  that  last  finishing  stroke  to  a  series  of 
strokes,  that  last  crowning  victory  to  a  series  of  victories,  with- 
out which  all  the  rest  would  have  been  wellnigh  wasted,  but 
with  which  the  cause  of  the  Constitution  and  of  the  people  is 
secure ! 

And  there  is  still  another  view,  Sir,  in  which  the  whole  coun- 
try may  be  said  to  claim  a  share  in  this  triumphal  jubilee. 
Many  of  the  States  of  this  Union,  almost  all  of  those  which  are 
represented  here  to-day,  and  many  of  those  which  are  not  repre- 
sented, have  already  asserted  that  claim  for  themselves  at  the 
polls.  Maine  has  done  it ;  Rhode  Island  has  done  it ;  Vermont 
has  done  it;  Massachusetts,  I  need  not  say,  has  done  it.  It  has 
been  asserted  by  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Ohio ;  by 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  and,  I  had  almost  added, 
Michigan;  but  I  have  this  instant  learned  that  Michigan  has 
at  length  been  ascertained  to  have  given  a  majority  of  nearly 
four  hundred  votes  in  favor  of  our  adversaries,  — 

u  Oh,  mighty  Caesar !  dost  thou  lie  so  low, 
Are  all  thy  conquests,  triumphs,  glories,  spoils, 
Shrunk  to  this  little  measure ! " 

But,  Sir,  with  this  single  exception,  if,  indeed,  an  exception  it 
can  be  called,  all  the  States  which  I  have  named  have  asserted 
by  their  own  noble  acts,  an  indisputable  claim  to  a  share  in  the 
triumphs  of  this  day.  But  why  should  we  stop  there,  Sir  ?  Who 
shall  fix  the  limits  of  that  great  tide  of  regeneration  which  is 
now  washing  over  the  land?  Who  shall  say  unto  it,  —  thus  far 
shalt  thou  go  and  no  further?  Who  shall  declare  that  here  its 
proud  waves  shall  be  stayed  ?  For  one,  Mr.  Mayor,  I  am  con- 
tent  with   no  enumeration   of   the    States  which   are  at  this 


226  CONGRATULATIONS   TO    THE  WHIGS    OF    NEW   YORK. 

moment,  by  great  majorities  of  the  people,  in  favor  of  Whig 
principles  and  a  Whig  policy,  which  does  not  embrace  the  whole 
six-and-twenty  of  our  beloved  Union.  New  York  and  Massa- 
chusetts have  had  an  opportunity  to  show  and  make  clearly 
manifest  what  they  are  in  favor  of,  and  so  have  all  the  other 
States  to  which  I  have  referred.  But  let  us  be  slow  to  shut  out 
from  this  glorious  company  of  patriot  States,  those  to  whom  no 
such  opportunity  has  yet  been  afforded.  Their  time  and  their 
turn  will  yet  come,  and  that  shortly ;  and  let  us  have  no  fear  for 
the  results.  Depend  upon  it,  Sir,  the  people,  the  whole  people, 
are  coming ;  —  I  should  rather  say.  they  have  come ;  —  come  to 
their  own  senses ;  come  to  their  own  salvation ;  come  to  the 
pulling  down  of  the  strongholds  of  corruption ;  come  to  the 
restoration  of  fallen  liberty ;  come  to  the  reestablishment,  in  all 
their  beauty  and  in  all  their  strength,  of  the  old  constitutional 
bulwarks  of  this  Republic ! 

But  I  must  not  trespass  longer  on  your  time.  Once  more,  in 
behalf  of  the  Whigs  of  Boston,  I  congratulate  you  on  your 
success ;  once  more,  I  thank  you  for  your  exertions.  And  not 
in  their  behalf  only.  In  behalf  of  the  whole  great  body  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Whigs  —  I  know  all  their  hearts,  and  am  not  afraid  to 
speak  for  them  all  —  in  behalf  of  them  all,  of  every  occupation 
and  profession ;  in  behalf  of  Whig  mechanics,  who  have  taken 
the  measure  of  true  patriotism  from  the  rule  of  a  Paul  Revere ; 
in  behalf  of  Whig  farmers,  who  have  ploughed  the  straight  fur- 
row of  a  Prescott  and  a  Hawley  ;  in  behalf  of  Whig  merchants, 
who  have  learned  to  sum  up  the  great  account  of  public  duty 
from  the  ledger  of  a  John  Hancock ;  —  in  behalf  of  them  all,  of 
every  county,  town,  and  district  of  the  State,  whether  scattered 
over  the  plains  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  or  clustered  at  the 
foot  of  Bunker  Hill,  or  crowded  within  the  precincts  of  Faneuil 
Hall ;  —  wherever  they  are,  from  the  furthest  reach  of  either  Cape 
to  the  line  where  their  territory  embraces  and  becomes  one  with 
your  own; — in  behalf  of  every  one  of  them  —  all  and  every- 
where true,  all  and  everywhere  triumphant —  I  congratulate  you, 
I  thank  you,  and  in  the  name  of  them  all,  I  offer  you  the  right 
hand  of  a  hearty,  genuine,  Whig  fellowship. 


THE   SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

A   SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE   HOUSE  OF   REPRESENTATIVES  OF  MASSACHU- 
SETTS, IN  COMMITTEE  OF   THE  WHOLE,  MARCH   26,  1838. 


It  is  not  without  a  good  deal  of  distrust,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I 
find  myself  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  During  the  early  part  of 
the  session,  I  will  confess,  I  more  than  once  desired  to  be  there. 
More  than  once  did  I  find  the  opening  line  of  the  old  Roman  Sa- 
tirist rising  to  my  lips  —  semper  ego  auditor  tantum  ?  nunquam- 
ne  reponam?  —  must  I  always  be  a  mere  hearer?  shall  I  never 
have  a  chance  to  reply  ?  And  sometimes  I  was  almost  disposed 
to  quarrel  with  the  unmerited  honor  which  had  seemingly 
doomed  me  to  a  perpetual  silence.  But  these  feelings  have  now 
been  so  long  restrained,  that  I  fear  something  beside  the  dispo- 
sition to  mingle  in  debate  may  have  passed  away.  Certainly, 
Sir,  it  would  have  been  any  thing  but  a  matter  of  regret  to  me 
if  the  yeas  and  nays  had  been  called  on  these  resolutions  a 
week  or  more  ago,  when  they  first  came  up  in  the  orders  of  the 
day.  Discussed  as  the  Sub- Treasury  system  had  been,  almost 
without  intermission  for  six  months  past,  in  Congress,  in  caucus, 
in  the  newspapers,  and  at  the  fireside,  I  should  have  been  quite 
content,  for  one,  to  have  let  it  pass  here,  at  so  late  an  hour  of 
the  session,  entirely  without  debate. 

It  was  suggested  by  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  (Mr. 
Kantoul,)  in  opposition  to  such  a  course,  that  the  House  was 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  merits  of  the  measure  —  that  not  thirty 
of  them  knew  what  the  Sub-Treasury  system  was.  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  a  large  majority  of  the 


228  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

members  pretty  well  understood  and  appreciated  that  system. 
I  have  no  idea  that  any  considerable  number  of  them  were  then, 
or  are  now,  desirous  of  a  nearer  or  more  familiar  acquaintance 
with  it.  At  any  rate,  I  believe  that  the  minds  of  the  whole 
House  are  made  up  upon  it.  I  believe  the  minds  of  the  whole 
people  are  made  up  upon  it.  I  have  no  hope,  certainly,  of 
changing  a  single  shade  of  public  or  private  sentiment  by  any 
thing  I  can  say  in  favor  of  these  resolutions ;  and  I  will  add 
that  I  have  no  particular  apprehension  that  any  thing  that  has 
been  said,  or  that  may  be  said,  against  them,  will  work  any 
very  material  change  in  that  public  or  that  private  sentiment. 
I  heartily  wish,  therefore,  that  we  had  come  to  the  vote  a  week 
ago,  and  had  speeded  the  resolutions  on  their  errand  to  the 
Capitol,  to  do  whatever  of  good  or  evil  they  may  be  designed  or 
destined  to  effect. 

But  it  has  been  ordered  otherwise.  The  opponents  of  the 
resolutions  demanded,  claimed,  insisted  on,  a  discussion.  And 
in  conformity  with  their  convenience  and  agreeably  to  their  sug- 
gestion, if  not  directly  upon  their  motion,  a  time  for  that  discus- 
sion was  assigned.  Four  days  have  now  nearly  elapsed  since 
that  time  arrived,  and  we  all  know  how  they  have  been  occu- 
pied. The  first  was  taken  up  by  the  gentleman  from  Glouces- 
ter, in  proposing  and  pressing  sundry  amendments  to  the  resolu- 
tions, all  of  which  were  rejected  by  large  majorities.  The  first 
hour  or  more  of  the  second  day  was  employed  by  the  gentle- 
man from  Marblehead,  (Mr.  Robinson,)  in  an  effective  speech 
against  the  resolutions;  and  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester, 
rising  again  as  his  friend  from  Marblehead  took  his  seat,  has 
held  the  floor  from  that  time  to  this.  I  cannot  help  hoping,  Mr. 
Chairman,  under  all  these  circumstances,  that  the  whole  waste 
of  public  time  and  public  money  which  this  protracted  contro- 
versy will  have  cost,  is  not  destined  to  be  charged  to  the  ac- 
count of  the  majority  in  this  House.  If  it  be,  however,  there 
will  only  be  another  warning  added  to  a  list  of  warnings 
already  neither  short  nor  unedifying,  against  the  manifestation 
of  an  excessive  courtesy  and  the  accordance  of  too  many  indul- 
gences to  political  opponents. 

The  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  in  his  remarks  on  Thursday, 


THE  SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM.  229 

took  occasion  to  allude  to  Mr.  Webster.  He  observed,  if  I  re- 
member right,  that  he  had  made  a  particular  study  of  his  poli- 
tical character,  and  should  be  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  show 
up  its  consistency  to  the  House.  This  was  not  a  new  topic, 
Sir,  with  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester.  I  had  the  plea- 
sure of  meeting  him  upon  it  last  winter.  But  though  he  has 
repeated  his  remarks,  I  do  not  intend  to  repeat  mine.  The 
political  character  of  Mr.  Webster  needs  no  defence.  It  is  safe 
in  the  custody,  not  of  his  own  Massachusetts  constituents 
merely,  but  of  the  whole  American  people,  whose  faithful  sol- 
dier and  servant  he  has  so  long  been.  It  is  safe,  I  might  better 
say,  in  its  own  invincible  greatness,  in  its  own  invulnerable 
strength.  But  there  is  one  part  of  that  character,  which,  how- 
ever the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  may  have  studied,  he  cer- 
tainly has  not  yet  learned.  I  mean  that  magnanimity  of  which 
an  interesting  anecdote  has  recently  been  related  in  the  papers 
of  the  day. 

It  appears  that  during  the  late  great  speech  of  Mr.  Webster, 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  on  the  very  subject  we  are 
now  considering,  just  as  he  was  about  to  bear  down  on  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan of  Pennsylvania,  it  was  suggested  to  him  that  that  gen- 
tleman's hands  were  tied  by  certain  instructions  which  he  had 
received  from  his  State  Legislature ;  and  what  was  our  Sena- 
tor's reply  ?  "I  will  not  say  another  word  about  him  —  I  will 
not  even  look  in  that  direction."  —  The  gentleman  from  Glouces- 
ter, on  the  contrary,  having  been  goaded  and  stung  to  the  quick 
by  the  unpalatable  truths  which  had  been  told,  in  a  previous 
debate,  of  the  administration  which  he  supports,  and  having 
considered  it  inexpedient  to  reply  during  that  debate,  and  hav- 
ing nursed  his  wrath  to  keep  it  warm  until  these  Sub- Treasury 
resolutions  should  come  up  for  discussion,  had  no  sooner  gained 
audience  upon  them,  than  he  vented  the  whole  amount  and 
accumulation  of  his  ire,  the  whole  principal  and  interest  of  his 
indignation  —  upon  whom,  Sir  ?  Upon  any  one  who  had  as- 
saulted, or  insulted,  or  in  any  way  injured  him  ?  Upon  any 
one  even,  who  was  in  a  position  to  defend  himself  when  at- 
tacked ?  No,  Sir,  no,  but  partly  on  the  distinguished  Senator 
to  whom  I  have  already  alluded  —  five  hundred  miles  distant 

20 


230  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

from  him  in  person,  and  infinitely  farther  removed  in  character 
from  the  utmost  reach  of  any  shafts  which  he  could  throw  — 
and  partly  upon  one  who,  though  personally  present,  and  com- 
pelled to  submit  to  whatever  words  or  looks  it  might  please  the 
gentleman  to  throw  at  him,  was  entirely  prevented,  by  his  offi- 
cial position,  from  resisting,  resenting,  or  in  any  way  noticing 
them. 

Sir,  I  will  confess  that  on  the  occasion  to  which  I  allude,  I 
felt  in  no  small  degree  complimented  at  being  coupled  with  the 
great  Massachusetts  statesman  in  the  censure  of  the  gentleman 
from  Gloucester.  But  this  was  by  no  means  the  only  occasion 
on  which  I  have  been  subjected  to  his  attacks,  and  heretofore  I 
have  had  no  such  good  company  to  console  me,  while  my  hands 
have  been  equally  tied  behind  me.  The  gentleman  best  knows 
his  own  motives  and  purposes,  but  it  cannot  have  escaped  ob- 
servation, that  from  the  beginning  of  the  session  to  this  hour, 
he  has  omitted  no  opportunity  which  has  occurred,  or  which 
could  be  created,  to  cast  censure  and  contumely  upon  the  Chair. 
For  the  first  time,  Sir,  I  am  now  in  a  condition  to  retort.  Bat  let 
me  assure  the  House  that  I  do  not  intend  to  avail  myself  of  my 
position  for  any  such  purpose.  Certainly,  Sir,  I  have  not  risen 
with  any  such  intent,  and  I  hop'e  to  sit  down  without  having 
been  betrayed  into  any  such  act.  Placed  by  the  indulgence  of 
the  House  in  a  station  where  it  is  my  duty  to  check  personality 
and  enforce  decorum  in  others,  I  will  not  voluntarily  exhibit  a 
violation  of  order  in  my  own  person.  I  will  not  be  provoked 
into  a  personal  altercation  with  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester. 
He  has  brandished  his  lance,  and  shaken  his  red  flag,  and  played 
the  Matadore  in  vain.  His  taunts  and  provocations  I  give  to 
the  wind.  To  his  arguments,  if  he  has  uttered  any,  and  I 
should  chance  to  meet  them  along  my  track,  I  will  pay  the 
respect  of  a  passing  notice.     And  now,  Sir,  to  the  subject. 

It  is  one,  I  need  hardly  say,  of  no  small  compass  or  compre- 
hension. It  calls  upon  us  to  look  both  before  and  after.  The 
measure  to  which  these  resolutions  relate,  is  at  once  a  goal  and 
a  starting  point  in  national  affairs.  It  is  the  end  of  one  series 
of  experiments,  and  it  is  the  beginning  of  another.  And  in 
order  to  understand  its  real  nature,  we  ought  to  look  to  what 


THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  281 

is  past,  as  well  as  to  what  is  to  come.  We  ought  to  see 
clearly  of  what  it  is  the  consummation,  and  of  what  it  is  the 
commencement. 

When  our  honored  fellow-citizen,  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams, 
was  supplanted  in  the  Presidential  chair,  some  nine  years  ago, 
by  General  Jackson,  the  currency  of  the  United  States  was  not 
surpassed  in  convenience,  uniformity,  or  soundness,  by  that  of 
any  other  country  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  It  enjoyed  un- 
bounded confidence.  It  afforded  universal  satisfaction.  From 
no  quarter  of  the  Union,  from  neither  political  party,  was  there 
a  breath  breathed  against  it.  The  party  by  whom  the  change 
of  administration  was  effected,  had  not  been  slow  in  hunting 
up  all  manner  of  imaginary  grievances  which  they  might  pro- 
mise and  pledge  themselves  to  hunt  down.  They  complained 
of  the  extravagance  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  they  have  shown  the 
justice  of  that  complaint  by  doubling,  and  in  some  years  trebling, 
the  annual  amount  of  the  national  expenses.  They  complained 
of  political  corruption,  and  they  have  since  given  us  plainly  to 
perceive  what  they  understood  by  political  purity.  They  pledged 
themselves  to  "  a  thorough  and  searching  reform,"  and  the  thou- 
sands of  political  adversaries  who  have  been  punished,  and  the 
tens  of  thousands  of  political  friends  who  have  been  rewarded, 
through  the  medium  of  the  appointing  power,  have  clearly 
manifested  what  that  thorough  and  searching  reform  was  in- 
tended to  be.  But  of  the  currency  of  the  country  they  made 
no  complaint.  For  that  they  promised  nothing.  And  most 
fortunate  would  it  have  been,  if  with  regard  to  it  they  had  per- 
formed nothing. 

But  not  such  was  their  wisdom.  Not  such  our  fate.  For  the 
first  year  or  two,  however,  every  thing  went  on  well  and  quietly 
in  this  respect.  Indeed,  it  will  be  found  that  in  more  than  one  of 
their  early  Executive  messages,  not  a  few  phrases  of  compli- 
ment and  eulogy  were  rounded  on  the  goodness  of  the  circulat- 
ing medium,  and  on  the  services  of  its  great  regulator,  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States.  Particular  praise  was  bestowed  on  the 
Bank  for  its  disinterested  efforts  in  enabling  the  Government  to 
complete  the  payment  of  the  national  debt.  But  in  a  moment, 
and  without  a  note  of  warning,  a  change  came  over  the  spirit  of 


232  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

the  ad ministration.  The  currency,  but  yesterday  deemed  sound 
and  healthful,  was  to-day  discovered  to  be  diseased  and  rotten. 
The  Bank,  but  yesterday  commended  and  eulogized,  was  to-day 
pronounced  unconstitutional,  corrupt,  dangerous  to  liberty.  In 
wilful  disregard  of  the  existing  and  long-established  rates  of  do- 
mestic exchanges,  it  was  declared  to  have  failed  in  affording 
a  uniform  currency,  and  with  a  hardihood  of  assertion  which 
excited  derision  throughout  the  country,  was  proclaimed  an 
unsafe  depository  of  the  public  moneys. 

Whether  this  extraordinary  transition  from  praise  to  scandal, 
from  admiration  to  aversion,  from  commendation  to  condemna- 
tion, was  the  result  of  that  sordid  repulse  which  the  administra- 
tion had  sustained  in  certain  notorious  proposals  to  the  branch 
bank  in  New  Hampshire,  those  who  know  any  thing  of  the  his- 
tory of  political  coquetry  and  caprice  can  judge  as  well  as  I. 
But  the  facts  we  all  know.  The  institution  was  doomed  to  be 
at  once  discarded  from  further  employment.  The  renewal  of 
its  charter  was  vetoed.  The  public  treasure  was  removed  from 
its  vaults.  And  war  to  the  knife  was  declared  against  it,  and 
all  concerned  with  it.  Its  officers  were  denounced.  Its  Presi- 
dent was  served  up  in  the  government  journals  under  every 
odious  nickname  and  epithet ;  —  all  his  acts  set  in  the  Executive 
note-book,  learned  and  conned  by  rote,  and  the  greater  part  of 
every  Executive  message  devoted  to  their  recital  to  the  people. 
To  use  the  language  of  Mr.  Senator  King  of  Georgia,  who,  be 
it  remembered,  only  parted  company  with  the  administration  at 
the  late  extra  session  of  Congress,  "  if  Mr.  Biddle  expanded,  he 
was  bribing  the  country ;  if  he  contracted  he  was  ruining  the 
country ;  if  he  imported  specie,  he  was  speculating  on  the 
country ;  if  he  exported  specie,  he  was  conspiring  against  the 
country ;  if  he  stood  up,  he  was  impudent ;  if  he  sat  down,  he 
was  suspicious ;  if  he  lay  down,  he  was  useless ;  and  whenever 
he  made  a  move,  whether  he  crossed  above  or  below  the  Execu- 
tive, he  equally  mudded  the  waters."  But  enough  of  Mr.  Bid- 
die.  The  removal  of  the  deposits  was  of  course  succeeded  by 
their  distribution  among  the  selected  State  banks.  With  this 
distribution  went  letters  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  en- 
joining upon  the  new  recipients  to  loan  their  deposits  liberally 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  233 

among  the  people.  And  this  injunction  was  more  than  fulfilled. 
Then  followed  the  importation  of  gold  to  the  amount  of  thirty 
or  forty  millions  of  dollars,  partly  on  account  of  foreign  claims, 
and  partly  as  a  matter  of  outright  purchase  and  trade  by  the 
Executive  or  his  agents.  Then  came,  the  clumsy,  if  not  wilfully 
harassing,  execution  of  the  surplus  distribution  act,  to  which  the 
President  had  given  at  length  a  "  reluctant  assent."  And  last 
of  all,  to  close  this  strange,  eventful  history,  was  issued  that 
well-known  Treasury  order,  by  which  all  payments  for  public 
lands  were  to  be  made  in  gold  and  silver. 

These,  Mr.  Chairman,  are  the  Executive  measures  which  have 
been  the  heralds  and  harbingers  of  the  Sub- Treasury  system. 
This  is  that  series  of  experiments  by  which  its  approach  has 
been  announced,  and  its  way  prepared  before  it.  But  there 
have  been  other  simultaneous  events  in  the  affairs  of  the  coun- 
try. There  have  been  mercantile  distresses  and  pecuniary  press- 
ures, thickly  crowded  along  the  whole  period  in  which  these 
measures  have  been  executed.  There  has  been  a  total  derange- 
ment of  the  currency  and  exchanges,  a  perfect  prostration  of 
credit,  and,  to  describe  all  in  one  phrase,  a  general  suspension  of 
payments  throughout  the  country.  And  there  is  no  more  im- 
portant inquiry  in  the  discussion  in  which  we  are  engaged,  than 
whether  these  events  also  are  to  be  comprised  in  the  catalogue 
of  Executive  acts,  or,  in  other  words,  whether  the  national  ad- 
ministration is  directly  or  indirectly  responsible  for  their  occur- 
rence. 

Some  of  the  gentlemen,  Sir,  with  whom  I  am  accustomed  to 
act  here  and  elsewhere,  have,  in  a  previous  debate,  exceedingly 
qualified  their  reference  of  these  events  to  Executive  action. 
From  any  and  all  such  qualification  I  desire  to  dissent.  For 
one,  I  desire  to  be  understood,  now  and  at  all  times,  to  charge 
the  whole  of  the  late  crisis  —  all  about  it  that  has  been  pecu- 
liarly aggravated  and  overwhelming,  all  about  it  that  has  dis- 
tinguished it  from  the  thousand  and  one  temporary  calamities 
which  have  chequered  the  history  of  commerce  in  all  ages  and 
countries,  all  about  it  that  has  made  it  the  crisis  that  it  has  been 
and  still  is,  —  to  these  measures  of  the  national  administration. 
Contractions  and  expansions,  extensions  and  revulsions,  are,  I 

20* 


234  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

know,  to  some  extent,  the  necessary  and  inevitable  incidents  to 
commercial  operations.  They  are  doubtless  more  frequent  and 
more  formidable  where  the  circulating  medium  of  commerce  is 
paper  than  where  it  is  metallic,  or,  in  other  words,  where  that 
medium  is  generally  abundant  than  where  it  is  generally  scarce, 
or,  in  still  other  phraseology,  where  commerce  has  a  wide 
range,  than  where  it  has  a  narrow  one.  But  whatever  its  range 
and  whatever  its  medium,  they  belong  to  commerce,  as  naturally 
and  as  necessarily  as  the  tides  belong  to  the  ocean,  which  is  the 
great  highway  of  commerce.  And  sometimes  they  are  produced 
by  causes  with  which  the  nature  or  the  amount  of  the  circulating 
medium  have  no  connection.  Whether  their  departure  and  re- 
turn can  be  calculated  and  predicted  with  all  the  accuracy  of  a 
comet's  tail,  as  has  been  maintained  by  the  gentleman  from 
Gloucester,  I  will  not  undertake  to  assert.  I  am  willing,  how- 
ever, to  admit,  if  anybody  desires  the  admission,  that  one  of 
these  ordinary  contractions  or  revulsions  was  to  have  been  ex- 
pected, and  might  have  occurred,  at  or  about  the  time  at  which 
this  great  crisis  was  developed,  even  if  General  Jackson  had 
never  been  elevated  to  the  Presidency. 

But  notwithstanding  this  admission,  and  in  entire  consist- 
ency with  all  that  it  implies,  I  assert  again  my  unwavering 
and  unalterable  conviction  that  but  for  his  Presidency,  and 
but  for  his  policy  in  relation  to  the  currency,  this  crisis  could 
never  have  occurred.  All  that  has  lifted  it  above  the  level  of 
common  commercial  reactions,  all  that  has  constituted  it  an 
era  in  the  history  of  the  country  and  of  its  commerce — an 
era,  I  might  as  well  say,  in  the  history  of  all  countries  and  of 
all  commerce,  —  is  in  my  judgment  to  be  ascribed  solely  and 
unqualifiedly  to  the  national  administration.  And  as  to 
the  final  and  fatal  catastrophe  of  the  crisis,  the  suspension  of 
specie  payments,  I  hold  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
in  1837,  as  morally  responsible  for  its  occurrence,  as  the  govern- 
ment of  Great  Britain  was,  just  forty  years  before,  when  the 
same  event  was  brought  about  in  England  under  the  express 
authority  of  Orders  in  Council.  Yes,  Sir,  Orders  in  Council 
did  the  deed  in  this  case  as  in  that ;  those  Treasury  orders 
which,  while  they  produced  all  the  disasters  of  their  prototypes 


THE  SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM.  235 

in  1797,  were  hardly  less  arbitrary,  hardly  less  tyrannical,  than 
those  later  Orders  in  Council  against  which  General  Jackson 
himself  so  nobly  contended,  and  over  which  he  so  gloriously  tri- 
umphed at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans. 

Gentlemen  who  differ  from  me  in  this  position  will  adduce 
many  other  and,  as  they  hold,  independent  causes  of  these 
events.  They  will  tell  you  of  the  multiplication  of  banks. 
And  I  agree  with  them  that  this  has  been  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  crisis.  But  what  induced  and  stimulated  and  made 
way  for  the  multiplication  of  banks?  They  will  tell  you  of 
the  excessive  issues  of  banks.  And  again  I  agree  with  them 
that  this  has  been  one  of  the  causes  of  the  crisis.  But  what 
caused  these  excessive  issues  of  the  banks  ?  They  will  tell  you 
of  overtrading  and  overaction  in  all  departments  of  business,  of 
speculations  in  Western  lands,  and  of  gambling  and  swindling 
in  all  sorts  of  worthless  stocks.  And  still  again  I  agree  with 
them  that  these  were  among  the  causes  of  the  crisis.  But  still 
I  ask,  what  caused  this  overtrading  and  overaction,  this  specu- 
lation and  gambling  and  swindling?  Why  this  stopping  short 
at  second  causes  ?  Are  these  excessive  creations  and  issues  of 
banks,  these  extravagant  operations  of  trade  and  business,  these 
wild  and  wicked  speculations  in  stocks  and  stones,  the  natural 
and  necessary  results  of  any  thing  in  our  national  condition, 
moral,  social,  or  political  ?  If  so,  why  has  their  manifestation 
been  reserved  for  this  precise  period  of  our  history  ?  Why  have 
they  never  been  exhibited  before,  or  never  but  once  before,  and 
that  but  partially  and  in  connection  with  a  portion  of  the  same 
extraordinary  and  unusual  circumstances.  By  what  bad  fortune 
of  General  Jackson's  was  it — a  man,  by  the  way,  who  seems  to 
me  never  to  have  met  with  any  thing  but  the  best  of  fortune, 
who,  by  a  kind  of  joke  of  fortune,*  was  raised  to  a  pinnacle  of 
power  which  might  not  have  so  dizzied  him,  had  he  ever  dreamed 
of  it  in  advance,  —  by  what  bad  fortune  of  his  was  it,  I  repeat, 
that  this  commercial  outbreak,  this  financial  freshet,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  was  reserved  to  signalize  his  accession  to  authority  ?    And 

Cum  sint 


"     V^UIIl  SIUL 

Quales  ex  humili  magna  ad  fastigia  rerum 
Extollit,  quoties  voluit  fortuna  jocari. 


236  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

if  these  excesses  and  extravagances  have  not  been  the  natural 
results  of  our  national  constitution  or  condition,  what  has  pro- 
duced them  ?  What  raging  dog-star,  what  influence  of  Dragon's 
tail  or  Ursa  Major,  what  spherical  predominance  or  heavenly 
compulsion,  what  thrusting  on  of  deity  or  of  devil,  has  effected 
these  marvellous  aberrations  from  our  ordinary  principles  and 
practices  ?  How  has  it  happened,  Sir,  that  one  half  the  people 
of  the  country  have  been  mad,  like  Hamlet,  just  north-north-west, 
and  sane  enough  towards  every  other  point  of  the  compass  ? 

It  cannot,  Mr.  Chairman,  be  necessary  to  resort  to  any  such 
absurd  and  extravagant  hypotheses  to  explain  the  first  outset  and 
impulse  of  the  crisis  that  has  occurred.  I  know  that  the  opera- 
tions of  commerce  are  intricate  and  complex.  I  know  that  the 
influences  which  ordinarily  affect  credit  are  subtle  and  puzzling 
to  the  sense.  And  as  I  have  listened,  day  after  day,  to  the  count- 
less contradictory  views  which  have  been  presented  here  on  the 
subject  of  banks,  credit,  and  currency,  I  have  been  disposed  to 
apply  to  them  what  an  old  poet  wrote  so  well  of  honor,  and  to 
say,— 

Credit  is  like  the  glassy  bubble 
Which  gives  philosophers  so  much  trouble, 
Whose  least  part  cracked,  the  whole  does  fly, 
And  wits  are  cracked  to  find  out  why. 

But  while  this  is  true  of  the  ordinary  operations  of  trade  and 
the  ordinary  influences  upon  credit,  it  has  no  application  be- 
yond them.  No  puzzling  of  the  brains,  or  cracking  of  the  wits 
is  necessary  to  discover  the  causes  of  great  and  extraordinary 
crises.  They  are  not  brought  about  by  intricate  operations  or 
subtle  influences.  Power,  power,  divine  or  human,  miraculous 
or  malicious,  can  alone  produce  them ;  and  when  produced,  they 
are  their  own  interpreters,  and  rarely  fail  to  point  at  once  and 
plainly  to  their  author.  And  this  crisis  which  we  are  considering, 
seems  to  me,  above  all  others  that  I  have  ever  heard  or  read  of, 
in  its  whole  inception,  progress,  and  close,  to  point  so  plainly,  so 
clearly,  so  directly  to  the  national  administration  —  its  second 
causes,  in  which  we  are  all  agreed,  seem  so  closely  and  insepa- 
rably connected  with  the  executive  measures  to  which  I  have 
referred — as  to  leave  no  room  for  doubting  by  what  or  by  whom 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  237 

it  has  been  produced.  Sir,  I  intend  to  cast  no  imputation  upon 
any  member  or  class  of  members  in  this  House.  I  know  that 
honest  men  differ  upon  this  subject.  But  I  cannot  help  saying 
that  having  divested  myself  repeatedly,  as  far  as  I  was  able,  of 
every  party  bias  and  political  prejudice,  and  having  examined 
this  question  again  and  again  with  all  the  candor  and  all  the 
care  I  could  bring  to  it,  I  never  have  been  able  to  conceive  how 
any  honest  mind  could  exculpate  the  Government  from  a  main 
and  primary  agency  in  the  production  of  this  crisis. 

I  will  not  weary  the  House  by  going  deeply  into  the  argument 
by  which  this  conclusion  has  been  reached.  It  has  been  pre- 
sented to  the  country  frequently  of  late,  and  with  far  greater 
force  than  I  could  bring  to  it.  But  there  are  two  very  simple  views 
of  the  subject,  to  which  I  cannot  forbear  to  ask  a  moment's 
attention.  They  seem  to  me  to  be  conclusive  to  this  extent,  if 
no  further, — they  change  the  burden  of  proof,  and  throw  upon 
the  Government  the  responsibility  of  showing  their  own  inno- 
cence ;  a  work  in  which,  I  need  hardly  say,  they  have  thus  far 
signally  failed. 

The  first  of  these  views  is  derived  from  the  well-known  histo- 
rical fact,  that  there  was  the  same  multiplication  of  banks,  the 
same  extension  of  bank  credits,  the  same  speculation  and  over- 
trading, and  the  same  suspension  of  specie  payments — the  same 
I  mean  in  kind,  though  falling  far  short  in  degree  and  extent  — 
when  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  broken  up  in  1811,  and 
when  the  government  resorted  to  temporary  expedients,  as  now, 
to  conduct  the  finances  of  the  country.  Now  if  there  be  any 
truth  in  the  old  axiom,  that  like  causes  produce  like  results,  I 
pray  gentlemen  to  tell  us  what  like  causes  existed  and  operated 
in  these  only  periods  of  our  national  history  in  which  these  like 
results  have  been  exhibited,  except  the  government  measures  to 
which  I  have  alluded. 

The  second  of  these  views  is  not  less  simple,  nor  is  either  of 
them  less  satisfactory  for  being  simple.  It  is  this.  When  Gene- 
ral Jackson  was  inaugurated,  the  currency  was  sound  and  good. 
He  undertook  to  make  it  better.  He  laid  his  hands  upon  it  for 
that  purpose,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  experiments,  the  explosion 
took  place.     The  currency  is  prostrated,  and  public  credit  lies 


238  THE  SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM. 

dead  at  his  feet.  And  now  who  shall  say  that  this  was  not  his 
work,  and  the  result  of  his  operations  ?  If  ever  there  was  a  case 
of  a  criminal  caught  in  the  act,  such  seems  to  me  to  be  the  case 
of  the  government.  Were  an  individual  culprit  brought  to  the 
bar  under  precisely  the  same  amount  of  circumstantial  testimony, 
unless  he  could  offer  some  better  and  more  plausible  vindication 
than  the  administration  have  yet  produced,  I  verily  believe  there 
is  not  a  jury  in  the  land  who  would  give  him  a  verdict  of  acquit- 
tal, any  more  than  they  would  acquit  a  person  charged  with 
stealing,  who  was  caught  on  the  premises  in  which  the  theft  was 
committed,  or  a  person  accused  of  assassination,  whose  hand 
was  still  wet  with  the  blood  of  his  prostrate  victim. 

But  let  us  suppose  a  case  a  little  more  analogous  to  the  one 
before  us.  Go  back  a  century  or  two  to  the  history  of  alchemy. 
Enter  the  laboratory  of  an  ancient  alchemist.  See  his  stills  and 
his  caldrons,  his  alembics  and  his  elixirs.  See  him  toiling  and 
drudging,  and  promising  too,  night  and  day,  to  turn  that  heap 
of  base  metal  into  gold.  Presently  there  is  an  ominous  rumbling, 
then  a  crash,  then  a  general  explosion,  and  the  whole  building 
and  apparatus  are  instantly  involved  in  flames  and  ruin.  Will 
anybody  go  about  now  to  see  if  there  was  not  a  leak  in  this 
still,  or  a  crack  in  that  caldron,  a  flaw  in  the  alembic,  or  a  false 
ingredient  in  the  elixir,  which  caused  this  fearful  catastrophe  ? 
Or  whether  it  did  not  result  from  overaction  on  the  part  of 
some  of  those  engaged  in  the  process  ?  Will  not  all,  at  once, 
agree  that  it  was  the  natural  result  of  so  mad  and  absurd  an 
experiment  —  the  legitimate  termination  of  all  alchemy  ?  And 
what  but  alchemy  has  been  going  on  in  the  country  for  six  years 
past  ?  Mitford  tells  us,  in  his  history  of  Greece,  that  Dionysius 
of  Syracuse,  whose  official  title  was  General  Autocrator  or  the 
Autocrat- General,  made  some  humble  efforts  to  reform  the  cur- 
rency of  the  people  over  whom  he  ruled.  He  attempted  it  by 
an  emission  of  pewter  notes.  The  classical  adulators  of  the 
day  seem  never  to  have  presented  this  precedent  to  the  eye 
of  the  Autocrat- General,  of  the  present  age,  or  possibly  his 
dreams  of  a  metallic  currency  might  long  ago  have  been  ac- 
complished. But  hitherto  he  has  been  content  with  nothing 
but  gold.     And  fonder  even  than  the  alchemists  of  old,  he  has 


THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  239 

essayed  to  turn  into  that  precious  material,  not  heaps  of  baser 
metal  merely,  but  piles  of  paper  and  bales  of  rags.  What 
wonder  is  it,  not  only  that  no  gold  has  glittered,  but  that  the 
laboratory  has  exploded  and  even  the  rags  themselves  are  ruined! 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  gentleman  from  Marblehead  amused  us  not 
a  little  the  other  day  in  describing  the  eminent  medical  skill  of 
Dr.  Jackson,  as  he  was  pleased  to  denominate  the  late  President 
of  the  United  States.  I  was  aware,  Sir,  that  a  Doctorate  of 
Laws  had  been  conferred  on  that  distinguished  individual  by  a 
neighboring  University.  But  it  has  been  reserved  for  the  gentle- 
man from  Marblehead  to  bestow  upon  him  the  diploma  of  Me- 
dicine. Doubtless  he  has  proved  himself  equally  entitled  to  either 
honor.  But  the  Faculty  would,  I  think,  hardly  be  flattered  by 
the  grounds  which  have  been  given  of  his  claim  to  the  latter 
laurel;  to  wit,  his  most  successful  practice  in  promoting  the 
circulation  of  the  country. 

A  few  days  before  the  gentleman  made  this  allusion,  I  had 
received  from  a  respected  friend  of  mine  in  the  town  of  Barre, 
(General  Lee,)  lately  a  member  of  this  House,  —  a  soldier  in  the 
Revolution,  who  stood  at  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  and  witnessed 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  —  a  few  of  the  regular  old  Continental 
Notes,  which  are  almost  as  redeemable  now  as  they  ever  were, 
but  which  I  shall  put  by  as  a  curiosity' without  any  fear  of  los- 
ing either  principal  or  interest.  I  observed,  on  examining  them, 
that  they  all  had  some  sort  of  motto  inscribed  upon  their  face. 
On  one,  were  the  Latin  words,  depressa  resurgit ;  but  they  were 
no  less  doomed  to  be  a  lie  than  if  they  had  been  written  in  plain 
English ;  for  though  the  notes  were  abundantly  depressed,  they 
never  saw  the  promised  resurrection.  On  another,  was  a  picture 
of  the  Sun  just  on  the  edge  of  the  horizon,  but  though  it  was 
duly  labelled  "  rising,"  the  sequel  has  shown  that  the  artist  was 
mistaken,  and  had  really  depicted  a  setting  luminary.  Sir,  there 
have  been  enough  of  these  deceptive  inscriptions  upon  irredeem- 
able paper.  And  as  I  listened  to  the  gentleman  from  Marble- 
head the  other  day,  I  could  not  help  thinking  what  an  excellent 
motto  for  one  of  the  irredeemable  notes  of  the  present  day  —  a 
Commonwealth  Bank  bill,  for  example  —  that  old  French  epi- 
taph on  the  man  who  was  well,  took  physic  and  died,  would 


240  THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

make.  I  would  even  recommend  to  the  government  itself,  as  I 
have  this  moment  learned  that  they  are  proposing  to  emit  a  new 
batch  of  Treasury  notes,  to  have  engraved  upon  their  surface,  not 
one  of  the  old  delusory  stale  baits  of  Revolutionary  times,  but 
this  plain  and  wholesome,  however  unpalatable  truth,  —  "I  was 
well ;  Doctor  Jackson  tried  to  make  me  better,  and  here  I  am  — 
dead,  irredeemable,  rag  money." 

I  might  have  added,  Sir,  that  on  a  third  class  of  these  Conti- 
nental bills  was  a  motto  which  the  present  administration  seem 
actually  to  have  adopted.  Under  a  dial  plate,  with  its  hands  and 
figures  duly  disposed,  there  was  printed  in  glaring  capitals,  this 
most  emphatic  and  peremptory  mandate,  —  "  Mind  your  Busi- 
ness." It  is  plain,  Sir,  that  this  is  but  an  unceremonious 
abridgment  of  the  well-remembered  maxim,  with  which  a  distin- 
guished senator  from  New  York  (Mr.  Wright)  introduced  the 
discussion  on  the  Sub- Treasury  System.  "  Let  the  govern- 
ment mind  their  business,"  said  he,  "  and  let  the  people  mind 
theirs."  I  should  rather  have  said  that  this  latter  was  only  an 
amplification  and  development  of  the  former.  We  now  see 
where  this  maxim  originated,  and  with  what  financial  measures 
it  was  associated.  Upon  the  face  of  an  irredeemable  note  it 
was  first  inscribed,  and  there  it  still  appropriately  belongs.  And 
depend  upon  it,  Sir,  until  it  is  expunged  from  the  principles  and 
policy  of  the  national  administration,  it  will  perpetually  endanger, 
if  not  permanently  destroy,  the  redeemability  of  the  whole  paper 
medium  of  the  country.  —  But  I  am  anticipating  a  part  of  my 
remarks  for  which  I  am  not  yet  ready,  and  I  turn  to  the  more 
immediate  subject  of  the  resolutions  before  us. 

What,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  Sub- Treasury  Bill  ?  Why,  Sir, 
the  first  and  strongest  impression  which  a  perusal  of  that  Bill 
has  made  upon  my  mind,  is,  that  it  is  a  measure  designed  and 
calculated  to  carry  out  to  its  completion  this  late  financial  policy 
of  the  national  administration,  which  I  have  just  described  as  so 
ruinous  to  the  country.  The  present  incumbent  of  the  Presi- 
dency came  into  power,  we  all  know,  with  a  pledge  upon  his 
lips  to  complete  and  perpetuate  the  policy  of  his  predecessor. 
Sir,  the  Sub- Treasury  Bill  is  an  entire  and  perfect  fulfilment  of 
both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  that  pledge.     It  is  nothing  more 


THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  241 

nor  less  than  this  fatal  policy  itself  drawn  up  into  a  bill,  and 
presented  to  Congress  to  be  ratified  and  enacted.  To  subject 
the  bill  to  a  kind  of  chemical  analysis,  —  it  is  one  third  Bank 
Veto,  one  third  Removal  of  the  Deposits,  and  one  third  Treasury 
Order.  And  the  operation  of  the  whole  composition,  as  I  ho- 
nestly believe,  will  be  to  perpetuate  among  the  people  those 
sufferings  and  distresses,  those  perils  and  pains,  that  alternate 
rush  of  blood  and  stoppage  of  circulation,  which  have  been 
their  miserable  lot  for  the  last  few  years. 

But  let  us  look  a  little  more  closely  at  the  particular  provisions 
of  the  bill.  Gentlemen  who  have  not  had  the  benefit  of  a  copy 
of  it  may  be  glad  to  hear  exactly  what  it  provides.  I  will  endea- 
vor to  tell  them.  There  is  to  be,  in  the  first  place,  a  great  iron 
safe  in  the  new  Treasury  building  at  Washington,  which  is  to 
be  called,  par  eminence,  the  Treasury,  and  to  be  under  the  charge 
of  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States.  There  is  to  be  another 
great  iron  safe  in  the  National  Mint  at  Philadelphia,  under  the 
charge  of  the  Treasurer  of  the  Mint,  and  another  in  the  Branch 
Mint  at  New  Orleans,  under  the  charge  of  the  Treasurer  of  the 
Branch  Mint.  There  is  to  be  another  great  iron  safe  in  the  new 
custom  house  at  New  York,  and  another  in  the  new  custom 
house  at  Boston,  and  two  more  are  to  be  provided  in  some  con- 
venient receptacles  at  St.  Louis  and  Charleston.  These  four 
latter  safes  are  to  be  under  the  key  of  four  Receivers- General  to 
be  appointed  by  the  President.  And  in  these  seven  safes  — 
whether  they  are  to  be  Gayler's  patent,  or  Asbestos,  or  the  genu- 
ine Salamanders,  the  bill  does  not  say,  but  some  of  its  friends 
can  certainly  tell  us,  as  they  are  said  to  be  already  far  advanced 
in  the  process  of  construction  —  in  these  seven  iron  safes,  under 
the  direction,  doubtless,  of  seven  wise,  as  well  as  faithful,  men, 
the  main  body  of  the  public  moneys  is  henceforth  to  be  deposited. 
These  are  to  be  the  principal  Sub- Treasuries  of  the  system; 
these  are  the  seven  hills,  if  I  may  so  speak,  on  which  this  new 
financial  empire  is  to  be  founded. 

In  the  mean  time,  various  collectors  of  customs  and  their 
deputies,  together  with   all  the   postmasters,  and  all  the  land- 
receivers  throughout  the  Union,  are  to  have  their  safes  also,  on 
a  smaller  scale,  and  are  to  act  upon  the  good  old  motto  of  getting 
21 


242  THE   SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

what  they  can  and  keeping  what  they  get.  And  over  these 
public  moneys  thus  deposited,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
who  is  to  be  the  Super- Treasurer  of  the  whole  system,  is  to  have 
an  unlimited  power  of  transfer ,  with  authority  to  remove  the 
specie  from  safe  to  safe,  by  drafts  or  bodily  transportation,  when- 
ever and  in  whatever  amounts  the  public  service  may,  in  his 
judgment,  require,  and  also  to  appoint,  from  time  to  time,  special 
commissioners,  in  such  numbers  and  with  such  pay  as  he  may 
think  proper,  to  play  the  part  of  custodes  custodum^  to  examine 
the  contents  of  the  various  safes,  and  to  inspect  the  accounts  of 
their  various  keepers.  Finally,  these  keepers  are  prohibited  under 
heavy  penalties  from  using  themselves,  or  loaning  to  others,  the 
funds  in  their  custody,  and,  what  is  far  the  most  important  pro- 
vision of  the  whole,  these  funds  are  to  be  collected,  from  and 
after  December,  1843,  in  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  or  govern- 
ment paper,  while  between  now  and  then  there  is  to  be  a  gradual 
advancement,  by  five  successive  annual  and  equal  approaches, 
to  this  blessed  consummation  of  the  whole  scheme. 

Sir,  strip  the  bill  of  its  machinery,  and  if  I  mistake  not,  there 
are  three  great  characterizing  features  to  the  system,  regarded 
simply  as  a  financial  system. 

1.  The  public  moneys  are  to  be  kept  no  longer  in  a  bank  or 
banks,  but  in  the  hands  of  individual  agents  selected  by  the 
Executive. 

2.  The  public  moneys  are  to  be  collected  no  longer  in  bank 
paper,  whether  convertible  or  inconvertible,  but  exclusively  in 
gold  and  silver,  or  in  government  paper. 

3.  The  public  moneys  are  no  longer  to  be  the  basis  of  bank 
loans  or  discounts,  nor,  indeed,  as  the  bill  professes,  of  any  loans 
or  discounts  whatever. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  look  at  these  provisions  in  the  most 
favorable  light,  and  they  constitute  a  complete  abandonment  by 
the  government  of  banks,  of  bank  paper,  and  of  the  bank  credit 
system  to  their  fate.  So  far  as  government  power,  government 
patronage,  and  government  influence  and  countenance  go,  it  is 
plain,  there  are  to  be  no  banks,  there  is  to  be  no  bank  paper, 
there  is  to  be  no  credit  system,  or,  at  least,  none  such  as  we  now 
have.     The  bill  is  in  this  respect  precisely  what  it  professes  to  be, 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  243 

a  bill  of  divorce,  of  utter  and  unqualified  divorce,  without  pro- 
vision for  maintenance  or  allowance  of  alimony,  between  the 
national  government  and  our  existing  institutions  of  banking 
and  credit. 

But  what  is  its  design  ?  Clearly,  clearly,  Sir,  to  crush,  de- 
molish, and  annihilate  the  whole  banking  and  credit  system  of 
the  country.  The  great  statesman  of  Kentucky  has  demon- 
strated this  position  with  a  precision  and  a  fulness  leaving 
nothing  to  be  added.  Or  if  any  thing  were  required  to  clinch 
and  rivet  the  chain  of  evidence,  it  has  been  more  than  supplied 
by  the  powerful  effort  of  one  of  our  own  Senators,  Mr.  Davis. 
1  will  not  trespass  upon  the  time  of  the  House  by  reading  ex- 
tracts from  either  of  these  speeches,  nor  yet  by  repeating  the 
arguments  which  they  contain.  No  man  will  have  done  his 
duty  to  this  question  who  does  not  read  them  for  himself.  But 
I  beg  leave  very  briefly  to  allude  to  another  piece  of  testimony 
upon  this  point,  upon  which  no  suspicion  can  be  cast  as  being 
furnished  by  an  enemy  of  the  system  we  are  discussing.  I  hold 
in  my  hand,  Sir,  a  little  stereotyped  pamphlet  which  I  ven- 
ture to  say  has  done  as  much  mischief  in  its  day,  as  any  that 
ever  saw  ink  and  type.  It  is  the  well-known  work  of  Mr. 
Gouge,  a  gentleman  who  is  at  this  moment,  I  believe,  in  the 
Treasury  Department  at  Washington.  And  I  think  no  one 
will  contradict  the  assertion,  that  it  has  been,  and  is  still, 
the  financial  manual  of  the  national  administration.  It  was 
published  in  1833,  and  it  contains,  in  company  with  a  good 
deal  of  valuable  historical  information,  a  compendious  detail  of 
all  the  principles,  practices,  and  projects,  past,  present,  and  to 
come,  by  which  that  administration  has  proposed  to  reform  the 
national  currency.  The  Sub-Treasury  system,  especially,  iron 
safes  and  all,  is  mapped  out  in  its  pages  with  the  most  minute 
precision.  And  what  is  the  great  result,  the  glorious  consum- 
mation, to  which  it  is  to  lead  ?  It  is,  to  use  Mr.  Gouge's  own 
words,  "  the  abolition  of  incorporated  paper  money  banks,"  and 
"the  downfall  of  moneyed  corporations."  Here,  Sir,  we  have 
it  in  plain,  clear,  undisguised  language,  and  from  the  lips,  too, 
of  a  government  witness.  Let  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester 
discredit  him3  if  he  can. 

djuveksitt; 


244  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

But  why  resort  to  any,  such  testimony  ?  Who  denies  that 
this  has  been,  and  still  is,  the  ultimate  design  of  the  late  and 
present  administrations  ?  Who  doubts  it  ?  Who  can  doubt  it, 
that  has  paid  any  attention  to  the  doctrines  or  the  deeds  of  those 
administrations  for  seven  years  past?  Has  not  their  whole 
course  and  their  whole  cry  in  that  long  period  been  against 
banks  and  bank  paper  and  bank  credits  ?  Has  not  the  welkin 
rung  again  with  their  loud  halloos  of  "  perish  commerce,  perish 
credit ; "  "  those  who  trade  on  borrowed  capital  ought  to 
break?"  Has  not  the  very  title  by  which  they  have  chosen  to 
be  politically  known  and  distinguished,  been  "  Anti-Bank- Mo- 
nopoly Democrats  ?  "  Do  they  now  disown  that  title  ?  Do 
they  disavow  the  design  which  it  implies  ?  Why,  Sir,  on  ano- 
ther question  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  attempted  to  make 
some  sort  of  discrimination  in  his  hostility  to  banks,  and  said 
something  about  his  friendship  for  honest  banks.  Had  such  a 
distinction  fallen  from  another  mouth,  I  should  have  expected 
to  hear  the  gentleman  himself  responding  to  it  with  a  disquisi- 
tion upon  white  crows !  But  neither  in  the  three  days'  speech 
which  he  has  just  concluded,  nor  in  the  shorter  but  not  less  able 
argument  of  the  gentleman  from  Marblehead,  on  the  question 
before  us,  have  I  heard  a  syllable  which  recognized  any  such 
distinction,  or  which  betokened  any  thing  but  an  uncompro- 
mising and  indiscriminate  opposition  to  the  whole  banking  sys- 
tem of  the  country. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  not  only  do  I  fully  and  firmly  be- 
lieve that  it  is  the  design  of  this  Sub-Treasury  scheme  to  over- 
throw and  extirpate  our  present  institutions  of  credit  and  cur- 
rency, but,  for  one,  I  can  hardly  bring  myself  to  doubt  that, 
if  it  be  carried  out  without  alteration  or  evasion,  this  will  be 
its  ultimate  effect.  It  is  plain  that  the  adoption  of  this  mea- 
sure will  be  something  besides  a  mere  abandonment  of  these 
institutions  to  their  fate,  and  the  withdrawal  of  that  salutary 
regulating  power  which  government  has  hitherto  exerted  over 
them.  It  is  no  measure  of  mere  negative  operation.  The  pro- 
vision by  which  bank  bills  are  no  longer  to  pass  at  the  receipt 
of  customs,  cannot  fail  to  create  a  constant  drain  and  demand 
upon  the  banks  for  their  specie,  to  be  employed  in  Treasury 


THE  SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM.  245 

payments  or  to  be  hoarded  in  Sub-Treasury  safes.  While  at 
the  same  moment,  the  whole  suspicion  and  dishonor  of  govern- 
ment rejection  will  be-  cast  upon  the  paper  which  is  in  use 
among  the  people.  Why,  Sir,  what  does  this  provision  amount 
to,  but  a  perpetual  legislative  protest  against  banks  —  a  perpe- 
tual certificate  of  discredit,  executed  under  the  hand  and  seal  of 
the  government,  and  stamped  upon  the  face  of  every  bank-note 
in  the  country  ? 

But  the  direct  and  immediate  operation  of  this  bill,  bad  as  I 
conceive  it  inevitably  must  be,  will  be  insignificant,  in  my  judg- 
ment, compared  with  its  indirect  and  ulterior  influence,  if  it  be 
passed  and  persisted  in.  Hitherto  the  whole  war  upon  the 
banks  has  been  carried  on  by  the  Executive  of  the  nation,  sin- 
gle-handed and  alone.  Congress  has  never  yet  taken  one  step 
towards  that  battle-field.  Congress,  certainly,  has  never  yet 
lifted  a  finger  in  the  fight,  except  to  check  or  counteract  the 
rash  movements  of  the  Executive.  Yes,  Sir,  this  whole  strife 
and  turmoil  against  the  currency,  with  all  its  alarms  and  am- 
bushes, all  its  sieges  and  surrenders,  all  its  onslaughts,  disasters, 
and  catastrophes,  has  been  exclusively  of  Executive  setting-on 
and  of  Executive  carrying-on.  But  Congress  is  now  at  length 
compelled  to  act.  And  let  Congress  now  at  length  sustain  the 
past  and  present  Executive  in  their  career,  let  the  Representa- 
tives of  the  people  now  at  last  adopt,  ratify,  and  enact,  the  po- 
licy which  this  bill  proposes  to  complete  and  perpetuate,  and  let 
the  people  themselves  sustain  their  Representatives  in  so  doing, 
and  the  fate  of  the  American  credit  system  will  be  regarded,  and 
justly  regarded,  as  sealed,  and  its  doom  as  irrevocably  pro- 
nounced. If  this  bill  itself  will  not  work  its  dissolution,  some- 
thing else  will  be  devised  that  will.  There  will  be  no  stopping 
half  way.  This  measure  once  adopted  by  the  government,  they 
will  be 

"  Stept  in  so  far,  that,  should  they  wade  no  more, 
Returning  were  as  tedious  as  go  o'er." 

And  over  they  will  go.  They  will  follow  up  their  success  in  the 
national  councils.  Their  friends  in  the  State  Legislatures  will 
rally  with  renewed  courage  in  the  same  cause.     And  not  one 

21* 


246  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

stone  upon  another  will  be  left  of  our  existing  institutions  of 
banking  and  credit,  that  will  not  be  speedily  cast  down.  And 
what  will  be  built  up  on  the  ruins  ?  What  is  to  be  the  sub- 
stitute? 

But  before  turning  to  the  system  that  is  to  be,  Mr.  Chairman, 
I  desire  to  pay  a  passing,  and,  it  may  be,  a  parting  tribute  to 
the  system  that  is.  Not  that  I  am  about  to  attempt  any  elabo- 
rate defence  of  our  existing  credit  system,  or  any  philosophical 
analysis  of  the  relations  between  capital  and  labor.  I  see  giant 
tracks,  freshly,  deeply,  ineffaceably  impressed  at  every  turn  of 
this  route,  and  I  shrink  from  placing  my  tiny  footprints  in 
such  overwhelming  contrast.  But  there  is  one  idea,  which  has 
been  the  burden  of  more  than  one  speech  in  this  House,  from 
the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  in  years  past,  and  which  has  re- 
ceived its  full  share  of  repetition  on  the  present  occasion,  of 
which  I  cannot  forbear  to  speak.  It  is  this,  —  that  in  the  fluctu- 
ations of  our  circulating  medium,  the  wages  of  labor  are  the 
last  things  to  rise  and  the  first  things  to  fall,  and  that  therefore 
our  present  system  is  peculiarly  oppressive  to  the  laboring 
classes. 

Now,  Sir,  in  the  first  place  let  me  remind  the  gentleman  that 
these  fluctuations  are  not  the  peculiar  attributes  of  our  currency, 
or  our  credit  system.  They  belong,  as  I  have  once  before  in- 
sisted, to  commerce,  —  to  all  commerce,  whether  carried  on 
through  the  medium  of  metals,  or  of  paper,  or  of  both  united 
and  mutually  convertible.  They  may  be,  and  doubtless  are, 
rather  more  frequent  and  rather  more  extensive,  where  the  me- 
dium is  mixt,  than  where  it  is  purely  metallic.  But  they  not 
infrequently  have  no  relation  at  all  to  the  nature  or  amount  of 
that  medium,  whatever  it  is,  and  depend  for  their  origin  and 
extent,  upon  moral,  social,  or  political  causes.  If  he  will  away 
with  them  altogether,  he  must  away  with  commerce  altogether. 
If  he  will  not  endure  the  wave,  he  must  dry  up  or  stagnate  the 
ocean. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  I  maintain  that,  even  admitting  the 
position  that  in  these  fluctuations,  however  produced,  the  wages 
of  labor  are  the  last  things  to  rise  and  the  first  things  to  fall,  the 
Jaboring  classes  lose  infinitely  and  out  of  all  comparison  less  by 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  247 

this  accidental  disadvantage,  than  they  gain,  by  the  new  stimu- 
lus to  enterprise,  by  the  new  and  varied  demands  for  art  and 
industry,  which  these  very  fluctuations  are  continually  creating. 

But  leaving  this  point  also  to  rest  on  its  own  bare  statement, 
and  to  make  its  own  appeal  to  the  plain  common  sense  and 
practical  information  of  the  House,  I  beg  leave  to  state  my 
strong  and  serious  doubts  whether  the  gentleman's  premises  are 
susceptible  of  proof,  or  whether,  whatever  truth  the  maxim  with 
which  he  starts  may  be  proved  to  possess  in  the  old  world,  it  is 
in  any  degree  applicable  to  the  condition  and  circumstances  of 
the  new.  Everybody  knows,  Sir,  that  there  are  hundreds  of  the 
stereotyped  dogmas  of  the  English  and  French  economists, 
which  find  nothing  to  rest  upon,  nothing  to  attach  to,  among 
us.  And  this  idea,  that  the  wages  of  labor  are  the  last  things 
to  rise  and  the  first  things  to  fall,  seems  to  be  one  of  them. 
And  upon  this  point  again,  I  will  refer  the  gentleman  from 
Gloucester  to  the  production  of  one  of  his  own  political  party. 
Mr.  Legare,  of  South  Carolina,  an  administration  member  of 
Congress,  but  far  too  enlightened  to  approve  their  financial 
policy,  and  far  too  independent  to  follow  them  in  any  policy 
which  he  does  not  approve,  in  a  most  able  and  eloquent  speech, 
delivered  upon  this  very  subject,  during  the  late  extra  session  of 
Congress,  speaks  thus  of  the  doctrine  I  am  discussing:  — 

u  It  may  be  so,"  says  he,  "  in  countries  where  the  supply  oi" 
labor  is  greater  than  the  demand,  but  the  very  reverse  is  most 
certainly  the  fact  here,  where  the  demand,  especially  when  stimu- 
lated by  an  extraordinary  increase,  real  or  fictitious,  is  always 
greater  than  the  supply.  All  price,"  he  proceeds,  "  is  a  question 
of  power  or  of  relative  necessity  between  two  parties,  and  every- 
body knows  that  in  a  period  of  excitement  here,  wages  rise  im- 
mediately, and  out  of  all  proportion  more  than  any  thing  else, 
because  the  population  of  this  country  is  entirely  inadequate  to 
its  wants." 

Sir,  these  remarks  seem  to  me  not  only  to  be  well-founded 
and  well-reasoned,  but  to  be  obviously  and  undeniably  true. 
Look  at  the  condition  of  our  laboring  classes,  and  see  if  it  be 
not  so.  The  gentleman  from  Gloucester  complained  the  other 
day  that  he  could  never  speak  about  the  miseries,  the  oppres- 


248  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

sions,  the  grinding  of  faces  and,  "  grinding  of  live  bones  "  of 
the  poor,  without  exciting  a  smile  upon  the  countenances  of 
all  who  heard  him.  I  do  not  wonder  at  it,  Sir.  How  can  we 
help  indulging,  if  not  in  a  smile  of  incredulity  as  to  their  exist- 
ence elsewhere,  certainly  in  a  smile  of  satisfaction  that  they 
have  no  shadow  of  existence  here  ?  Who  ever  saw  or  heard 
of  any  such  thing  within  these  United  States  ?  Where  on 
the  face  of  the  globe  is  labor  half  as  well  fed,  half  as  well 
clad,  half  as  well  educated,  as  in  this  country  of  credit,  this  land 
of  banking  corporations  ?  Why  else  are  such  cargoes,  not  of 
goods  and  chattels  only,  but  of  bodies  and  souls,  annually 
emptied  upon  our  shores,  —  not  as  formerly,  I  thank  Heaven,  to 
become  merchandise  themselves,  and  to  put  on  the  manacles  of 
slavery,  but  to  enter  at  once  into  the  open  avenues  of  American 
industry,  to  reap  at  once  the  unequalled  returns  of  American 
enterprise,  and  to  enjoy  at  once  the  surpassing  privileges  of 
American  liberty.  Sir,  I  will  not  argue  this  position  further. 
Let  me  only  say  that  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  seems  to 
me  to  underrate  the  intelligence,  the  happiness,  the  independence 
of  condition,  and  elevation  of  character,  of  the  American  la- 
borer, and  it  is  not  perhaps  surprising,  therefore,  that  he  should 
also  under-estimate  the  value  of  that  credit  system,  which  has 
been  one  of  the  main  instruments  of  liberty  in  producing  these 
results. 

But  the  banking  system,  the  banking  law  of  Massachusetts, 
which  has  been  copied  into  the  codes  of  other  States,  and  is 
now  substantially  that  of  the  whole  country,  —  let  me,  before  I 
quit  this  topic,  do  an  act  of  justice  to  this  much  abused  system. 
Let  me  at  least  show  to  the  House  that  it  is  not  everywhere 
held  in  such  low  esteem  as  it  seems  to  be  among  us.  I  have 
here,  Sir,  the  speech  of  Mr.  William  Clay*  —  a  member  of  the 
British  House  of  Commons  —  a  whig  member,  let  me  assure 
the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  —  a  radical  member,  even,  I  be- 
lieve. It  is  the  speech  by  which  he  introduced  the  motion  for 
the  late  interesting  and  instructive  investigation  into  the  joint 
stock  banking  system  of  England.     The  same  pamphlet  con- 

*  Now  Sir  William  Clay,  Bart. 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  249 

tains,  also,  a  very  able  reply  by  Mr.  Clay  to  a  notice  of  his 
speech  contained  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  which  from 
intrinsic  evidence  only,  I  imagine  to  have  been  written  by  Mr. 
McCulloch.  In  these  productions,  Mr.  Clay  evinces  himself  no 
superficial  expositor  of  the  art  and  mystery  of  banking,  and  dis- 
plays an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  various  systems  now 
or  heretofore  in  use.  And  what  system,  think  you,  Sir,  he  con- 
siders first  and  best  ?  Whose  whole  banking  law,  from  the 
enacting  clause  down  to  the  very  date  of  Executive  approba- 
tion, has  he  appended  to  his  pamphlet  as  a  model  for  the  future 
banking  legislation  of  Great  Britain  ?  Why,  here  it  is,  Sir,  in 
black  and  white,  whole  and  entire,  just  as  it  was  adopted  in 
1829,  the  now  despised  and  derided  banking  law  of  Massachu- 
setts,—  which  Mr.  Clay  considers,  and  for  reasons  to  which  I  be- 
lieve a  great  majority  of  the  House,  were  they  candidly  to  ex- 
amine them,  would  give  a  ready  assent,  to  be  upon  the  whole 
the  best  system  ever  yet  devised  ! 

Now,  Sir,  I  do  not  pretend  to  regard  our  system  as  indeed  a 
perfect  one.  I  agree  with  those  who  have  pronounced  many  of 
its  restrictions  loose  and  inoperative.  On  the  other  hand,  too,  I 
hold  some  of  its  exactions  to  be  too  severe  and  strict.  To  say 
nothing  of  that,  of  which  others  have  said  so  much,  the  State 
tax,  —  the  provision  which  requires  one  half  of  the  capital  stock 
to  be  paid  in  gold  and  silver,  is,  in  my  opinion,  unreasonably 
rigid,  and  leads  as  necessarily  to  evasion  and  fraud  as  a  tariff  of 
excessive  duties  does  to  perjury  and  smuggling.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  limitation  of  bank  issues  to  twenty-five  per  cent, 
above  the  capital,  is  in  effect  no  limitation  at  all,  but  rather 
an  imprudent  and  extravagant  license.  In  other  respects,  also, 
the  system  is  doubtless  susceptible  of  improvement.  And  sooner 
or  later  I  hope  to  see  the  results  of  past,  and  especially  of  pre- 
sent, experience  ingrafted  and  incorporated  into  it.  But  I  main- 
tain, notwithstanding,  that  the  system,  as  it  is,  is  in  the  main  a 
good  system,  and  that  whatever  mischiefs  have  occurred  during 
its  recent  operation,  have  resulted  from  other  causes  than  its  de- 
fects. Has  it  been  extended  of  late  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
real  wants  of  the  community  ?  Its  long  accustomed  regulator 
has  been  destroyed.     Has  it  been  seduced  within  a  few  years 


250  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

from  its  natural  and  legitimate  sphere  of  action  ?  The  corrupt- 
ing influence  of  the  national  government  has  been  upon  it,  de- 
scending, like  Jupiter  upon  Danae  in  the  fable,  in  a  shower  of 
gold.  Has  it  fallen,  here  and  there,  under  the  control  of  un- 
principled men  ?  What  system  is  secure  from  such  a  fate  ? 
But  the  system  itself,  I  repeat  it,  Sir,  is,  still  and  notwithstand- 
ing, a  good  system,  a  well-considered  system,  a  safe  system. 
Place  it  only  in  honest  hands,  —  as  indeed  all  that  is  left  of  it,  I 
doubt  not,  now  already  is,  —  restore  to  it  its  old,  original  regu- 
lator, and  remove  it  at  once  from  both  the  corruptions  and  the 
assaults,  the  embraces  and  the  repulses,  the  favors  and  the 
frowns  of  an  arbitrary  executive,  and  it  will  again  produce,  as  it 
has  from  its  first  establishment  almost  uniformly  produced, 
nothing  but  the  convenience  and  the  prosperity  of  the  people. 
I  do  protest,  therefore,  against  the  denunciations  which  have 
been  so  unceasingly  dealt  out  against  the  banking  system  of 
Massachusetts.  And  most  especially  and  most  emphatically  do 
I  protest  against  all  or  any  part  of  the  bankruptcies,  embezzle- 
ments, and  frauds  of  the  day  being  charged  directly  or  indirectly 
to  its  account. 

Gentlemen  seem  to  imagine  they  have  hit  upon  an  unanswera- 
ble argument  against  the  system  of  which  I  am  speaking,  when 
they  exclaim,  —  "  It  may  be  a  good  system  for  honest  men,  but 
then  it  is  an  equally  good  system  for  rogues."  Why,  do  gen- 
tlemen forget,  that  the  same  argument  may  be  arrayed  against 
our  whole  Republican  system,  whether  of  State  or  Nation  ? 
Do  gentlemen  forget  that  our  fathers  inscribed  it  on  the  first 
page  of  our  own  Constitution,  that  a  constant  adherence  to 
the  principles  of  piety,  justice,  moderation,  and  frugality,  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  a  free  government  ? 
Did  not  Montesquieu  lay  it  down  long  ago,  that  while  fear  was 
the  principle  of  a  despotism  and  honor  of  a  monarchy,  virtue 
was  the  only  principle,  the  foundation  principle  of  a  Republic  ? 
Sir,  as  I  was  looking  over  the  Spirit  of  Laws  a  few  hours  ago, 
to  verify  my  remembrance  of  this  remark,  I  observed  in  imme- 
diate connection  with  it  the  following  passage,  —  "  When  virtue 
is  banished  (from  a  Republic)  ambition  invades  the  minds  of 
those  who  are  disposed  to  receive  it,  and  avarice  possesses  the 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  251 

whole  community.  .  .  .  The  members  of  the  Common- 
wealth riot  on  the  public  spoils,  and  its  strength  is  only  the 
power  of  a  few,  and  the  licentiousness  of  many."  Now,  Mr. 
Chairman,  I  would  not  be  thought  to  imply,  that  in  my  opi- 
nion all  virtue  has  been  banished  from  our  land.  I  pray  God 
that  such  an  ostracism  may  never  stain  our  annals!  If  it 
should,  Sir,  they  will  soon  cease  to  be  the  annals  of  a  Republic. 
But  do  we  not  see  around  us  signs  enough  to  convince  us  that 
virtue,  if  not  banished,  is  not  among  us,  at  the  present  moment, 
in  her  full  might  and  majesty  ?  See  we  not  inordinate  ambi- 
tion invading  some  minds,  and  inordinate  avarice  others?  See 
we  not  something  of  the  power  of  a  few,  and  of  the  licentious- 
ness of  many  ?  See  we  not  the  officers,  if  not  the  members,  of 
the  National  Commonwealth,  rioting  on  the  public  spoils  ? 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  has  been  exhibited,  during 
the  past  year,  a  bankruptcy  of  private  character  —  a  bank- 
ruptcy which  makes  him  that  suffers  it  "  poor  indeed,"  and 
compared  with  which,  the  bankruptcy  which  commonly  bears 
that  name  is  but  the  loss  of  vile  and  worthless  trash,  —  mani- 
festing itself  not  merely  or  mainly  in  banks,  but  in  all  depart- 
ments of  business,  in  all  walks  of  life,  and  in  almost  all  parts  of 
the  country,  and  constituting  to  my  eye,  infinitely  the  worst 
feature  of  the  whole  crisis.  And  to  what  is  it  to  be  ascribed  ? 
Sir,  I  speak  not  now  for  any  party  effect.  I  wish  to  wound  the 
feelings  of  no  member  and  of  no  class  of  members  in  this  House. 
There  are  those  among  my  political  opponents,  here  and  else- 
where, whom  I  heartily  respect.  There  are  those  for  whom  I 
feel  a  cordial  esteem  and  friendship.  There  are  those  to  whom 
I  am  bound  by  the  closest  personal  ties.  But  I  must  speak  out 
my  honest  and  conscientious  opinions.  And  here  from  my  soul 
I  express  my  belief,  that  the  administration  of  our  national 
affairs  for  the  last  eight  years  —  its  disregard  of  laws  —  its  in- 
fractions of  solemn  treaties  —  its  violations  of  the  Constitution 
—  its  proscription  for  political  opinions'  sake  —  its  frauds  and 
peculations  in  the  public  offices  —  its  howl  after  gold,  as  it  was 
termed  by  Mr.  Clay — its  growl  against  credit,  as  it  was  called 
by  one  of  my  colleagues  —  its  screech  after  spoils,  to  add  a  not 
less  significant  term  of  my  own  —  has  done  more  to  lower  the 


252  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

standard  of  morality  in  our  land,  and  to  break  down  the  founda- 
tion principle  of  our  Republic,  than  all  the  banks  and  all  the  de- 
fects in  all  the  banks  that  ever  existed.  Sir,  that  administration 
has  been  one  long,  loud,  unintermitted  appeal  to  the  worst  and 
meanest  prejudices  of  the  human  breast. 

Flectere  si  nequeo  Superos,  Achcronta  movebo. 

If  I  cannot  have  the  higher  powers  of  intelligence  and  reason 
on  my  side,  I  will  at  least  stir  up  the  passions  to  my  support. 
This  has  been  its  motto.  And  we  have  seen  all  that  was  false 
in  principle  and  false  in  practice,  moral,  social,  and  religious,  as 
well  as  political,  mustering  and  clustering  under  its  banner. 

But,  not  to  dwell  longer  on  this  idea,  let  me  say,  in  returning 
to  our  banking  system,  that  the  banks  and  the  country  have 
been  suffering  lately  under  one  and  the  same  evil.  The  directors 
of  the  nation  have  exceeded  their  powers,  have  mismanaged 
their  affairs,  and  perverted  the  funds  intrusted  to  them  to  their 
own  purposes.  And  what  have  the  worst  directors  of  the  worst 
banks  done  but  follow  the  example  ?  And  let  me  add  that  the 
remedy  must  be  the  same  in  both  cases.  The  people  in  the  first 
instance,  and  the  stockholders  in  the  last,  must  turn  out  these 
faithless  directors  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  and  take  care  to 
choose  those  who  can  be  trusted  in  their  stead. 

But,  dropping  this  analogy,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  me  rest  a 
moment  on  the  position  that  the  great  remedy  for  the  present 
abuses  of  our  banking  system  lies  with  the  stockholders.  Sir, 
you  have  given  to  these  stockholders  plenary  power  to  make  their 
own  by-laws.  In  these  by-laws  they  may  place  such  restrictions 
upon  the  loans  to  directors,  or  the  loans  to  other  individuals,  as 
they  may  see  fit.  They  may  provide,  also,  for  periodical  exhibits 
of  notes,  securities,  and  books,  or  for  stated  examinations  into 
the  condition  of  the  banks  by  committees  of  their  own  number. 
And  to  such  by-laws,  rather  than  to  the  public  statutes  of  the 
State,  do  such  provisions  peculiarly  belong.  And,  Sir,  if  I 
wanted  to  bring  about  a  thorough  and  searching  reform,  not  in 
our  banking  system  itself,  indeed,  but  in  the  whole  operation  and 
conduct  of  that  system,  I  would  summon  a  meeting  of  stock- 
holders at  Faneuil  Hall  or  elsewhere.     I  would  raise  a  Commit- 


THE  SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM.  253 

tee  of  which  the  author  of  a  pamphlet,  which  has  received  no 
little  share  of  commendation  from  both  parties  in  this  House, 
(Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,)  should  be  the  chairman,  and  I  would 
have  a  code  of  by-laws  drafted  with  particular  reference  to  the 
recent  developments  in  some  of  our  city  banks.  Depend  upon 
it,  Sir,  that  under  the  impulse  of  the  existing  exigency,  such  a 
code  would  require  no  legislative  sanction  from  us  or  our  suc- 
cessors, to  secure  its  adoption  and  enforcement  in  every  bank 
in  the  Commonwealth. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  banking  system  of  ours  is  to  be  over- 
thrown, if  the  government  can  in  any  way  achieve  it,  —  and  that 
they  can,  if  sustained  in  the  Sub- Treasury  scheme,  I  have  already 
expressed  my  belief.  And  what,  again  I  ask,  is  to  be  the  substi- 
tute? Why,  Mr.  Gouge  tells  us',  and  I  doubt  not,  truly,  so  far 
as  he  goes,  that  private  banking  establishments  will  naturally 
and  necessarily  follow  the  downfall  of  the  present  institutions ; 
and  he  refers  us  to  the  ancient  Jews  and  Romans  for  examples 
of  their  convenience  and  utility.  Now,  Sir,  though  I  confess 
that  I  have  had  quite  enough  of  old  Roman  financiering,  and 
have  no  very  reverential  regard  for  the  tables  of  the  ancient 
Jewish  money-changers,  I  have  yet  little  or  no  objection  to  pri- 
vate banking  establishments.  I  was  quite  content  that  the  law 
prohibiting  them  should  be  abolished,  as  it  was,  on  the  revision 
of  our  statutes.  But,  Sir,  I  cannot  see  the  expediency  or  justice 
of  making  way  for  their  erection  by  the  overthrow  of  the  joint 
stock  system.  I  cannot  see  why  these  moneyed  corporations, 
as  they  are  called,  into  whose  common  stock  the  widow  can  cast 
in  of  her  mite  as  well  as  the  rich  of  their  abundance,  and  through 
which  men  of  small  means  can  obtain  the  securities  and  reap 
the  rewards  of  extensive  and  systematic  establishments,  should 
be  broken  up,  —  in  order  that  individual  rich  men  may  enjoy  a 
monopoly  of  the  banking  business.  Certainly,  it  seems  strange 
to  me,  that  while  England  and  France,  under  the  influence  of 
more  liberal  councils  than  they  have  before  enjoyed,  are  follow- 
ing our  example,  and  greatly  extending  their  joint  stock  banks, 
we  should  be  going  back  to  an  exclusive  patronage  of  those 
great  private  establishments,  which  have  hitherto  overshadowed 
the  pecuniary  concerns  of  Europe. 
22 


254  THE    SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  substitute  which  is  meditated,  if  not 
proposed,  in  this  Sub- Treasury  bill.  Sir,  it  has  been  repeatedly 
remarked  by  the  most  distinguished  opponents  of  this  bill  in 
Congress,  and  it  was  strongly  maintained  by  the  Governor  in 
his  annual  message,  that  this  bill  contained  the  germ  of  a  great 
government  bank  —  not  a  national  bank,  such  as  we  have  hither- 
to had,  but  an  Executive  bank,  under  the  sole  and  exclusive  con- 
trol of  the  Executive  department.  And  who  can  fail  to  see  that 
it  does  contain  the  germ,  and  something  more  than  the  germ, 
of  such  an  establishment?  The  public  funds  are  to  be  kept  in 
the  safes.  And  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  to  make  his 
payments  by  drafts  upon  the  keepers.  But  what  is  to  become 
of  these  drafts  ?  Think  you  they  will  make  a  speedy  transit  to 
their  respective  drawees  ?  The  bill  itself  has  a  provision  on  this 
point  pregnant  with  meaning.  It  is,  that  the  Secretary  shall 
take  means  to  secure  their  punctual  presentation.  But  what 
these  means  are  to  be,  the  bill  does  not  specify,  nor  can  any 
effectual  means  be  devised.  The  Secretary  may  call  for  their 
presentation  with  ever  so  peremptory  and  menacing  a  tone.  But 
will  they  come  if  he  does  call?  No,  Sir,  the  people  of  this 
country  have  been  too  long  habituated  to  the  lightness  and  con- 
venience of  paper,  to  burden  themselves  unnecessarily  with  bags 
of  silver  or  kegs  of  gold.  These  drafts  will  thus  either  remain 
in  the  ordinary  channels  of  circulation,  or  will  become  the  sub- 
jects of  a  griping  brokerage  between  the  debtors  and  creditors 
of  the  government.  And  it  is  to  these,  doubtless,  as  well  as  to 
the  Treasury  notes  proper,  that  the  phrase,  government  paper,  in 
the  bill,  refers. 

But  what,  in  the  mean  time,  is  to  become  of  the  specie? 
Doubtless,  it  is  intended  to  be  always  snugly  stowed  away  in 
the  iron  safes.  Doubtless,  it  is  intended  to  be  the  subject  of  no 
light-fingering.  Nothing  less  weighty  than  the  hand  of  the 
Secretary  himself,  duly  impressing  itself  on  a  Treasury  draft,  is 
ever  to  stir  it  from  its  place.  So  it  was,  Sir,  so  it  was  precisely 
with  the  specie  in  the  old,  original  bank  of  Amsterdam,  to  which 
this  system  has  a  striking  analogy.  The  specie  there  was  never 
to  be  touched,  and  nobody  supposed  it  ever  was  touched.  But 
when  the  French  entered  Amsterdam  in  1794,  it  was  discovered 


THE   SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM.  255 

that  millions  upon  millions  had  been  secretly  loaned  out  by  the 
bank  to  the  India  Company  and  others!  The  gentleman  from 
Gloucester  insists  on  historical  facts.  Here  is  one  which  I  com- 
mend to  his  remembrance. 

But  even  supposing  that  not  a  dollar  of  this  specie  should  be 
loaned  or  used  secretly  and  by  stealth,  this  Sub-Treasury  system 
will  no  sooner  be  fairly  established,  than  the  government  itself 
will,  in  my  belief,  come  forward  with  a  proposition  that  the 
public  funds  not  immediately  in  use  should  again  become  the 
basis  of  loans  and  discounts.  They  will  find,  as  the  Bank  of 
Amsterdam  found,  that  a  certain  small  proportion  of  their  specie 
will  answer  all  the  demands  which  are  made  upon  them  for  hard 
money.  And  why,  they  will  ask,  and  will  ask  with  great  force, — 
why  should  the  people's  gold  and  silver  lie  idle ;  why  should  it 
be  withheld  from  the  service  of  the  people ;  why  not  allow  it 
again,  as  it  was  for  the  first  eight-and-forty  years  of  our  national 
existence,  to  be  employed  as  a  help  and  a  stimulus  to  their  in- 
dustry and  enterprise  ?  And  how  will  such  a  proposition  be 
resisted  ?  Sir,  it  will  not  be  resisted.  No  party  could  effect- 
ually oppose  it.  It  would  seem  to  be  opposing  the  right  of  the 
people  to  their  own.  Depend  upon  it,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  this 
Sub- Treasury  system  once  obtain  foothold  on  our  soil,  and  this 
proposition  will  be  made,  and  will  be  sustained.  Your  receivers- 
general  and  mint  directors,  your  collectors  and  land  agents  and 
postmasters  will  then  be  the  great  bankers  of  the  nation.  Your 
Executive  Magistrate  will  preside  over  the  system.  And  the 
whole  amount  of  the  public  deposits  will  be  dealt  out,  in  sums 
to  suit,  to  those  who  shall  have  proved  themselves  most  deserv- 
ing of  government  favors.  And  thus,  Sir,  this  long-looked  for 
divorce  of  bank  and  state,  will  turn  out,  like  most  other  divorces 
of  those  in  power,  to  have  been  only  the  prelude  for  another 
marriage,  and  that,  the  fatal  marriage  of  purse  and  sword ! 

Gentlemen  will  tell  me  there  is  nothing  of  all  this  in  the  bill 
itself.  Sir,  there  are  a  great  many  things  not  in  the  bill,  which 
yet  belong  inseparably  to  the  system.  Does  anybody  imagine  that 
the  finances  of  this  great  nation  can  be  carried  on  by  the  paltry 
machinery  which  this  bill  in  its  own  terms  provides?  Is  it 
imagined  that  these  receivers-general,  for  instance,  are  to  do  the 


256  THE    SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

whole  of  their  own  work  in  person  ?  And,  if  not,  how  many 
clerks — let  me  ask  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  or  the  gentle- 
man from  Marblehead,  for  I  would  not  pretend  to  anticipate 
the  settlement  of  their  rival  claims  —  how  many  clerks  do  they 
expect  to  employ  in  this  arduous  and  responsible  station  ?  Sir, 
I  feel  some  curiosity  to  see  the  details  of  this  "  simple  plan,"  as  it 
has  been  called  by  its  friends.  And  should  it  ever  be  adopted  and 
put  in  practice,  as  Heaven  grant  it  never  may,  whichever  of  the 
gentlemen  should  be  successful  in  his  claims  to  the  Boston  ap- 
pointment, he  will  not,  I  hope,  take  it  amiss,  if  I  should  look  in 
upon  him  in  his  new  vocation.  I  shall  certainly  be  disappointed, 
Sir,  if  I  do  not  find  him  attended  by  some  half  hundred  hands, 
surrounded  by  some  scores  of  safes  and  vaults  and  strong  boxes, 
with  here  and  there  a  heap  of  silver  and  gold,  it  may  be,  glitter- 
ing in  open  view,  in  remembrance  of  his  former  hard-money 
principles,  and  all,  behind  porticos  and  colonnades  not  a  whit  less 
magnificent  than  those  within  which,  as  the  gentleman  from 
Gloucester  said  on  Saturday,  "  the  monster  had  his  residence 
during  his  lifetime ! "  This  last  part  of  the  picture,  Sir,  is  not 
drawn  from  imagination.  The  new  custom  house  at  Boston, 
in  which  the  receiver-general  of  this  region  is  to  have  his  official 
residence,  is  expected,  I  believe,  to  be  quite  equal  even  to  the 
beautiful  banking-house  of  Mr.  Biddie,  at  Philadelphia. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  gentleman  from  Marblehead  remarked  the 
other  day,  that  his  party  was  "  a  party  of  progress."  Sir,  this 
bill  is  worthy  of  such  a  party.  It  is  evidently  a  bill  of  progress. 
It  provides  pretty  well  for  the  Generals,  though  even  these,  I 
imagine,  will  be  multiplied  far  beyond  the  number  proposed, 
when  once  the  system  is  established.  But  the  Army  is  wTholly 
unprovided  for  —  the  new  standing  army  of  office-holders,  by 
which  the  thousand  details  of  the  system  must  ultimately  be 
discharged.  Yes,  Sir,  this  bill  is  eminently  and  fearfully  a  bill 
of  progress,  —  a  progress  to  which,  when  this  first  step  is  fairly 
taken,  I  can  see  no  stop  and  no  end  until  the  prosperity  and 
liberties  of  the  people  are  entirely  overrun  and  trampled  on, 

The  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  also,  gave  us  an  instructive 
piece  of  history  in  the  course  of  his  speech.  He  reminded  us 
of  the  origin  of  the  Bank  of  England,  and  recounted  how  it 


THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  257 

was  smuggled  into  existence,  on  the  back  of  a  beer  and  ale  bill, 
as  a  mere  rider.  Nobody  dreamed,  he  said,  that  they  were  mak- 
ing a  bank ;  and  I  dare  say  the  gentleman  himself  does  not 
dream  that  he  is  now  helping  to  make  a  bank,  in  advocating 
the  cause  of  this  Sub-Treasury  bill.  But  he  may  one  day  or 
other  wake  up  and  find  it  in  existence,  and,  haply,  himself  at 
the  head  of  it.  Why,  Sir,  has  he,  has  anybody  forgotten  Gene- 
ral Jackson's  early  and  often-repeated  proposition  of  "a  bank 
founded  on  the  credit  and  revenues  of  the  country  ?  "  Has  that 
proposition  ever  been  disavowed,  either  by  its  original  author  or 
any  one  of  his  followers  ?  Do  those  of  them  here  present,  all 
or  any  of  them,  disavow  it  now  ? 

But  I  will  dwell  no  longer  on  what  this  system  may  be.  The 
bill  is  quite  bad  enough  as  it  is.  It  proposes  a  total  abandon- 
ment of  the  long  tried  and  long  approved  policy  of  the  country. 
Heretofore,  we  all  know,  a  national  bank  has  been  the  fiscal 
agent  of  the  government,  and  among  many  other  important 
services  to  the  country,  has  furnished  a  uniform  currency  for  its 
commerce.  Henceforth,  this,  and  every  thing  like  it,  is  to  be 
discarded.  Hitherto  the  bills  of  all  specie  paying  banks  have 
been  received  in  payment  of  public  dues.  Hereafter,  this  whole- 
some discrimination  between  redeemable  and  irredeemable  paper, 
is  to  be  utterly  abandoned,  and  both  are  to  be  involved  in  a 
common  proscription.  Heretofore,  the  people's  moneys,  when 
not  in  actual  employment  in  the  public  service,  have  been  the 
basis  of  bank  loans  and  discounts,  and  who  can  calculate  the 
aggregate  amount  they  have  added  in  time  past  to  the  wealth 
of  the  country,  to  the  wages  of  industry,  to  the  general  prosper- 
ity of  the  people  ?  Henceforth  they  are  to  be  locked  up  in  iron 
chests,  —  about  as  useful  to  their  owners,  as  the  talent  of  the 
unprofitable  servant,  hid  in  a  napkin.  Sir,  I  cannot  argue  this 
case  myself,  much  less  could  I  listen  to  the  argument  of  the 
gentleman  from  Gloucester,  without  being  reminded  of  a  pam- 
phlet on  the  currency,  written  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  under  the 
humorous  title  of  Malachi  Malagrowther,  in  1826,  when  the 
British  Parliament  were  about  trying  some  new  financial  experi- 
ment upon  Scotland.  The  whole  of  it  might  be  used  here  to 
advantage,  but  I  confine  himself  to  the  concluding  passage, — 
22  * 


258  THE    SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM. 

"  I  have  read,"  says  he,  "  I  think  in  Lucian,  of  two  architects, 
who  contended  before  the  people  at  Athens  which  should  be 
intrusted  with  the  task  of  erecting  a  temple.  The  first  made 
a  luminous  oration,  showing  that  he  was,  in  theory  at  least, 
master  of  his  art,  and  spoke  with  such  glibness  in  the  hard  terms 
of  architecture,  that  the  assembly  could  scarce  be  prevailed  upon 
to  listen  to  his  opponent,  an  old  man  of  unpretending  appear- 
ance. But  when  he  obtained  audience,  he  said  in  a  few  words, 
'  All  that  this  young  man  can  talk  of,  I  have  done?  The  deci- 
sion was  unanimously  in  favor  of  experience  against  theory. 
This  resembles,"  says  he,  and  so  say  I,  "  this  resembles  exactly 
the  question  now  tried  before  us. 

"  Here  stands  Theory,  a  scroll  in  her  hand,  full  of  deep  and 
mysterious  combinations  of  figures,  the  least  failure  in  any  one 
of  which  may  alter  the  result  entirely,  and  which  you  must  take 
on  trust,  for  who  is  capable  to  go  through  and  check  them  ? 
There  lies  before  you  a  practical  system,  successful  for  upwards 
of  a  century.  The  one  allures  you  with  promises,  as  the  saying 
goes,  of  untold  gold  ;  the  other  appeals  to  the  miracles  already 
wrought  in  your  behalf.  The  one  shows  you  provinces,  the 
wealth  of  which  has  been  tripled  under  her  management;  the 
other  a  problem  which  has  never  been  practically  solved.  Here 
yon  have  a  pamphlet  —  there,  a  fishing  town  —  here,  the  long 
continued  prosperity  of  a  whole  nation  —  and  there  the  opinion 
of  a  professor  of  economics,  that  in  such  circumstances  she  ought 
not,  by  true  principles,  to  have  prospered  at  all.  In  short,  good 
countrymen,  if  you  are  determined,  like  ^Esop's  dog,  to  snap  at 
the  shadow  and  lose  the  substance,  you  had  never  such  a  gratui- 
tous opportunity  of  exchanging  food  and  wealth  for  moonshine 
in  the  water." 

This,  I  repeat,  Mr.  Chairman,  exactly  resembles  the  case  now 
tried  before  the  country.  The  temple  of  public  credit,  so  long 
the  ornament,  the  pride,  the  defence  of  the  Republic,  lies  pros- 
trate and  in  ruins.  Its  corner-stone  has  been  struck  out ;  its 
arches  have  crumbled ;  its  walls  are  in  fragments  at  our  feet. 
And  the  architects  are  now  contending  before  the  people,  who 
shall  be  employed  to  build  it  up.  Shall  it  be  those  who  allure 
us  with  promises  of  untold  gold,  or  those  who  appeal  to  miracles 


THE  SUB-TREASURY  SYSTEM.  259 

already  wrought  in  our  behalf?  Shall  it  be  those  who  show  us 
States  whose  wealth  has  been  tripled  under  their  management, 
or  those  who  point  us  to  a  problem  never  practically  solved  ? 
Shall  it  be  the  architects  of  a  system  which  has  produced  the 
long-continued  prosperity  of  a  whole  nation,  or  shall  it  be  the 
architects  of  nothing  but  the  ruins  which  are  now  around  us? 
This,  Sir,  is  the  exact  question.  And  let  it  only  be  fairly  put  to 
the  people,  and  I  believe  their  decision  will  be  unanimously  in 
favor  of  Experience,  and  against  Theory. 

But,  says  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  the  old  system  was 
unconstitutional.  The  framers  of  the  Constitution  were  hard 
money  men,  —  so  said  Daniel  Webster.  And  there  is  not,  and 
never  was,  any  power  under  the  instrument  which  they  adopted 
to  create  a  national  bank.  An  attempt  was  made  to  insert  such 
a  power,  but  the  attempt  failed,  and  consequently  the  power 
does  not  exist. 

A  few  words  only,  Mr.  Chairman,  upon  this  very  plausible 
argument.  The  framers  of  the  constitution  were  hard  money 
men.  So  says  Daniel  Webster,  and  so  says  everybody  else  who 
knows  any  thing  of  their  history.  In  every  legitimate  sense 
of  that  term,  they  were  hard  money  men  —  but  not  in  the 
spurious  sense  which  has  been  lately  attached  to  it.  The 
framers  of  the  Constitution  had  experienced  the  whole  horrors 
of  irredeemable  paper.  That  paper  had  been,  indeed,  one  of  the 
main  and  most  indispensable  instruments  in  achieving  their 
independence.  But  so  had  war  and  bloodshed,  the  sword  and 
the  bayonet.  They  had  now  had  enough  of  them  all,  and  were 
resolved  to  get  rid  of  them  all  together.  But  all  were  by  no 
means  equally  within  control.  A  strip  of  parchment  with  a  few 
official  seals  and  signatures  could  put  an  end  to  the  war  and  the 
bloodshed,  and  it  had  already  done  so.  A  simple  word  of  com- 
mand could  sheathe  the  sword  and  unfix  the  bayonet,  and  it  had 
already  done  so.  But  no  treaty  and  no  authority  could  strike 
out  of  existence  the  millions  of  irredeemable  paper,  which  were 
in  every  man's  pocket,  and  in  every  channel  of  circulation. 
To  this  evil  they  were  therefore  compelled  much  longer  to  sub- 
mit. Long  after  the  excitement  of  war  and  the  holy  rage  of  a 
struggle  for  liberty  had  subsided,  this  medium  of  frauds  and 


260  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

abominations,  to  which  nothing  but  that  excitement  and  that 
rage  could  ever  have  reconciled  them,  remained  to  poison  the 
joys  of  their  triumph.  No  doubt,  then,  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution abhorred  irredeemable  paper,  and  in  that  sense,  were 
emphatically  hard  money  men.  But  in  no  other  or  stricter  sense 
were  they  so,  and  Daniel  Webster  never  said  they  were. 

Why,  Sir,  do  gentlemen  forget  that  our  fathers  themselves 
framed  a  bank  charter,  before  they  framed  the  Constitution? 
And  not  only  so,  but  it  is  rather  a  curious  coincidence,  in  this 
relation,  that  the  same  pen,  or,  certainly,  the  same  hand,  which 
gave  the  last  shaping  strokes  and  finishing  touches  to  the  Con- 
stitution, had  a  few  years  previously  been  employed  in  making 
the  first  plan  and  original  outline  of  this  bank!  "  That  instru- 
ment (the  Constitution)  was  written  by  the  fingers  which  write 
this  letter,"  said  Gouverneur  Morris  in  a  letter  to  Timothy  Pick- 
ering. "  The  first  bank  in  this  country  was  planned  by  your 
humble  servant,"  wrote  the  same  gentleman  to  Mr.  Moss  Kent. 
I  refer,  I  need  not  say,  to  the  Bank  of  North  America.  It  was 
incorporated  in  1781  by  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.  On 
the  application  of  its  President  and  Directors,  the  Assembly  of 
Pennsylvania  gave  it  a  supplementary  charter,  in  1782.  In  1785, 
a  proposition  was  brought  into  that  Assembly,  precisely  parallel 
to  that  which  has  recently  agitated  the  Convention  of  the  same 
State,  to  abolish  this  charter.  Upon  this  occasion,  Mr.  Morris 
came  to  its  defence,  and  wrote  an  address  to  the  Assembly,  going 
over  the  whole  ground  both  of  contract  and  of  convenience,  of 
justice  and  of  policy.  Upon  the  latter  division  of  the  subject 
he  dwelt  at  great  length,  examining  all  the  objections  which  had 
been  raised  against  the  Institution  in  question.  And  what  were 
those  objections?  The  same,  the  same  precisely  in  substance, 
and  many  of  them  almost  the  same  in  phraseology,  which  have 
been  resounding  and  echoing  over  the  country  for  the  last  six 
years.     Let  me  prove  this  by  stating  them. 

These  objections,  said  Mr.  Morris,  are :  — 

"  First,  that  it  enables  men  to  trade  to  their  utter  ruin  by  giv- 
ing them  the  temporary  use  of  money  and  credit. 

"  Secondly,  that  the  punctuality  required  at  the  banks  throws 
honest  men  into  the  hands  of  usurers. 


THE  SUB-TKEASURY  SYSTEM.  261 

"  Thirdly,  that  the  great  dividend  on  bank  stock  induces 
moneyed  men  to  buy  stock  rather  than  lend  on  interest. 

"  Fourthly,  that  rich  foreigners  will,  for  the  same  reason,  be- 
come stockholders,  so  as  that  all  the  property  will  finally  vest  in 
them. 

"  Fifthly,  that  the  payments  of  dividends  to  foreigners  will  be 
a  constant  drain  of  specie  from  the  country. 

"  Sixthly,  that  the  bank  facilitates  the  exportation  of  coin. 

"  Seventhly,  that  it  injures  the  circulation  of  bills  of  credit. 

"  Eighthly,  that  the  wealth  and  influence  of  the  bank  may 
become  dangerous  to  the  government. 

"  Ninthly,  that  the  directors  can  obtain  unfair  advantages  in 
trade  for  themselves  and  their  friends. 

"And  tenthly,  that  it  is  destructive  of  that  equality  which 
ought  to  take  place  in  a  free  country." 

These,  Sir,  are  the  objections  to  a  national  bank  which  were 
agitating  the  public  mind  less  than  two  years  before  the  Con- 
vention assembled  by  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  was  framed, —  and  these  are  the  objections  against  which, 
one,  at  least,  of  the  principal  framers  of  that  Constitution  was 
foremost  in  defending  such  a  bank.  I  might  go  on  to  show  that 
others  of  them  were  associated  with  him,  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, in  its  defence.  But  I  have  said  enough  to  prove  that, 
though  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  were  hard  money  men 
and  abhorred  irredeemable  paper,  they  were  by  no  means  igno- 
rant of  the  nature  or  insensible  to  the  advantages  of  banking 
institutions,  or  of  convertible  paper,  but  that  at  the  very  moment 
when  they  entered  into  the  Convention  of  '87,  they  must  all  have 
been  fresh  in  the  remembrance,  and  some  of  them  in  the  experi- 
ence also,  of  a  controversy,  in  which  all  the  benefits  and  all  the 
dangers  of  such  institutions  and  of  their  issues  had  been  con- 
sidered and  discussed,  and  in  which  the  former  had  been  decided 
altogether  to  preponderate  over  the  latter. 

But  the  gentleman  next  reminds  us  that  a  proposition  was 
made  in  this  very  Convention,  to  give  Congress  the  power  to 
charter  a  bank,  and  was  rejected.  The  fact  is  not  precisely  so> 
Sir.  Or  at  any  rate  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  such  proposi- 
tion on  the  records  of  the  Convention.     As  far  as  any  document 


262  THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

exists,  the  proposition  which  was  made  and  rejected,  related  only 
to  incorporating  canal  companies.  The  evidence  that  the  motion 
was  amended  so  as  to  include  banks,  and  finally  all  other  cor- 
porations, is  entirely  traditionary.  And  the  grounds  on  which 
the  proposition,  whatever  it  was,  was  rejected,  have  been  widely 
differed  about  by  those  having  equal  opportunities  to  know  them. 
Some  have  affirmed  that  it  was  rejected  from  an  unwillingness 
to  confer  such  a  power  at  all,  and  others  that  it  was  because  the 
power  being  implied  as  to  all  affairs  over  which  a  sovereign  au- 
thority had  been  granted,  it  was  unnecessary  to  specify  it  in  any 
case  more  particularly.  It  is  plain,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  no  reli- 
able inference  can  be  drawn  from  a  fact  so  loosely  authenticated, 
and  no  inference,  especially,  so  contradictory  to  the  whole  tenor  of 
other  well-attested  and  notorious  facts  which  certainly  occurred 
almost  immediately  afterwards.  Has  the  gentleman  from  Glou- 
cester never  read  that  in  both  branches  of  the  first  Congress 
under  the  new  Constitution,  —  and  during  the  first  session  of 
that  first  Congress,  I  believe,  —  one  amendment  among  many 
that  were  offered  to  the  Constitution,  to  be  subsequently  ratified 
by  the  people,  was  this,  —  "  That  Congress  erect  no  company  of 
merchants  with  exclusive  advantages  of  commerce"  —  and  that 
this  proposition,  too,  was  rejected?  Is  not  this  well-authenti- 
cated fact,  Sir,  a  pretty  satisfactory  set-off  to  the  more  doubt- 
ful one  on  which  the  gentleman  has  relied  ?  Certainly,  it  seems 
so  to  me. 

But  what  did  this  same  first  Congress  do,  at  a  subsequent 
session  ?  They  incorporated  a  National  Bank.  Hamilton  drew 
the  plan.  Was  not  he  a  framer  of  the  Constitution  ?  Wash- 
ington signed  the  charter.  Was  not  he  a  framer  of  the  Consti- 
tution ? 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Washington's  assent  to  this  act 
was  slowly  and  hesitatingly  given,  and  that  a  veto-message  was 
actually  prepared  for  him.  This  veto-message,  again,  Sir,  rests 
on  mere  hearsay  evidence.  But  even  were  it  extant  among  his 
papers,  as  it  certainly  would  have  been  had  he  attached  to  it  the 
slightest  value  or  importance,  what  would  it  prove,  so  long  as  it 
was  not  signed,  but  what  we  all  knew  before  —  the  untiring 
activity  and  exceeding  confidence  of  his  anti-bank  advisers? 


THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  263 

And  as  to  the  slow  and  hesitating  assent  which  he  gave  to  this 
measure,  Washington  never  gave  a  quick  or  hasty  assent  to  any- 
thing. It  was  not  his  nature  to  do  so.  His  reason  and  not  his 
humor,  his  conscientious  and  well-considered  judgment,  and  not 
any  rash  and  arbitrary  will,  were  the  rules  and  standards  of  his 
action.  It  was  by  this  very  slowness  and  hesitation,  that  he 
secured  the  success  of  our  Revolutionary  contest.  American 
Independence  could  have  been  achieved  by  no  other  qualities  in 
the  leader  of  its  armies. 

Unus  cunctando  nobis  restituit  rem. 

And  so  far  from  regarding  the  hesitation  which  characterized 
his  course  as  to  this  national  bank  as  favorable  to  the  cause  of 
those  who  have  suggested  it,  the  whole  weight  which  the  sug- 
gestion possesses,  whatever  it  is,  seems  clearly  to  belong  to  the 
other  scale.  Why,  Sir,  does  it  make  an  opinion  less  worthy  of 
confidence,  that  it  was  slowly  and  deliberately  formed  ?  Does  it 
diminish  the  value  of  a  decision,  that  it  was  pronounced  after 
a  full  hearing  and  upon  solemn  judgment  ?  Does  it  impair  the 
efficacy  of  seals  and  signatures,  that  they  were  affixed  after 
many  misgivings  and  with  much  ceremony  ?  The  very  reverse 
of  all  this,  certainly,  —  and  especially  where  the  opinion  was 
formed,  the  decision  pronounced,  the  signature  and  seal  affixed 
by  a  man  like  Washington.  He  was  not  the  person  to  strike 
nice  balances  in  accounts  of  conscience  or  of  duty.  He  was 
no  constitutional  casuist.  Much  less  would  he  ever  have  given 
his  pen  to  one  side  of  a  question,  while  his  opinion  was  on  the 
other.  When  he  doubted,  he  sought  sincerely  and  anxiously  to 
resolve  his  doubts,  and  he  rarely  acted  till  they  were  resolved. 
He  summoned  councils,  he  solicited  opinions,  he  insisted  on  the 
fullest  and  freest  statements  and  arguments  of  the  case  on  both 
sides,  and  upon  the  materials  thus  obtained  he  turned  and  fast- 
ened the  calm,  clear,  dispassionate  eye  of  his  own  powerful  judg- 
ment. And  then,  like  the  mists  before  the  sun,  those  doubts  were 
dispelled.  And  let  me  add,  that  he  who  goes  behind  the  approv- 
ing signature  of  Washington,  to  magnify  scruples,  hesitations, 
or  doubts  which  were  expressed  or  implied  by  him  before  that 


264  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

signature  was  given,  does  great  injustice  either  to  his  ability  or 
his  integrity. 

But  the  charter  which  he  signed  was  suffered  to  expire,  and 
after  a  few  years  a  second  charter  was  signed  by  James  Madi- 
son. Was  not  he  a  framer  of  the  Constitution  ?  Was  there 
any  one  among  those  framers  more  distinguished,  any  one  whose 
opinion  as  to  what  the  Constitution  was  or  was  intended  to  be, 
upon  this  or  any  other  point,  we  should  rather  have  had?  True, 
Mr.  Madison  had  originally  opposed  this  measure.  True,  he 
had  himself  once  vetoed  a  national  bank  charter.  And  the 
grounds  upon  which  that  veto  was  based  are  certainly  not  a 
little  remarkable,  when  considered  in  connection  with  the  pres- 
ent doctrines  of  the  Government  and  the  present  condition  of 
the  country.  They  were  these,  Sir,  —  that  the  amount  of  stock 
to  be  subscribed  would  not  be  sufficient  to  produce,  in  favor  of 
the  public  credit,  any  considerable  or  lasting  elevation  of  the 
market  price ;  that  no  adequate  advantage  would  arise  to  the 
public  credit  from  the  subscription  of  Treasury  notes ;  that  the 
bank  would  be  free  from  all  obligations  to  cooperate  with  public 
measures ;  and  that  the  bank  would  commence  and  conduct 
its  operations  under  a  perpetual  obligation  to  pay  its  notes  in 
specie!  Not  a  word  here  about  divorces  between  Bank  and 
State,  but  objections  rather  that  the  alliance  between  them  was 
not  made  closer.  Not  a  word  about  the  Government  taking 
care  of  their  business  and  the  people  of  theirs,  but  a  complaint 
that  there  was  not  enough  of  cooperation  between  Government 
and  people  to  sustain  the  public  credit.  And  even  a  suspension 
of  specie  payments,  instead  of  being  denounced  as  under  all 
circumstances,  immoral  and  fraudulent,  is  regarded  as  so  essen- 
tial, in  certain  emergencies,  to  the  welfare  of  the  country,  that 
it  ought  to  be  allowed  and  authorized  in  the  very  terms  of  the 
charter ! 

But  what  did  Mr.  Madison  say  in  this  same  veto  message  on 
the  point  of  the  constitutionality  of  that  charter  ?  He  declared 
expressly,  Sir,  that  all  question  of  the  constitutional  authority  of 
Congress  to  incorporate  a  bank,  was,  "in  his  opinion,  precluded 
by  repeated  recognitions,  under  varied  circumstances,  of  the 
validity  of  such  an  institution,  in  acts  of  the  legislative,  exe- 


THE    SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  265 

cutive,  and  judicial  branches  of  the  Government,  accompanied 
by  indications,  in  different  modes,  of  a  concurrence  of  the  gene- 
ral will  of  the  nation." 

Mr.  Chairman,  nine-and-forty  years  have  passed  away  since 
the  foundation  of  this  Republic.  During  forty  of  those  years  a 
national  bank  has  existed.  It  has  received  the  deliberate  sanction 
of  many  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  I  know  not  that 
any  one  of  them  has  ever  perseveringly  and  consistently  opposed 
it.  It  has  received  the  official  signature  both  of  Washington 
and  of  Madison,  and  the  latter  declared  more  than  twenty  years 
ago  that  its  constitutionality  was  even  then,  in  his  opinion,  no 
longer  a  matter  of  question.  And  yet,  Sir,  we  are  now  gravely 
told  that  such  an  institution  is  not  constitutional,  never  was 
constitutional,  and  never  will  be  constitutional,  and  are  soberly 
invited  to  enter  anew  upon  an  abstract  original  argument  upon 
this  point.  For  one,  I  decline  that  invitation  at  once  and  alto- 
gether. Had  I  the  logical  powers  of  Hamilton  and  Marshall 
and  Madison  and  Webster  conjoined,  and  without  them  one 
could  in  vain  expect  to  put  the  subject  even  in  as  clear  a  light 
as  that  in  which  it  already  stands  on  the  pages  of  these  great 
constitutional  statesmen,  I  should  regard  it  as  not  only  a  waste- 
ful, but  as  an  unworthy  employment  of  those  powers  to  argue 
such  a  question.  It  seems  to  me  too  much  like  arguing  the 
constitutionality  of  the  Constitution  itself;  too  much  like  going 
behind  the  Constitution  to  interpret  the  mysterious  terms  of  some 
original  compact  or  divine  right;  too  much,  in  short,  like  open 
and  outright  nullification.  Having  confined  myself,  therefore, 
to  a  merely  historical  view  of  the  subject,  and  being  satisfied 
that  any  one  who  is  not  convinced  by  that  would  be  convinced 
by  nothing,  I  turn  to  the  last  topic  of  my  remarks. 

The  gentleman  from  Gloucester  has  again  and  again  during 
this  and  other  debates,  taken  occasion  to  allude  to  the  party 
names  of  the  day,  and  has  more  than  once  summed  up  his  opi- 
nion of  their  propriety  in  the  elegant  exclamation  —  "  American 
Whiggery  is  British  Toryism."  He  has  not  indeed  been  entirely 
and  at  all  times  consistent  in  this  cry.  The  expression,  on  one 
occasion,  that  conservatism  had  grown  rife  here,  —  the  declara- 
tion, on  another,  that  he  was  defending  the  institutions  of  pro- 

23 


2GG  THE   SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

perty  from  a  destructive  majority  in  this  House, — and  the  allu- 
sion, on  a  third,  to  the  old  joke  of  Dr.  Johnson,  that  the  first 
Whig  was  the  Devil,  —  have  been  edifying  episodes.  But  the 
main  burthen  of  his  song  has  still  been  —  "  American  "Whiggery 
is  British  Toryism." 

If  I  remember  right,  Sir,  the  first  time  this  expression  was 
heard  in  the  House,  it  was  used  in  a  relation  somewhat  personal 
to  myself,  and  therefore  it  is,  that  I  feel  a  greater  disposition  and 
a  greater  liberty  to  notice  it.  It  was  during  a  debate  on  a  point 
of  order  which  it  was  my  fortune  to  be  called  on  to  decide  soon 
after  my  election  to  the  Chair, —  and  in  deciding  which  I  referred, 
as  an  authority,  to  a  similar  point  which  had  been  decided  in 
the  British  Parliament  about  five-and-twenty  years  ago.  Upon 
that  point  there  was  no  division  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
of  course  there  is  nothing  upon  record  to  show  who  was  for,  or 
who  was  against,  the  decision.  But  the  sharp  optics  of  the 
gentleman  from  Gloucester,  seeing  things  not  to  be  seen,  have 
discovered  that  it  was  altogether  and  exclusively  the  work  of  a 
Tory  majority,  and  that  the  Whigs  of  that  assembly  were  to  a 
man  opposed  to  it.  And  hence,  "American  Whiggery  is  Bri- 
tish Toryism." 

Now,  Sir,  I  do  not  propose  to  argue  that  point  of  order  over 
again.  Having  twice  decided  it,  and  twice  given  my  reasons 
at  length,  and  twice  been  sustained  by  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  House,  I  should  have  no  desire,  even  were  it  pertinent  to 
the  present  issue,  to  enter  upon  it  anew.  Let  me  say,  however, 
that  it  is  one  thing  to  follow  a  Tory  precedent  in  favor  of  the 
rights  of  the  people  and  of  their  title  to  representation,  and  a 
very  different  thing  to  follow  such  a  precedent  when  it  leads  in 
an  opposite  direction.  If  the  right  of  a  Representative  to  his 
vote,  or  rather  the  right  of  the  people  to  the  vote  of  their  Repre- 
sentatives, were  esteemed  too  precious  and  too  sacred,  even  in 
the  rotten-borough  system  of  the  British  Parliament  five-and- 
twenty  years  ago,  to  be  set  aside  upon  any  indefinite  allegation 
of  personal  interest,  how  much  more  should  it  be  held  inviolable 
upon  such  a  ground,  under  the  free  and  equal  system  which  we 
here  enjoy !  Let  me  add,  Sir,  that,  whether  this  be  a  Tory  pre- 
cedent or  not,  and  there  is  nothing  but  gratuitous  assertion  to 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  267 

show  what  it  is,  it  is  the  only  precedent  on  the  record  of  Par- 
liamentary proceedings  on  either  side  of  the  ocean ;  —  I  should 
rather  say  that  it  is  the  latest  of  a  series  of  precedents  all  bear- 
ing upon  the  same  point,  and  all  sustaining  the  same  decision, 
and  with  whose  conspiring  authority  I  have  found  nothing  in 
reason,  and  nothing  upon  record,  to  conflict.  But  enough,  and 
more  than  enough,  of  this  digression. 

The  charge  of  British  Toryism  against  the  American  "Whigs, 
and  the  corresponding  claim  of  British  Whiggism  in  behalf  of 
American  Tories,  have  not  been  confined  to  the  circumstances 
of  this  case  or  to  the  principles  of  this  decision.  They  have 
been  applied  to  the  whole  political  character  and  conduct  of 
both  parties,  and  with  particular  reference  to  the  great  financial 
questions  upon  which  they  are  now  divided.  Now  it  would  be 
no  difficult  undertaking,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  Sir,  to  prove 
both  the  charge  and  the  claim,  whether  in  their  broader  or  more 
restricted  application,  to  be  utterly  unfounded  and  false.  I  have 
already  alluded  to  the  fact  that  the  joint  stock  banking  system, 
which  it  is  the  design  of  this  Sub-Treasury  scheme  to  annihilate, 
has  grown  up  and  greatly  extended  itself  under  the  late  liberal 
policy  of  the  British  Government.  A  still  greater  extension  of 
that  system  has  been  recently  demanded  by  the  British  Whigs, 
and  some  of  the  more  radical  of  them  have  even  been  clamor- 
ing, not  for  a  metallic  currency,  like  the  radicals  of  our  own 
land,  but  for  downright  irredeemable  paper.  A  free  circulation, 
they  declare,  is  the  only  mode  of  making  trade  prosperous  and 
wages  high,  and,  though  I  by  no  means  agree  with  them  in  this 
last  mode  of  making  the  circulation  free,  their  declaration  is 
undeniably  correct. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  not  suffer  myself  to  be  diverted, 
by  the  ingenuity  of  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester,  from  the 
true  issue  as  to  the  propriety  of  these  party  names.  It  was  no 
hard-money  doctrines,  it  was  no  financial  schemes,  that  gave  rise 
to  the  renewal  of  the  old  Revolutionary  titles.  No,  Sir,  but  the 
means  by  which  those  doctrines  were  inculcated,  and  the  acts 
by  which  those  schemes  have  been  enforced.  It  was  that  series 
of  Executive  assumptions  and  usurpations,  that  succession  of  ve- 
toes and  circulars  and  orders,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded, — 


268  THE    SUB-TREASURY   SYSTEM. 

and  of  which,  let  me  add,  that  had  they  resulted  in  the  unmin- 
gled  prosperity  of  the  country,  instead  of  in  its  present  depress- 
ed and  disastrous  condition,  they  would  have  no  less  deserved 
the  rebuke  and  condemnation  of  a  free  people,  —  it  was  these 
arbitrary  and  tyrannical  acts,  and  the  gentleman  cannot  have 
forgotten  it,  which  called  back  into  political  service  the  old 
appellations  of  Whig  and  Tory.  And  by  these  measures,  and 
not  by  any  abstract  opinions  upon  currency  or  credit,  is  the 
propriety  of  those  appellations  to  be  determined. 

But  the  Maysville  Veto  was  a  self-denying  ordinance,  the 
gentleman  tells  us.  This  is  a  new  name,  certainly,  for  an  exer- 
cise of  that  high  kingly  prerogative.  But  it  is  a  good  name 
notwithstanding,  Sir,  and  I  thank  the  gentleman  for  teaching 
me  its  use.  A  self-denying  ordinance !  Where  did  that  phrase- 
ology come  from,  and  what  did  it  originally  designate  ?  The 
self-denying  ordinance,  Mr.  Chairman,  was  the  first  of  those 
subtle  and  hypocritical  pieces  of  policy  by  which  Oliver  Crom- 
well ultimately  obtained  the  mastery  of  the  British  Empire.  It 
was  an  ordinance  by  which  every  body  was  denied  but  him- 
self, and  every  will  but  his  own  will.  And  the  Maysville  Veto, 
too,  was  the  first  in  that  series  of  vetoes  by  which  the  will  of 
General  Jackson  obtained  supremacy  in  this  Union,  and  by 
which  the  will  of  the  people  has  been  so  frequently  and  fatally 
denied  and  nullified.  Certainly,  Sir,  it  was  a  self-denying  ordi- 
nance. And  the  veto  of  Mr.  Clay's  Land  Bill  was  another. 
And  the  veto  of  the  Massachusetts  Interest  Bill  was  another. 
And  the  veto  of  the  Bank  Charter  was  another.  And  the  veto 
of  the  Bill  repealing  the  Treasury  Order  was  another.  Self- 
denying  ordinances  all,  Sir,  and  worthy  of  going  down  to  poste- 
rity on  the  same  page  with  their  great  original.  And  a  pretty 
ample  page  they  would  require.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that 
General  Jackson  resorted  to  this  self-denying  process  at  least 
twice,  and  I  rather  think,  three  times  as  often,  during  his  single 
administration,  as  all  our  other  Presidents  together.  Indeed, 
this  sort  of  self-denial  has  been  his  leading  characteristic  through 
life,  and  hence,  doubtless,  even  his  private  mansion  has  always 
been  denominated  the  Hermitage  ! 

And  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  ways  and  means  by  which  this 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  269 

self-denial  has  been  manifested!  "What  shifts  and  subtleties, 
what  tricks  and  contrivances  have  been  left  untried,  by  which 
the  just  and  constitutional  responsibility  of  a  veto  could  be 
evaded  or  avoided!  In  some  cases,  we  know,  no  reasons  at  all 
have  been  rendered,  but  the  objectionable  bill  has  been  perma- 
nently withheld  from  the  further  action  of  Congress.  In  other 
instances,  the  veto  message  has  been  sent  to  a  different  Con- 
gress from  that  which  passed  the  bill.  And  in  still  another  in- 
stance, the  bill,  instead  of  being  returned  to  Congress  with  the 
objections  of  the  President,  was  sent  to  the  office  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  with  the  objections  of  the  Attorney- General.  And 
then  that  Veto-Extraordinary  and  Message-Plenipotentiary  — 
the  Protest — despatched  to  the  National  Senate  on  the  passage 
of  a  resolution  declaring  "  that  in  the  late  Executive  proceed- 
ings in  relation  to  the  public  revenue,  the  President  has  assumed 
a  power  not  conferred  by  the  Constitution  and  laws,  but  in  de- 
rogation of  both."  That  doubtless  was  a  self-denying  ordinance 
also  !  Its  pointed  rebuke  and  proscription  of  the  four  members 
who  held  their  seats,  as  much  more  than  four  of  the  administra- 
tion members  of  the  Senate  now  hold  theirs,  in  opposition  to 
the  latest  declaration  of  the  will  of  their  constituents,  —  where 
will  a  precedent  be  found  for  that  proceeding  since  Charles  the 
First  complained  to  the  House  of  Commons  of  John  Hampden 
and  the  rest,  or,  certainly,  since  Cromwell  himself  gave  leave  of 
absence  to  an  uncomplying  Parliament  ?  Its  extraordinary  de- 
claration that  the  President  himself  was  the  only  direct  repre- 
sentative of  the  American  people,  —  where  will  a  precedent  be 
found  for  such  a  doctrine  as  that,  since  Louis  XIV.  exclaimed, 
"  I  am  the  State  ?  "  Its  final  and  legitimate  consummation,  by 
which  the  Journals  of  the  Senate  were  mutilated,  and  the  ob- 
noxious resolution  expunged,  —  where  has  there  been  such  a 
prostitution  of  the  public  records  to  the  will  of  an  Executive, 
since  James  the  First  tore  out  an  offensive  vote  of  the  Com- 
mons with  his  own  hand  ? 

I  repeat,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  it  was  these  arbitrary  and  ty- 
rannical doctrines,  these  arrogant  assumptions  of  powers  not 
granted,  these  outrageous  abuses  of  powers  granted,  this  con- 
solidation of  all  departments   into  one   department,  and  this 
23* 


270  THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM. 

subjection  of  all  wills  to  one  will,  which  revived  throughout  the 
Union  the  old  Revolutionary  designations  of  political  parties. 
And  unless  the  friends  of  the  national  administration  shall  disa- 
vow and  denounce  these  doctrines  and  these  deeds  to  which  I 
have  referred,  or  unless  they  shall  expunge,  not  one,  but  all  of 
them  —  not  from  a  mere  Legislative  Journal  only,  but  from  the 
pages  of  history,  and  the  memory  of  man,  —  however  they  may 
wince  and  writhe  under  the  odious  title  which  has  attached  to 
them,  they  will  in  vain  essay  to  shake  it  off.  They  must  stand 
for  Tories  still. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  glad  the  gentleman  from  Gloucester  has 
seen  fit  to  raise  this  issue.  It  has  not  only  given  me  an  oppor- 
tunity to  set  matters  right  on  this  head,  but  has  afforded  me  an 
opening  for  giving  expression  to  a  sentiment  which  I  have 
deeply  felt  during  the  past  year,  and  with  which  I  will  conclude 
these  remarks.  I  need  hardly  say,  Sir,  that  I  do  not  underesti- 
mate the  calamities  in  which  the  late  crisis  has  involved  the 
country.  But  great  as  they  have  been  and  still  are,  as  often  as 
I  have  reviewed  the  high-handed  Executive  acts  of  which  I 
have  spoken,  I  have  come  to  this  deliberate  and  solemn  conclu- 
sion, —  that  if  the  redemption  of  the  country  from  such  usurpa- 
tion and  misrule  could  have  been  purchased  at  no  other  price 
than  this  crisis  and  these  calamities,  it  would  still  have  been 
purchased  cheap.  My  honorable  friend  from  Charlestown,  (Mr. 
Austin,)  remarked  the  other  day  that  he  never  would  play  the 
part  of  the  strong  man  at  Gaza,  and  pull  down  the  pillars  of  the 
public  prosperity,  in  order  to  effect  the  downfall  of  his  political 
adversaries.  I  cordially  concur  with  him,  Sir,  in  that  patriotic 
sentiment.  I  would  not  have  produced  one  jot  or  tittle  of  ex- 
isting sufferings  for  any  political  effect,  nor  would  I  now  pro- 
tract them  one  hour  or  moment  for  such  a  .purpose.  I  hold  it 
to  be  the  duty  of  us  all,  as  citizens  and  as  legislators,  to  do  all 
in  our  power,  without  distinction  of  party,  to  bring  about  a  res- 
toration of  prosperity,  and  particularly  a  resumption  of  pay- 
ments. But  looking  upon  the  crisis  as  a  thing  already  existing, 
and  in  the  production  of  which  I,  at  least,  had  no  part  or  agency, 
I  say  again,  that  if  the  political  redemption  of  the  country  could 
have  been  procured  at  no  other  or  lower  rate,  I  would  still  have 


THE   SUB-TREASURY    SYSTEM.  271 

had  it  purchased  at  this  rate,  and  would  still  have  gladly  paid 
my  full  proportion  of  its  price.  Sir,  I  rejoice  in  the  self- vindi- 
cating power  of  the  Constitution,  which  this  crisis  has  displayed, 
—  I  repeat  it,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  self-vindicating  power  of 
the  Constitution,  —  for  that  seems  to  me  the  very  key  and 
index  of  the  whole  catastrophe.  The  first  object  and  operation 
of  the  Constitution  was  to  revive  a  prostrate  commerce,  to  re- 
store a  fallen  credit,  to  raise  up  a  depreciated  and  still  sinking 
currency.  And  was  it  not  entirely  fit  and  appropriate  that  com- 
merce, and  currency,  and  credit,  should  give  signs  and  warnings, 
when  that  Constitution  was  violated  and  trampled  upon,  by  their 
own  depression  and  downfall?  For  myself,  I  thank  my  God 
that  it  has  been  so.  I  pray  him  that  the  public  prosperity  may 
never  survive  the  public  liberty.  I  pray  him  that  whenever  that 
liberty  may  be  menaced,  whenever  the  Constitution  assailed, 
whenever  the  wide  arch  of  this  glorious  Republic  in  danger  of 
falling,  the  people,  the  whole  people,  may  be  roused  up  to  the 
rescue,  if  in  no  other  way,  by  their  own  sufferings  and  distresses ! 


THE  TOTES  OF  INTERESTED  MEMBERS 

A  DECISION  PRONOUNCED  IN  TIIE   HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES   OF  MASSA- 
CHUSETTS, FEBRUARY    19,  1840. 


A  Bill  to  increase  the  capital  stock  of  the  Boston  and  Sandwich  Glass  Company 
being  under  consideration,  and  Mr.  Church,  of  Westport,  having  moved  an  amend- 
ment in  the  following  terms:  — "  The  private  property  of  the  Corporation,  or  Stock- 
holders for  the  time  being,  and  of  those  who  shall  be  stockholders  at  the  time  when 
any  debt  shall  be  contracted,  shall  be  holden  for  the  payment  of  such  debt,  and  may 
be  taken  therefor  on  any  execution  issued  against  the  Corporation  for  such  debt,  in  the 
same  manner  as  on  executions  issued  against  them  for  individual  debts.  Any  Stock- 
holder who  shall  pay  any  debt  of  the  Corporation  for  which  he  is  made  liable,  by  this 
Act,  shall  have  the  same  remedies  for  the  recovery  of  the  amount  so  paid,  or  any 
part  thereof,  as  is  provided  in  the  32d"  Sec.  of  the  38th  Chap,  of  the  Kevised  Sta- 
tutes ; "  and  the  yeas  and  nays  having  been  taken  on  this  amendment,  Mr.  Allen,  of 
Northfield  called  upon  the  Speaker  to  disallow  the  votes  of  Messrs.  Safford  and 
Quincy,  of  Boston,  and  of  Mr.  Baker,  of  Dorchester,  as  being  Stockholders  in  the 
Corporation,  and  as  being  therefore  precluded  from  voting,  under  the  fourteenth  rule 
of  the  2d  chapter  of  the  Rules  and  Orders,  which  is  as  follows : 

"  No  member  shall  be  permitted  to  vote,  or  serve  on  any  Committee,  in  any  ques- 
tion where  his  private  right  is  immediately  concerned,  distinct  from  the  public  in- 
terest." 

The  Speaker  decided  that  those  gentlemen  did  not  come  within  the  meaning  of  the 
rule,  and  declined  excluding  them  from  the  count.  From  this  decision  Mr.  Allen  ap- 
pealed, and  thereupon  the  Speaker  stated  his  reasons  as  follows :  — 

The  Speaker  said  that  he  had  already  remarked  to  the  House 
that  the  point  which  had  been  raised  by  the  gentleman  from 
Northfield  was  by  no  means  a  new  one  to  him.  During  the 
first  session  in  which  he  had  the  honor  to  occupy  the  chair  of 
the  House,  he  was  twice  called  on  to  decide  it.  On  both  of 
those  occasions  he  spared  no  pains  in  examining  the  authorities 
and  precedents  on  the  subject ;  on  both  of  them  he  had  the 
satisfaction  to  arrive  at  a  clear  and  unhesitating  conviction  in 


THE  VOTES   OF  INTERESTED  MEMBERS.  273 

his  own  mind ;  and  on  both  of  them,  too,  he  had  the  still  greater 
satisfaction  of  being  sustained  by  a  large  majority  of  the  House. 

The  first  of  these  cases  was  that  of  one  or  more  Bank  Di- 
rectors and  Stockholders,  whom  it  was  proposed  to  exclude 
from  serving  on  a  committee  of  one  from  each  county,  to  which 
had  been  referred  a  memorial  from  the  Associated  Banks,  on  the 
subject  of  the  suspension  of  specie  payments.  The  Speaker 
decided  that  Bank  Directors  and  Stockholders  were  entitled  to 
serve  on  such  a  committee  under  the  rule ;  and  that  decision, 
after  a  long  argument  in  opposition  to  it  by  a  gentleman  not 
now  a  member,  was  sustained,  337  to  97. 

The  second  case  was  that  of  sundry  Stockholders  in  the 
Western  Railroad  Corporation,  whom  it  was  proposed  to  ex- 
clude from  voting  on  the  bill  for  granting  the  credit  of  the  State 
in  aid  of  the  enterprise  in  which  that  Corporation  were  engaged. 
The  Speaker  decided  that  those  Stockholders  were  entitled  to 
their  votes ;  and  that  decision,  also,  was  sustained,  238  to  43. 

These  cases  differed  considerably  from  each  other,  and  both 
of  them,  in  some  degree,  from  that  now  under  consideration. 
The  former  related  to  a  whole  class  of  corporations,  —  the  doc- 
trine advanced  in  opposition  to  the  Chair  being,  on  that  occa- 
sion, that  no  director  or  stockholder  in  the  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  banks  in  this  Commonwealth  could  serve  on  any  com- 
mittee, or  give  any  vote  on  any  question,  relating  to  banks  and 
banking.  The  latter  related  only  to  a  single  corporation,  and  in 
this  respect  was  analogous  to  the  case  before  the  House.  It 
was  obvious,  however,  that  all  three  of  them  involved  the  same 
general  principles,  and  must  be  governed  by  the  same  parlia- 
mentary precedents. 

There  was  one  point  in  which  the  Speaker  said  he  was  glad  to 
find  that  all  these  cases  agreed.  In  neither  of  them  did  his  deci- 
sion affect  results.  The  committee,  on  which  the  bank  director 
was  permitted  to  serve,  could  of  course  do  nothing  final.  Their 
proceedings,  like  those  of  all  other  committees,  were  controlled  by 
the  House.  So  also  in  the  second  case,  had  all  the  stockholders 
in  the  Western  Railroad  Corporation,  who  wTere  members  of  the 
House,  been  deprived  of  the  right  of  voting,  the  aid  of  the  State 
would  still  have  been  granted  by  a  handsome  majority.     And  so 


274  THE  VOTES   OF  INTERESTED   MEMBERS. 

in  the  present  instance,  too,  should  the  three  gentlemen  who 
have  been  named  as  stockholders  be  excluded  from  the  count, 
there  would  remain  a  majority  of  thirty-seven  to  dispose  of  the 
amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Westport.  The  Speaker 
trusted  that  these  circumstances  would  insure  to  the  question 
on  the  present  occasion,  as  they  doubtless  had  in  the  previous 
instances  in  which  it  had  been  raised,  a  more  calm,  deliberate, 
and  dispassionate  investigation,  than  if  an  important  issue  were 
immediately  involved  in  its  settlement. 

Such  an  investigation  he  thought  it  eminently  deserved.  In 
his  judgment  it  was  a  question  of  high  importance  and  of  far- 
reaching  responsibility.  Other  corporations  were  concerned  in 
its  settlement  beside  the  Sandwich  Glass  Company; — corpora- 
tions of  a  different  class  and  character.  The  real  question  be- 
fore the  House  was,  whether  the  city  of  Boston  should  be  de- 
prived of  two  of  its  members  legally  chosen  and  duly  qualified, 
and  the  town  of  Dorchester  of  one  third  of  its  rightful  repre- 
sentation here,  on  an  allegation  that  the  private  interests  of  the 
members  referred  to  were  inconsistent  with  a  faithful  discharge 
of  their  duty  to  their  constituents  ?  It  was  the  right  of  the 
towns  and  cities,  and  not  of  the  members  themselves,  which 
was  really  at  stake  in  this  and  in  all  similar  cases.  And  gentle- 
men would  do  well  to  bear  in  mind,  that  though  the  controversy 
might  now  relate  to  a  city  and  a  town  which  perhaps  could 
afford  to  spare  a  vote  or  two,  —  it  might  next  be  raised  in  rela- 
tion to  such  as  had  but  one  Representative,  and  thus  disfran- 
chise them  altogether  on  particular  questions. 

The  Speaker  said  that  as  often  as  he  had  reflected  on  this 
view  of  the  case,  and  it  had  been  again  and  again  the  subject 
of  his  examination,  he  had  been  led  to  doubt  both  the  policy 
and  the  justice  of  retaining  in  our  Rules  and  Orders  any  such 
principle  as  that  under  which  the  question  had  been  raised.  The 
power  of  the  House  in  all  matters  relating  to  their  own  proceed- 
ings might,  perhaps,  be  unquestionable.  The  Constitution  ex- 
pressly gave  them  such  a  power  and  he  supposed  it  to  be  abso- 
lute. They  might  silence  members,  he  presumed,  not  merely 
in  the  case  provided  for,  but  in  any  or  all  other  cases,  subject 
only  to  their  responsibility  to  the  people.     But  power  was  obvi- 


THE  VOTES   OF  INTERESTED   MEMBERS.  275 

ously  one  thing,  and  right  another.  And  he  had  often  been  led 
to  question  the  right  by  which  any  portion  of  the  Representa- 
tives of  the  people  could  say  to  any  other  portion,  except  where 
it  might  be  absolutely  essential  to  their  own  self-defence  and 
self-preservation  as  a  deliberative,  legislative  body,  that  they 
should  not  exercise  the  common  and  acknowledged  privileges 
and  powers  of  membership.  All  were  here  by  similar  titles  and 
upon  similar  terms.  We  were  the  Representatives  of  the  seve- 
ral communities  which  had  elected  us,  and  our  responsibilities 
were  to  them,  and  not  to  each  other.  And  it  would  seem  no 
inappropriate  reply,  to  any  one  who  should  attempt  to  interfere 
with  another  in  the  exercise  of  his  duty  as  a  member,  and  to 
exclude  him  in  any  case  from  his  equal  share  in  the  collective 
will  of  the  House,  upon  some  allegation  of  his  being  disquali- 
fied for  the  service  which  his  fellow-citizens  had  assigned  him, — 
"  Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's  servant  ?  To  his 
own  master  he  shall  stand  or  fall." 

The  Speaker  confessed,  therefore,  that,  as  a  matter  of  prin- 
ciple, he  was  opposed  to  the  rule  altogether.  But  it  had  come 
down  to  us  from  a  distant  antiquity,  and  had  been  annually  in- 
corporated into  our  parliamentary  system.  It  was  his  duty,  ac- 
cordingly, as  the  servant  of  the  House,  to  observe  and  execute 
it.  And  he  should  not  shrink  from  doing  so,  wherever  its  exe- 
cution was  called  for.  But  the  same  views  which  had  led  him 
to  question  its  justice  in  the  abstract,  would  lead  him  also,  now 
and  always,  to  give  it  the  narrowest  possible  construction.  He 
desired  to  be  personally  instrumental  in  depriving  as  few  of  the 
Representatives  of  the  people  as  might  be,  of  what  seemed  to 
him  their  just  and  rightful  prerogative.  And  he  had  no  hesita- 
tion in  repeating  what  he  said  on  this  subject  three  years  ago, 
that  he  should  very  much  prefer  to  have  any  one  or  any  num- 
ber of  his  decisions  set  aside  by  the  House,  than  to  be  guilty 
himself  of  setting  aside  the  vote  of  a  single  member  in  a  case  in 
any  degree  doubtful. 

Nor  did  scruples  like  these  seem  to  have  been  confined  to 
himself.  Old  as  the  rule  was,  and  incorporated,  as  it  had  been, 
into  all  our  legislative  systems,  national  and  State,  it  seemed  to 
have  been  a  very  rare  occurrence  for  it  to  be  enforced,  or  even 


276  THE  VOTES   OF  INTERESTED   MEMBERS. 

for  any  question  to  be  raised  under  it.  With  the  exception  of 
a  single  case  which  had  recently  occurred  in  Congress,  during  a 
very  exciting  discussion,  and  to  which  he  would  presently  allude, 
he  had  no  knowledge  of  any  such  point  having  been  raised  in 
any  American  Assembly  but  our  own.  Doubtless,  there  must 
have  been  such  instances  in  some  of  our  State  Legislatures,  but 
he  had  never  met  with  any,  and  knew  not  where  to  find  any 
account  of  them.  During  the  long  and  agitating  controversies, 
extending  through  so  many  successive  years,  as  to  the  re-charter 
of  the  United  States  Bank,  in  Congress,  although  partisan 
jealousies  were  sharply  stimulated  against  that  institution,  al- 
though not  a  few  of  its  stockholders  were  known  to  be  mem- 
bers, and  although  accusations  of  other  sorts  of  interest  in  its 
continued  existence  were  rife  in  all  quarters,  no  such  point  of 
order  is  believed  to  have  been  started.  The  rule,  by  general 
consent,  seems  to  have  been  left  to  operate  upon  individual  con- 
sciences, inducing  members  to  decline  voting  of  their  own  ac- 
cord, wherever  they  felt  they  were  liable  to  be  swayed  from  the 
discharge  of  their  duties  by  their  private  interests,  or  wherever 
perhaps,  they  were  unwilling  to  incur  the  suspicion  of  being 
thus  swayed,  —  but  to  have  been  regarded  as  altogether  too 
odious  and  too  arbitrary  to  be  put  forcibly  into  execution. 

But  its  execution  had  been  demanded  in  this  case  by  the  gen- 
tlemen from  Northfield,  and,  in  default  of  any  American  author- 
ities on  the  subject,  the  Speaker  said  he  was  compelled  to  resort 
to  the  Parliamentary  Annals  of  the  Mother  Country,  from  which 
the  rule  was  originally  borrowed,  to  find  precedents  for  deter- 
mining its  rightful  interpretation  and  legitimate  intent.  Even 
there  the  precedents  were  few  and  far  between ;  —  but  the  Chair 
was  happy  to  state,  that  all  which  he  had  been  able  to  find  had 
confirmed  him  in  his  opinion  that  the  strictest  and  narrowest 
possible  construction  was  to  be  given  to  the  rule,  which  its 
terms  would  admit  of.  Even  in  an  unreformed,  rotten-borough 
House  of  Commons,  where  there  was  so  little  pretence  to  any 
representation  of  the  people  on  the  principle  of  equality,  and 
where  so  many  of  the  members  were  without  any  direct  re- 
sponsibility to  the  people  in  the  true  sense  of  that  term,  there 
seemed  to  have  been  the  utmost  caution  observed  in  disfranchis- 


THE   VOTES   OF   INTERESTED   MEMBERS.  277 

ing  a  member  on  any  pretence  of  private  interest.  How  much 
more  ought  such  a  caution  to  be  observed  in  a  Legislative  As- 
sembly so  carefully  constituted  to  insure  equality  and  responsi- 
bility as  ours ! 

There  were  but  three  leading  cases  in  the  English  Parlia- 
mentary Journals  on  this  subject,  so  far  as  the  Chair  had  found 
opportunity  to  examine  them.  The  first  in  order  was  the  Loyalty 
Loan  case,  in  1797.  This  was  a  question  about  allowing  an 
outright  bonus  or  gratuity  of  five  pounds  in  the  hundred  to  the 
subscribers  to  a  loan  called  the  Loyalty  Loan,  which  had  been 
made  to  the  British  Government  in  a  great  public  exigency,  and 
by  which  the  subscribers  had  suffered  a  pecuniary  loss.  It  was 
a  measure  purely  of  pecuniary  relief  and  indemnification  to  pri- 
vate individuals.  It  was  there  decided  that  the  interest  of  the 
subscribers  was  direct  and  immediate.  It  was  a  vote  of  money 
directly  and  immediately  out  of  the  public  Treasury  into  their 
own  pockets,  and  the  votes  of  such  of  them  as  were  members  — 
except,  indeed,  of  those  who  declared  in  their  places  that  they 
did  not  intend  to  avail  themselves  of  the  bonus  —  were  accord- 
ingly disallowed.  This  case,  it  would  be  perceived,  was  pre- 
cisely analogous  to  the  pension  case  supposed  by  the  Chair,  a 
day  or  two  since,  when  this  point  of  order  was  first  suggested, 
and  did  not  go  at  all  beyond  it. 

The  second  case  was  that  of  the  London  Flour  Company,  in- 
corporated for  the  manufacture  of  bread  in  the  year  1800.  By 
that  bill  certain  persons  were  not  merely  incorporated  for  the 
purpose  which  has  been  named,  but  it  was  provided  that  they 
should  be  allowed  ten  per  cent,  interest  on  moneys  advanced  by 
them  for  the  establishment,  instead  of  five  per  cent,  which  was 
the  legal  rate  of  interest.  In  this  case  it  was  decided,  that  sub- 
scribers to  the  stock  might  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  in  all 
its  various  stages,  and  upon  all  questions  arising  in  relation  to  it, 
with  the  single  exception  of  that  relating  to  this  provision  as  to 
the  rate  of  interest  which  they  should  be  allowed  to  receive. 
But  on  a  motion  to  reduce  this  rate  from  ten  per  cent,  to  five, 
their  votes  were  disallowed. 

The  third  case  was  that  of  the  Gold  Coin  Bill,  in  1811,  —  a 
bill  introduced  to  remedy  some  of  the  evils  growing  out  of  a 
24 


278  THE   VOTES    OF   INTERESTED    MEMBERS. 

suspension  of  specie  payments  and  a  depreciation  of  paper 
money  in  England,  and  in  which  it  was  alleged  the  Bank  of 
England  was  deeply  interested.  The  direct  purpose  of  the  bill 
was  to  prohibit  the  purchase  of  gold  coins  at  any  price  above 
their  par  value  in  paper.  The  immediate  intention  was  to  bring 
up  the  bills  of  the  Bank  of  England  from  the  state  of  deprecia- 
tion in  which  their  irredeemability  had  naturally  involved  them, 
and  to  restore  them  to  their  full  nominal  value.  On  this  occasion 
there  were  no  less  than  forty-five  directors  and  proprietors  of 
that  institution  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  votes  of  all 
of  them  were  allowed,  after  much  debate  but  without  any  di- 
vision. 

Of  these  three  cases,  the  only  ones  the  Speaker  had  been  able 
to  find,  the  second  manifestly  presented  the  nearest  analogy  to 
that  now  before  the  House.  It  was,  like  this,  the  case  of  a  Cor- 
poration whose  charter  was  immediately  under  consideration ; 
and  the  question  there,  as  here,  was  how  far  the  stockholders 
could  vote  upon  that  charter.  It  was  clear,  that  if  that  precedent 
were  to  be  followed,  they  could  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  bill 
from  one  stage  to  another,  and  on  its  final  passage,  and  on  all 
other  questions  relating  to  it,  except  where  the  question  was 
.solely  and  exclusively  one  as  to  the  amount  of  their  own  profits. 
The  principle  of  the  case,  as  repeatedly  laid  down  in  the  debate 
on  the  point  of  order,  was,  —  that  where  a  bill  was  partly  of  a 
public  nature  and  partly  of  benefit  to  themselves,  (and  it  was 
admitted  that  that  bill  was  of  such  a  mixed  character,)  the 
stockholders  might  vote  on  the  principle  ;  but  that  whenever  the 
incidental  point  arose  in  which  their  own  interests  exclusively 
lay,  they  could  not  vote. 

This  is  substantially  the  rule  of  this  House,  by  which  it  is 
provided,  that  to  exclude  a  member  from  voting,  the  interest 
must  be  a  private  interest, — or  rather  "  a  private  right,"  (a  word 
certainly  of  greater  caution,  and  which  unquestionably  justified 
a  narrower  construction  than  the  English  rule,)  —  immediately 
concerned  and  distinct  from  the  public  interest.  And  now  the 
question  was,  whether  the  proposition  offered  by  the  gentleman 
from  Westport  involved  directly  and  immediately  such  a  dis- 
tinct private  interest  of  the   Stockholders  of  the  Boston  and 


THE   VOTES    OF   INTERESTED   MEMBERS.  279 

Sandwich  Glass  Company,  and  presented  such  a  question  of 
unmixed  private  right,  as  to  exclude  them  from  voting  on  it 
under  the  rule  as  illustrated  by  these  precedents. 

This  inquiry  rendered  necessary  some  examination  of  the  pro- 
position itself,  and  the  answer  to  it  would  undoubtedly  depend 
not  a  little  on  the  different  views  which  were  entertained  as  to 
the  character  and  consequences  of  that  proposition.  Did  this 
proposition  of  unlimited  liability  present  to  the  House  solely 
and  singly  a  consideration  of  profit  or  loss  to  the  stockholders  ? 
Was  it  a  naked,  unmixed  matter  of  private  interest  or  private 
right  to  the  company  ?  Had  the  public  no  concern  in  the  ques- 
tion ?  Tf  such  were  the  case,  the  three  gentlemen  clearly  could 
not  vote  upon  it.  But  the  Chair  certainly  did  not  regard  it  in 
that  light.  He  looked  upon  the  question  of  limited  or  unlimited 
liability,  whether  in  reference  to  all  corporations  or  to  one,  as  a 
question  in  which  the  public  was  deeply  interested.  He  had 
always  believed  that  where  there  was  an  unlimited  liability,  an 
unlimited  credit  was  sure  to  follow ;  that  instead  of  looking  to 
the  capital  only,  the  public  were  led  to  place  their  trust  on  some 
indefinite  amount  of  individual  wealth  behind  it ;  that  unwar- 
ranted confidence  was  thus  certain  to  be  created,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  those  of  the  stockholders  whose  liability  beyond 
their  stock  was  worth  any  thing,  were  not  less  certain  to  with- 
draw from  the  concern ;  and  that  the  security  of  the  corpora- 
tion, of  its  creditors,  and  of  the  community  generally,  were  thus 
at  once  and  together  put  in  jeopardy.  The  tendency  of  such  a 
measure  to  drive  capital  out  of  the  State,  furnished  another 
mode  of  illustrating  the  interest  of  the  public  in  such  a  propo- 
sition. But,  without  entering  further  into  his  personal  opinions 
as  to  the  amendment  in  question,  it  was  enough  for  him  to  say, 
that  it  had  been  argued  from  first  to  last  on  the  express  ground 
of  the  public  interest,  the  interest  of  the  creditors  and  the  inte- 
rest of  the  community  generally.  No  one  had  pretended  that  it 
was  a  mere  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  to  the  stockholders  —  a 
simple  question  whether  they  should  receive  ten  per  cent,  or  five 
per  cent,  on  their  money.  The  very  term  liability  was  a  relative 
term.  Liability  to  what  ?  Liability  to  whom  ?  It  was  plain, 
and  had  been  all  along  admitted,  that,  however  there  might  be 


280  THE  VOTES   OF  INTERESTED   MEMBERS. 

a  private  interest  at  stake,  it  was  not  presented  distinctly  from 
the  public  interest  which  was  concerned  also,  but  was  involved 
and  mixed  up  with  it.  And  the  precedents  expressly  asserted 
that  where  a  matter  was  "  of  a  mixed  nature,  partly  public  and 
partly  private,"  stockholders  should  be  allowed  to  vote.  He 
might  go  on  to  observe  that  there  could  be  no  certain  evidence 
in  the  case  of  an  individual  stockholder,  whether  he  could  have 
any  private  interest  at  all  in  the  subject,  as  this  must  depend  on 
the  fact  whether  he  had  any  property  beyond  that  embarked  in 
the  concern,  upon  which  this  unlimited  liability  was  to  rest.  If, 
in  the  case  of  the  Loyalty  Loan,  the  mere  declaration  of  a  pur- 
pose not  to  avail  himself  of  the  bonus,  could  exempt  a  subscriber 
from  the  operation  of  the  rule,  an  absolute  inability  to  receive 
either  advantage  or  detriment  from  any  particular  provision, 
would  certainly  be  no  less  effectual.  But  the  views  already  taken 
he  regarded  as  sufficient  without  so  great  a  refinement ;  and  he 
had  only  suggested  it  as  an  illustration  of  the  extreme  care 
which  the  precedents  inculcated  in  the  application  of  the  rule 
in  question. 

The  Speaker  said  that  the  case  to  which  he  had  alluded  as 
having  recently  occurred  in  Congress,  was  that  of  the  New  Jer- 
sey members,  who  were  declared  by  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams,  while  in 
the  Chair  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  be  entitled  to 
vote  on  a  question  relating  to  their  own  case.  The  Speaker 
said  he  had  no  record  of  that  decision,  and  referred  to  it  only 
from  memory.  It  was  a  case,  to  say  the  least,  as  to  which  he 
should  have  felt  quite  as  much  doubt  as  about  that  now  under 
consideration.  He  had  been  led  to  think  of  it,  by  one  in  some 
degree  analogous,  which  seemed  likely  to  present  itself  within  a 
few  weeks  past,  in  reference  to  the  two  members  from  Mendon, 
whose  seats  had  now  been  vacated,  but  who,  it  was  well  re- 
membered, voted  in  every  instance  on  their  own  case,  down  to 
the  final  yeas  and  nays  on  the  question  of  declaring  their  elec- 
tion void.  And  even  on  that  question  they  were  not  prevented 
from  voting  by  the  Chair  or  by  the  House.  Now,  some  of  the 
Parliamentary  authorities  expressly  referred  to  election  cases  as 
coming  under  the  usage  on  the  subject  of  interested  members. 
One  of  the  oldest  precedents  on  record  on  this  subject,  he  be- 


THE   VOTES   OF  INTERESTED  MEMBERS.  281 

lieved,  was  an  election  case.  He  was  glad,  however,  that,  in 
the  Mendon  case,  no  point  of  order  was  pressed,  and  that  he 
was  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  choosing  between  the  author- 
ity of  President  Adams,  fortified  by  his  own  deliberate  private 
judgment,  and  the  precedents  of  the  Parliament  from  which  the 
rule  had  been  borrowed.  True,  there  was  this  marked  distinc- 
tion between  the  New  Jersey  members  and  the  Mendon  mem- 
bers,—  that  the  former  were  provided  with  certificates  of  un- 
questionable validity,  while  those  of  the  latter  were  believed  to 
be  without  some  of  the  requisite  sanctions  and  signatures.  But 
not  even  this  would  have  reconciled  him  to  depriving  those  gen- 
tlemen of  their  votes  in  one  case,  while  the  House  permitted 
them  to  retain  their  seats  at  all. 

It  might  be  asked  of  the  Speaker,  in  what  cases  the  rule  was 
to  be  applied,  so  as  not  to  be  altogether  inoperative.  The  case 
of  a  pension  had  already  been  suggested.  *  If  a  member  of  the 
House  were  a  petitioner  for  a  pension,  bounty,  remuneration,  or 
indemnification  of  any  kind,  the  rule  would  clearly  exclude  him 
from  voting  on  the  question.  A  large  number  of  resolves  had 
already  passed  the  House  and  others  were  still  in  the  orders  of 
the  day,  granting  gratuities  to  persons  who  had  arrested  crimi- 
nals, detected  counterfeiters,  or  rendered  other  service  to  the 
community.  If  any  of  these  persons  had  been  members  of  the 
House,  their  votes  must  have  been  disallowed.  Then  there  was 
a  class  of  cases  liable  at  any  time  to  arise  out  of  the  conduct 
and  character  of  members,  when  charges  might  be  made  against 
them  upon  which  the  House  might  find  it  necessary  to  proceed, 
or  when  by  some  gross  violation  of  order  and  decorum  in  the 
House,  or  of  morality  and  honor  out  of  it,  they  might  subject 
themselves  to  reprimand  or  expulsion.  And  questions  might 
also,  perhaps,  occur  in  relation  to  corporations,  on  which  the  votes 
of  the  stockholders  would  be  excluded  under  the  precedent  of  the 
London  Flour  Company,  before  cited.  But  these  questions  the 
Speaker  believed  could  be  very  few,  and  the  multiplication  of 
them  he  thought  would  be  attended  with  danger  to  the  great 
fundamental  right  of  the  people  to  representation  on  the  princi- 
ples of  equality.  If  members  duly  elected  and  qualified  were  to 
be  deprived  of  their  votes,  as  had  been  demanded,  now  and  for- 
24* 


282  TIIE   VOTES   OF   INTERESTED   MEMBERS. 

merly,  on  every  question  relating  to  corporations  in  which  they 
may  be  associated  with  hundreds  of  other  members  of  the 
community,  and  in  the  prosecution  of  a  business  which  directly 
employs  the  labor  of  other  hundreds  of  workmen,  and  indirectly 
of  still  other  hundreds  of  agricultural  producers,  —  if  such  an 
interest  in  any  question  as  this,  must  be  construed  into  "  a  pri- 
vate right  distinct  from  the  public  interest,"  subjecting  a  member 
to  a  temporary  disfranchisement, — the  right  of  the  people  to  an 
equal  representation  on  every  subject  of  legislation,  would  be 
rendered  precarious  indeed.  If  the  stockholders  of  such  corpora- 
tions were  to  be  deprived  of  their  votes,  how  should  it  be  with 
the  stockholders  of  rival  corporations  or  even  of  individuals  en- 
gaged in  the  same  business,  whose  interests  might  be  adverse,  and 
whose  policy  might  be  to  crush  competition,  if  any  such  should 
chance  to  be  members  ?  How  should  it  be  with  members  who 
owned  real  estate  in  the  vicinity  of  the  establishment,  or  with 
farmers  who  would  sell  their  produce  at  higher  prices  owing  to 
its  neighborhood,  or  with  agents  or  factors  who  had  the  sale  of 
its  wares  and  fabrics  ?  All  these  might  have  interests  fully  equal 
to  those  of  the  stockholders.  And  with  what  class  of  corpora- 
tions should  the  proscription  cease  ?  How  should  it  be  with 
members  of  municipal  corporations,  when  questions  of  particu- 
lar and  exclusive  interest  to  those  corporations  should  occur? 
On  the  questions  of  boundary  between  adjacent  towns  which 
were  annually  occurring,  were  the  members  from  both  towns  to 
be  ruled  out  from  voting?  If  a  strict  analogy  were  to  be  ob- 
served between  the  proceedings  of  courts  of  justice  as  to  jurors 
and  witnesses,  and  the  proceedings  of  this  House,  such  cases  as 
these  must  clearly  be  comprehended  under  the  rule. 

There  were  others,  too,  besides  members  of  corporations,  as 
to  whose  right  of  voting  questions  must  arise,  if  the  rule  were 
to  receive  such  an  extension  ?  How  should  it  be  with  farmers, 
on  the  bounties  on  wheat  or  silk?  How  with  innkeepers  or 
grocers,  on  the  regulation  of  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquors  ? 
How  with  the  members  living  in  the  vicinity  of  Charles  River 
and  Warren  bridges,  on  the  subject  of  restoring  a  toll  to  those 
decaying  structures?  The  doctrines  which  two  years  ago  would 
have  deprived  a  stockholder  in  any  bank  in  the  Commonwealth 


THE   VOTES   OF   INTERESTED   MEMBERS.  283 

from  serving  on  a  committee  or  voting,  in  reference  to  the  en- 
tire subject  of  banks  and  banking,  would  seem  to  justify  a  simi- 
lar proscription  in  all  these  cases. 

But  the  Speaker  said  he  would  no  longer  trespass  on  the  in- 
dulgence of  the  House.  He  was  aware  that  gentlemen  might 
at  first  sight  be  disposed  to  construe  the  rule  as  the  gentleman 
from  Northfield  had  seemed  to  construe  it,  in  appealing  from  his 
decision.  And  therefore,  believing  it  to  be  a  rule  of  doubtful 
constitutional  justice,  in  derogation  of  the  rights  of  the  mem- 
bers, adverse  to  the  equality  of  the  representative  system,  and 
which,  unless  carefully  limited,  was  capable  of  being  wrested  to 
the  worst  of  purposes,  he  had  felt  bound  to  give  to  the  House 
his  honest  views  of  its  character  and  tendency,  and  to  explain  to 
them  fully  the  grounds  of  his  decision. 

His  own  disposition  would  be  never  in  any  case  to  apply  the 
rule  to  a  case  of  corporate  interest.  Corporations  had  been  so 
multiplied  of  late  years,  and  their  interests  had  become  so  closely 
interwoven  with  those  of  the  whole  people  of  the  Common- 
wealth, that  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  cases  in  which  they  were 
entirely  distinct.  The  interests  of  individual  corporations  even, 
partook  largely  of  the  character  of  public  interests.  To  how 
large  a  number  of  persons  must  an  interest  be  common,  to  be 
entitled  to  the  designation  of  a  public  interest  ?  The  Western 
Railroad  Corporation  had  some  thousands  of  stockholders.  Was 
the  interest  which  a  member  held  in  common  with  thousands  of 
others,  to  be  regarded  as  a  private  interest?  What,  then,  should 
be  the  numerical  limit  at  which  an  interest  should  cease  to  be 
private,  and  be  acknowledged  as  public  ?  The  members  whose 
votes  were  in  question  in  the  present  case,  were  interested  in 
common  with  at  least  a  hundred  stockholders,  and  there  were 
frequently  more  than  three  hundred  operatives  employed  in  the 
establishment.  The  Speaker  said  that  if,  in  any  case,  he  was 
to  be  compelled  to  regard  interests  like  these  as  grounds  of  ex- 
clusion under  the  rule,  it  would  only  be  where  the  authority  for 
so  doing  was  plain,  precise,  and  unavoidable.  He  would  follow 
in  the  steps  which  had  been  already  taken  in  this  line  of  con- 
struction, as  it  was  his  duty  to  do;  but  he  should  adventure 
on  no  new  tracks  in  a  direction  so  contrary  to  his  opinions  of 


284  THE   VOTES   OF  INTERESTED   MEMBERS. 

policy  and  justice.  And,  if  he  must  err  at  all,  he  should  always 
endeavor  to  err  on  that  side,  which  should  insure  the  greatest 
freedom  of  voice  and  vote  to  those  who  held  their  seats  in  the 
House  by  the  same  title  with  himself,  and  who  had  all  the  con- 
stitutional qualifications  for  a  full,  equal,  and  unrestrained  exer- 
cise of  the  privileges  of  membership. 

The  decision  of  the  Speaker  was  sustained,  559  to  189. 


REPLY  TO  A  TOTE  OF  THANKS. 


AN  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  A  VOTE  OF  THANKS  TO  THE  SPEAKER,  PASSED 
BY  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  MARCH 
21,  ]840. 


Gentlemen  op  the  House  op  Representatives,  — 

I  need  not  assure  you  of  the  sincere  pleasure  with  which  I 
rise  to  respond  to  the  Resolution  you  have  just  adopted.  I  thank 
the  gentleman  from  Westport  for  proposing  it.  I  thank  each 
member  of  the  House  for  uniting  in  its  passage.  Called,  as  I 
was,  at  the  commencement  of  the  session,  by  so  mere  a  major- 
ity of  the  members  present,  to  preside  over  a  body  so  nearly 
balanced  in  reference  to  the  all-absorbing  subject  of  party  poli- 
tics, I  entered  on  the  duties  assigned  me  with  little  hope  of 
giving  satisfaction,  either  to  myself  or  others.  I  looked  forward 
to  labors,  of  which  other  years  had  afforded  me  no  experience. 
I  anticipated  trials,  for  which  previous  sessions  had  furnished 
me  with  no  adequate  preparation.  And,  certainly,  I  ventured 
to  promise  myself,  at  the  end,  nothing  more,  at  the  best,  than 
the  indulgent  consideration  of  that  bare  majority  by  whose 
unmerited  favor  I  had  been  placed  here. 

It  could  not  fail  to  give  me  the  highest  gratification,  Gentle- 
men, to  find,  as  the  session  advanced,  so  many  of  my  apprehen- 
sions disappointed;  to  find  the  elements  of  strife  and  discord, 
which  manifestly  abounded  in  the  original  composition  of  this 
body,  so  rarely  set  in  motion ;  to  find  the  public  business  so 
little  interrupted  by  acrimonious  controversy  and  angry  dispute ; 
and,  more  especially,  to  find  my  own  official  services,  so  seldom 
made  the  subject  of  party  division,  or  even  of  personal  exception. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  not  sat  here  during  three  successive  winters 


286  REPLY  TO  A  VOTE  OF  THANKS. 

without  learning,  that  it  is  always  in  the  power  of  parties,  or 
even  of  individuals,  to  perplex  and  embarrass  a  presiding  officer 
in  the  performance  of  his  duties,  if  they  have  the  disposition  to 
do  so.  Let  him  be  ever  so  able,  by  frequent  appeals  from  his 
decisions  they  may  cast  a  doubt  upon  his  competency.  Let 
him  be  ever  so  scrupulous,  by  repeated  insinuations  and  impu- 
tations upon  his  motives,  they  may  raise  a  suspicion  as  to  his 
integrity.  Let  him  be  ever  so  prompt,  so  patient,  so  untiring, 
by  constantly  cavilling  at  his  course,  they  may  render  his  posi- 
tion painful  to  himself,  and  involve  his  administration  in  more 
or  less  of  popular  odium.  No  length  of  experience,  no  degree  of 
diligence,  no  measure  of  fidelity,  I  am  persuaded,  can  arm  a 
Speaker  effectually  against  the  persevering  assaults  of  personal 
malice  or  partisan  malignity.  While,  on  the  contrary,  in  order 
to  render  his  exertions,  in  any  considerable  degree,  successful  or 
satisfactory,  he  must  have  the  confidence  of  those  over  whom 
he  presides,  and  requires  a  constant  exercise  of  their  indulgence, 
forbearance,  and  generosity. 

It  is  to  such  an  exercise  of  generosity,  indulgence,  and  for- 
bearance on  your  part,  Gentlemen,  and  to  the  confidence  in  my 
official  fidelity  you  have  habitually  manifested,  that  I  feel  myself 
indebted  for  whatever  success  may  have  attended  my  efforts 
during  the  present  winter.  Those  efforts,  I  may  be  pardoned 
for  saying,  have  been  honest,  have  been  arduous,  have  been 
unremitted.  But  I  am  sensible  they  must  have  utterly  failed  of 
their  object,  had  they  not  been  seconded  and  sustained  by  your 
confidence  and  your  cooperation.  For  these,  then,  even  more 
than  for  the  complimentary  tribute  you  have  just  been  pleased 
to  pay  me,  I  desire  to  express  to  you  my  warmest  acknowledg- 
ments, and  to  tender  you  the  assurances  of  my  heartfelt  grati- 
tude. 

And  now,  Gentlemen,  I  cannot  resume  my  seat  without  con- 
gratulating you  on  the  comparatively  early  period  at  which 
we  have  succeeded  in  bringing  our  labors  to  a  close.  The 
session  of  1838,  the  first  in  which  I  had  the  honor  to  occupy  the 
Chair  of  the  House,  did  not  reach  its  termination,  as  some  of 
you  may  remember,  until  the  25th  day  of  April.  It  was,  of 
course,  considered  a  matter  for  general  felicitation  last  year,  that 


KEPLY   TO   A   VOTE   OF  THANKS.  287 

an  adjournment  was  effected  as  early  as  the  10th  day  of  the 
same  month.  But  we  have  now  the  satisfaction  of  having 
accomplished  a  far  greater  reduction  in  the  length  of  the  legis- 
lative term,  and  of  having  despatched  the  business  of  the  Com- 
monwealth in  a  shorter  time  than  any  of  our  predecessors  since 
the  June  session  was  abolished.  Sitting  here  as  we  do,  at  an 
expense  of  not  less  than  twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  dollars  a 
day,  all  the  departments  of  government  included,  it  is  no  insig- 
nificant affair,  in  an  economical  point  of  view,  if  in  no  other,  to 
cut  off  thirty  or  forty  days  from  the  duration  of  the  session. 
And  should  the  example  which  has  thus  been  given,  be  imitated 
and  improved  upon  for  a  few  years  to  come,  as  I  firmly  believe 
it  easily  may  be  without  any  detriment  to  the  public  interests, 
the  treasury  of  the  Commonwealth  will  soon  be  relieved  of  a 
large  part  of  the  burden  which  has  borne  on  it  most  oppressively 
for  many  years  past. 

Nor  is  it  only  to  an  abbreviation  of  the  session  that  we  may 
look  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  most  desirable  result.  If  the 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which  was  proposed  by  the  last 
Legislature  and  ratified  by  the  present  by  such  large  majorities 
in  both  branches,  should  be  adopted  by  the  people  on  the  first 
Monday  of  April  next,  as  I  heartily  hope  it  will  be,  the  number 
of  members  in  this  branch  of  the  Legislature,  as  you  are  all 
aware,  will  be  diminished  by  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty, 
and  the  daily  expenses  of  the  sessions  be  proportionably  reduced. 

But,  Gentlemen,  I  will  not  trespass  further  on  your  attention 
with  any  dry  economical  calculations,  nor  will  I  detain  you  with 
any  detailed  review  of  the  measures  in  which  we  have  been 
engaged.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  characteristic  of  the  session 
which  is  now  about  to  terminate,  has  been  the  almost  entire 
omission  of  any  thing  like  long  speeches,  and  I  will  not  now 
deviate  from  a  policy  which  has  proved  so  propitious  to  an  early 
completion  of  our  duties.  Let  me  only  say,  in  conclusion,  that 
if,  in  the  exercise  of  authority  and  the  enforcement  of  order,  I 
have  infringed  on  a  single  privilege  or  injured  a  single  feeling, 
I  sincerely  regret  it,  and  that  every  member  of  the  House  will 
carry  with  him,  when  we  part,  my  best  wishes  for  his  personal 
health  and  happiness.     May  that  God  who  has  guarded  you  all 


23 S  REPLY  TO  A  VOTE  OF  THANKS. 

here  —  preserving  you  from  the  pestilence  which  has  walked 
among  us  in  darkness,  and  the  sickness  that  has  destroyed  at 
noon-day,  and  to  whose  mercy  we  owe  it,  that  disease  and 
death  have  not  obeyed  the  summons  which  seems  almost  to 
have  been  served  upon  them  in  behalf  of  us  all,  through  the  me- 
dium of  this  thick  and  poisonous  air  which  we  have  been  daily 
inhaling — may  He  now  guide  you  in  safety  to  your  homes. 
May  each  one  of  you  enjoy  a  rich  portion  of  the  benefits  and 
blessings  of  those  free  institutions  which  you  have  been  called 
on  to  administer,  and  of  those  equal  laws  which  you  have  here 
assisted  in  enacting.  And  may  you  find  an  ample  reward  for 
the  exertions  you  have  made  and  the  services  you  have  rendered, 
in  the  approbation  of  your  constituents,  in  the  welfare  of  the 
whole  people,  and  in  the  long-continued  prosperity  anda  honor 
of  our  beloved  Commonwealth. 


THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNI- 
TED STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF  THE 
UNION,  JULY  2,  1841. 


I  have  no  design,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  trespassing  at  any  great 
length  on  the  time  of  the  Committee.  The  sin  of  making  a  long 
speech  is  one  which  I  have  never  yet  committed  in  this  hall,  and  I 
certainly  shall  not  suffer  myself  to  be  guilty  of  it  at  the  present 
session.  If  I  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  floor  immediately 
after  the  honorable  member  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Pickens) 
had  concluded,  and  before  he  had  left  the  House,  I  might  have 
indulged  in  some  comments  on  one  or  two  parts  of  his  speech. 
I  hardly  regret,  however,  that  I  failed  to  do  so,  as  it  is  quite 
too  warm  weather  to  follow  that  gentleman  far,  either  in  his 
gloomy  forebodings  or  his  eloquent  flights.  One  question  which 
he  has  propounded,  I  would  not,  under  any  circumstances,  have 
attempted  to  answer.  The  gentleman  asked,  emphatically, 
"  What  constitute  State  rights  ?  "  Sir,  the  true  rights  of  the 
States  are  not  difficult  to  be  ascertained,  and  are  the  same  yes- 
terday, to-day,  and  always.  But  "  State  rights,"  in  the  parti- 
san sense  of  the  term,  seem  to  me  to  be  one  thing  to-day, 
another  thing  to-morrow,  and  sometimes  nothing  at  all  the  next 
day.  At  any  rate,  I  have  never  met  with  a  definition  which 
could  stand  the  test  of  time  and  circumstances. 

It  is  not  to  be  disguised,  that,  at  first  sight  certainly,  there  are 
some  difficulties  about  adopting  the  measure  under  considera- 
tion, at  the  present  moment,  even  on  the  part  of  those  who, 
under  other  circumstances,  would  be  disposed  to  support  it. 
25 


290  TIIE   PROCEEDS   OF  THE   PUBLIC   LANDS. 

We  have  been  informed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that 
there  is  an  aggregate  of  debt  and  deficit  to  be  provided  for  in 
this  and  the  ensuing  year  of  more  than  twelve  millions  of  dol- 
lars. A  bill  has  already  been  reported,  authorizing  a  public  loan 
to  that  amount.  Another  bill  may  soon  be  expected  to  lay  new- 
duties  on  imports,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  this  debt  when  it 
shall  fall  due,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  of  supplying  the  defi- 
ciency in  the  annual  revenue.  These  bills  will  form  a  conspi- 
cuous part  of  the  legislation  of  the  present  session.  They  will 
occupy  a  prominent  place  on  the  statute  book  of  the  present 
Congress.  And  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  it  would  look  a  little 
strange  to  find  in  immediate  juxtaposition  with  them,  perhaps 
on  the  very  next  page,  a  bill  granting  away,  by  an  outright  and 
absolute  donation,  the  funds  which  are  already  on  hand,  or  those 
which  are  certain  to  come  into  our  possession,  during  such  a 
period  of  the  national  necessity. 

Yet,  strange  as  such  a  course  of  legislation  may  appear,  and 
much  as  I  foresee  it  will  be  harped  on,  for  the  purpose  of  excit- 
ing hostility  towards  those  who  may  have  assented  to  it,  I  intend 
to  give  it  my  vote.  I  am  desirous,  therefore,  of  vindicating  that 
vote,  as  well  as  I  can,  in  advance.  I  wish,  in  other  words,  in 
the  few  remarks  wTith  which  I  shall  trouble  the  Committee  this 
morning,  to  take  my  stand,  where  so  many  other  gentlemen  who 
have  opposed  the  bill  have  taken  theirs,  at  the  very  doors  of  the 
Treasury,  and  with  its  deplorable  condition  of  emptiness  and 
exhaustion  full  in  my  view,  —  a  condition,  let  me  say,  which  we 
Sir,  had  no  hand  in  creating,  —  to  justify,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  my 
assent  to  an  act,  by  which  we  shall  seem  to  be  literally  "  taking 
away  from  that  which  has  not,  even  that  which  it  has." 

For  the  purpose  of  this  justification,  it  seems  to  me  essential 
to  maintain,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  moneys  which  are  to  be 
distributed  by  this  bill  are  held  by  the  national  government  in 
some  different  right,  and  upon  some  different  conditions,  from 
those  which  we  are  about  to  collect.  In  other  words,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  establish  a  broad  and  clear  distinction,  so  far  as  the  con- 
stitutional powers  and  duties  of  Congress  are  concerned,  between 
the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  and  the  annual  receipts  from 
other  sources  of  revenue. 


THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  291 

For  one,  certainly,  I  could  never  give  my  support  to  this  bill, 
unless  I  were  convinced  that  such  a  distinction  exists.  I  could 
never  vote  to  tax  with  a  view  to  distribution.  If,  indeed,  such 
a  surplus  were  again  accumulated  in  the  Treasury  as  we  saw 
there  a  few  years  ago,  I  might  be  willing  to  get  rid  of  it  in  the 
best  way  I  could,  from  whatever  source  it  might  have  been  col- 
lected ;  but  to  impose  taxes  with  one  hand,  and  distribute  them 
with  the  other,  would,  in  my  judgment,  be  utterly  unjustifiable, 
as  well  as  grossly  unconstitutional. 

Does,  then,  such  a  distinction  exist  ?  Do  the  proceeds  of  the 
public  lands  come  into  the  Treasury  under  such  different  circum- 
stances from  its  ordinary  receipts,  as  to  constitute  in  some  sort 
a  special  fund  ? 

Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  say,  no.  They  maintain  that 
when  the  lands  have  once  been  turned  into  moneys,  and  those 
moneys  have  been  placed  in  the  Treasury,  they  are  in  no  degree 
distinguishable  from  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  country. 
And  so  entirely  do  they  confound  the  two  classes  of  receipts,  as 
to  tell  us  that,  if  Congress  should  pass  this  distribution  bill,  all 
the  salutary  safeguards  thrown  around  the  taxing  power  by  our 
fathers  would  be  broken  down !  This  was  the  language  of  the 
honorable  member  from  Maine,  (Mr.  Clifford.) 

Now,  what  under  the  sun  have  the  proceeds  of  the  public 
lands  to  do  with  the  taxing  power  ?  Is  it  a  tax,  to  give  a  man 
an  acre  of  the  best  land  on  the  face  of  the  earth  for  a  dollar  and 
a  quarter,  and  that  at  his  own  particular  demand  ?  If  it  be,  Sir, 
it  is  a  tax  which  the  people  of  this  country  may  well  be  content 
to  bear.  Commend  me  to  such  taxes.  I  desire  no  safeguards 
against  them.  I  am  willing  to  submit  to  such  taxation  as  this, 
even  without  representation. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  most  cursory  examina- 
tion of  the  Constitution  is  sufficient  to  show  that  there  is  no 
analogy  whatever  between  these  different  classes  of  revenue. 
The  power  to  lay  taxes  is  a  power,  as  we  all  know,  created  by 
the  Constitution  itself.  No  such  power  existed  before  the  Con- 
stitution was  established.  And  the  exercise  of  the  power  is 
limited  by  the  express  letter  of  the  Constitution  to  certain  spe- 
cified purposes. 


292  THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

"  The  Congress  shall  have  power  (says  the  Constitution)  to  lay 
and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts  and  excises,  to  pay  the  debts 
and  provide  for  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare  of  the 
United  States;" — language,  certainly,  pretty  broad  and  compre- 
hensive in  itself,  but  which  has  received  a  construction  limiting 
it  to  the  objects  for  which  Congress,  in  other  parts  of  the  Con- 
stitution, is  empowered  to  provide. 

But  how  is  it  as  to  the  public  lands  ?  The  power  of  Congress 
over  those  lands  was  not  originally  created  by  the  Constitution. 
A  large  portion  of  those  lands  was  ceded  to  the  General  Govern- 
ment prior  to  the  adoption  of  that  instrument.  Another  portion 
was  ceded  soon  after  its  adoption.  And  a  third  and  fourth  por- 
tion were  purchased  at  subsequent  and  separate  periods.  The 
Constitution  was  framed  with  little  or  no  reference  to  the  lands. 
In  the  original  draft  of  that  instrument,  there  was  not  a  line,  or 
a  word,  or  a  syllable,  in  allusion  to  them.  And  the  only  provi- 
sion which  was  afterwards  inserted  by  the  Convention,  or  which 
can  be  found  in  relation  to  them  now,  is  as  follows,  — 

"  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regu- 
lations respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  belonging  to  the  United  States ;  and 
nothing  in  this  Constitution  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  prejudice  any  claims  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  any  particular  State." 

And  now,  what  is  there,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  this  provision  which 
makes  it  incumbent  on  Congress  to  appropriate  the  proceeds  of 
these  lands  to  one  purpose  rather  than  to  another  ?  What  lan- 
guage is  there  in  this  clause,  or  what  construction  of  any  lan- 
guage, which  gives  us  the  authority  to  place  them  in  the  Treasury 
for  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  government,  which  does  not 
equally  give  us  the  authority  to  distribute  them  among  the 
States  ?  Where  do  we  get  the  power  to  dispose  of  the  proceeds 
at  all,  except  as  a  necessary  implication  from  the  power  to  dis- 
pose of  the  lands  ?  Sir,  I  put  to  the  Committee  this  dilemma,  — 
if  the  power  to  dispose  of  the  lands  does  not  carry  with  it  the 
power  to  dispose  of  the  proceeds,  we  have  no  such  power ;  and 
if  it  does,  then  the  latter  power  is  coequal  and  coextensive  with 
the  former.  And  is  there  any  one  who  sets  limits  to  the  power 
of  disposing  of  the  lands  ?     It  is  too  late  to  do  so.     We  have 


THE  PROCEEDS  OP  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  293 

already  appropriated  them  to  almost  every  object  that  can  be 
named,  —  to  education,  to  internal  improvements,  to  charity,  to 
the  use  of  individuals,  of  corporations,  and  of  States. 

And  there  is  as  little,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  the  reason  of  the  thing 
as  there  is  in  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  for  limiting  the 
disposition  of  the  moneys  received  from  the  sales  of  the  public 
lands.  The  people  may  well  be  jealous  of  intrusting  even  their 
own  representatives  with  the  power  of  taxing  them  for  every 
purpose  at  their  pleasure.  But,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  sales 
of  the  public  lands  involve  no  taxation  ;  they  impose  no  burdens 
upon  anybody.  In  regard  to  them,  therefore,  the  people  are  en- 
tirely safe  in  giving  us  the  full  latitude  of  a  sound  and  reason- 
able discretion.    And  such  a  discretion,  I  hold,  they  have  given  us. 

But  gentlemen  tell  us  that  inasmuch  as  the  distribution  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  public  lands  will  involve  the  necessity  of  laying 
additional  taxes  on  imports,  it  amounts  to  the  same  thing  as 
distributing  the  receipts  from  taxation.  Why,  Sir,  the  same 
reasoning  might  almost  as  well  be  adduced  against  appropriating 
the  Smithsonian  fund  to  the  object  for  which  it  was  designed. 
That  fund,  if  applied  to  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  go- 
vernment, would  save  the  necessity  of  raising  an  equal  amount 
by  taxation.  And  its  appropriation  to  the  diffusion  of  useful 
knowledge  among  mankind,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  be- 
quest, might,  with  almost  as  much  justice,  be  complained  of  as 
involving  the  necessity  of  imposing  additional  burdens  on  the 
people,  as  the  distribution  for  which  this  bill  provides ;  if,  as  I 
maintain,  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  constitute  a  separate 
fund  in  the  Treasury,  entirely  distinguishable  from  the  ordinary 
revenues  of  the  country. 

Again,  Sir,  it  has  been  suggested  that,  upon  this  principle,  the 
national  government  might  do  to  almost  any  extent  indirectly, 
that  which  it  is  admitted  they  have  no  power  to  do  directly. 
They  might  tax  the  people,  we  are  told,  to  almost  any  amount 
for  the  purchase  of  new  lands,  and  then  go  on  to  sell  them  forth- 
with and  distribute  the  proceeds.  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  Mr. 
Chairman,  in  the  first  place,  that  such  an  abuse  would  have  its 
origin  in  the  power  to  purchase,  and  not  in  the  power  to  distri- 
bute.    And  the  power  to  purchase  new  territory,  we  all  know, 

25* 


294  THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

is  one  of  very  questionable  constitutionality.  The  honorable 
member  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Ingersoll)  the  other  day  alluded 
to  my  respected  colleague  in  front  of  me,  (Mr.  Adams,)  as  hav- 
ing denied  the  constitutionality  of  the  Louisiana  purchase. 
My  colleague  was  not  alone  in  that  denial.  Mr.  Jefferson  him- 
self, in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Breckenridge,  written  at  the  time,  expressly 
declared  that  the  Executive,  in  making  that  purchase,  "  had  done 
an  act  beyond  the  Constitution." 

But  even  were  it  not  so,  —  even  were  the  power  of  purchasing 
territory  entirely  indisputable  and  unlimited,  what  would  this 
suggestion  amount  to,  but  to  one  of  those  arguments  against 
the  use  or  existence  of  a  power  from  its  liability  to  abuse,  which 
may  be  brought  alike  against  any  and  every  branch  of  authority 
which  the  Constitution  bestows?  Sir,  if  such  arguments  are 
to  have  weight,  we  must  revoke  all  authority,  renounce  all 
government,  abandon  all  society.  Every  power  may  be  abused, 
and  the  only  check  or  safeguard  we  can  have  is  in  the  responsi- 
bility of  those  to  whom  power  is  intrusted. 

I  hold,  therefore,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  there  is  a  plain  and  pal- 
pable distinction  between  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  and 
the  other  receipts  into  the  Treasury  of  the  nation,  and  that  while 
the  latter  are  limited  to  certain  specified  objects  of  appropriation, 
the  former  are  placed  freely,  so  far  at  least  as  the  Constitution  is 
concerned,  at  the  discretion  of  Congress,  —  a  discretion  only 
controlled  by  the  responsibility  of  those  who  exercise  it  to  the 
people  who  elected  them. 

And,  indeed,  this  doctrine  has  too  often  been  admitted,  as- 
serted, and  acted  upon,  even  by  those  who  have  been  the  most 
strenuous  opponents  of  this  measure  of  distribution,  to  require 
any  more  extended  illustration.  It  was  expressly  asserted  by 
General  Jackson,  as  long  ago  as  1832.  In  his  Annual  Message 
of  that  year,  he  says,  — 

"As  the  lands  may  now  be  considered  as  relieved  from  this  pledge  (the  payment  of 
the  public  debt,)  the  object  for  which  they  were  ceded  having  been  accomplished,  it  is 
in  the  discretion  of  Congress  to  dispose  of  them  in  such  way  as  best  to  conduce  to  the 
quiet,  harmony,  and  general  interest  of  the  American  people." 

The  same  doctrine  has  been  admitted,  or  certainly  implied, 


THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.         295 

by  all  the  friends  of  cession,  as  it  is  called,  whether  absolute  or 
conditional,  from  that  day  to  this.  For  on  what  principle  could 
Congress  cede  away  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  lands  them- 
selves, which  does  not  imply  a  high  and  plenary  discretion  on 
their  part  to  dispose  of  the  proceeds  also  ? 

I  turn,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  from  this  first  point  in  my  argu- 
ment, to  inquire  what  considerations  should  influence  us  in  the 
exercise  of  this  discretion,  and,  more  especially,  what  consider- 
ations will  justify  us  in  the  particular  exercise  of  it  which  is  now 
proposed. 

And,  first,  I  maintain  that  Congress  is  not  bound  in  such  a 
case  to  look  altogether  to  the  necessities  of  the  National  Trea- 
sury. This  would  be  to  destroy  the  whole  effect  of  the  distinc- 
tion just  established,  and  practically  to  place  the  proceeds  of  the 
public  lands  on  the  same  footing  with  any  other  description  of 
income.  "We  may  take  a  larger  and  more  liberal  view  of  things. 
We  may  look,  and  we  ought  to  look,  to  considerations  of  equity, 
to  considerations  of  expediency,  to  considerations  commensurate 
with  the  whole  country,  or,  as  General  Jackson  said,  with  "  the 
quiet,  harmony,  and  general  interest  of  the  American  people." 

Why,  Sir,  even  in  relation  to  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the 
country,  the  wants  of  the  government  are  not  always  exclusively 
regarded.  What  would  be  the  conduct  of  Congress  at  the  pre- 
sent session  in  relation  to  w^hat  is  called  the  compromise  act,  if 
the  necessities  of  the  nation  were  to  be  the  only  rule  of  action  ? 
Under  the  provisions  of  that  act,  five  millions  of  dollars  are  to 
be  withdrawn  from  the  annual  revenues  of  the  country,  at  a 
moment  when,  as  I  have  said,  there  is  already  a  debt  and  defi- 
ciency of  twelve  millions.  We  are  about  to  give  a  silent  assent, 
by  leaving  that  act  in  operation  and  laying  new  duties  at  the 
same  time,  to  a  course  of  proceeding  by  no  means  remotely 
analogous,  and  to  my  mind,  quite  as  objectionable,  abstractly 
considered,  as  that  now  under  discussion.  We  are  about  to 
remit  duties  with  one  hand,  while  we  collect  them  with  the  other. 
Upon  what  principle  will  this  be  done  ?  Why,  upon  the  princi- 
ple of  a  previous  compact,  an  existing  understanding,  or  a  high 
and  eminent  expediency.  For  myself,  I  take  leave  to  say,  I 
admit  no  compact.     Those  whom  I  have  the  honor  to  represent 


296         THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

were  not  parties  to  any  compact.  Nor  can  I  regard  it  as  emi- 
nently expedient,  either,  to  pursue  such  a  course.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  am  disposed  to  think  that,  as  an  abstract  question  of 
policy  and  statesmanship,  the  best  way  of  supplying  the  exist- 
ing deficiency  in  the  Treasury  would  be  to  suspend  the  operation 
of  the  compromise  act,  and  lay  duties  on  a  few  only  of  the 
leading  articles  of  import,  instead  of  deranging  the  operations 
of  the  whole  business  community  by  a  sudden  imposition  of 
twenty  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  every  article  of  commerce  which 
is  now  free,  and  that  as  a  temporary  expedient.  But  this  I  well 
know  is  out  of  the  question.  I  allude  to  the  subject  only  for 
illustration.  The  act  will  be  carried  out.  Duties  to  the  amount 
of  five  millions  will  be  taken  off,  and  new  duties  to  the  amount 
of  twelve  millions  will  be  imposed.  And  this  will  be  done,  as 
I  have  said,  on  some  grounds  of  compact,  understanding,  or 
expediency. 

"Well,  Sir,  and  are  there  no  such  grounds  for  the  measure  we 
are  now  discussing  ?  Is  there  no  compact  in  the  case,  no  expedi- 
ency, no  equity  ? 

I  will  not  go  into  an  elaborate  history  of  the  public  lands  of 
the  United  States  to  show  my  understanding  of  the  terms  on 
which  the  original  cession  of  a  large  portion  of  them  was  made 
by  the  States.  That  history  is  familiar  to  the  House  and  to  the 
country.  Those  terms  have  been  argued  again  and  again,  not 
only  in  these  halls,  but  in  the  halls  of  every  Legislature  through- 
oat  the  country.  I  shall  content  myself  with  saying  in  the  most 
general  terms,  on  this  head,  that,  while  I  cannot  go  the  length 
of  declaring,  that  the  appropriation  of  the  proceeds  of  the  pub- 
lic lands  to  the  ordinary  purposes  of  government  would  be  an 
absolute  violation  of  the  compact,  I  have  yet  no  hesitation  in 
affirming  that,  in  my  humble  judgment,  a  distribution  of  those 
proceeds  among  the  States  would  be  far  more  in  accordance 
both  with  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  that  compact. 

I  am  willing  to  admit,  however,  that,  as  to  the  intention  and 
contemplation  of  the  States  at  the  time  these  cessions  were 
made,  I  think  very  little  can  be  safely  or  certainly  argued.  The 
contemplation  of  the  States  could  not  have  reached  to  a  day 
like  this.    High  as  were  the  hopes,  sanguine  as  were  the  expecta- 


THE   PROCEEDS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   LANDS.  297 

tions,  of  our  fathers  at  that  time,  as  to  the  glorious  results  of  the 
liberty  they  had  achieved  and  the  institutions  they  had  esta- 
blished, it  never  could  have  entered  into  their  hearts  to  conceive 
of  a  condition  of  the  country,  in  which  the  public  debt  being 
all  paid  off,  such  countless  acres  of  territory  should  remain  as 
the  rich  and  unencumbered  inheritance  of  their  children.  These 
cessions  certainly  were  made  with  no  regard  to  such  a  state  of 
things.  They  were  made  with  a  view  to  the  present,  and  not 
to  the  future.  They  were  made  to  allay  the  jealousies  and  settle 
the  contentions  to  which  the  exclusive  claims  of  certain  separate 
States  had  given  rise,  and  to  defray  the  expenses  which  their 
common  independence  had  cost. 

The  argument  in  favor  of  this  measure,  from  the  terms  of 
cession,  however,  covers  only  the  lands  which  were  ceded.  I  am 
aware  it  is  sometimes  contended  that  the  lands  subsequently 
purchased  may  be  considered  as  having  been  purchased  with 
the  proceeds  of  those  ceded,  and  may  thus  be  made  subject  to 
the  same  principle  of  disposition.  But  I  prefer,  for  myself,  to 
rely  on  considerations  which  are  directly  and  equally  applicable 
to  the  whole  domain. 

I  come,  then,  to  some  explanation  of  those  considerations  of 
eminent  expediency,  which  in  my  judgment,  should  induce  us 
to  exercise  the  discretionary  authority  we  unquestionably  possess 
over  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  in  the  manner  pointed  out 
by  the  bill ;  —  namely,  by  distributing  them  among  the  States, 
instead  of  retaining  them  to  eke  out  the  scanty  contents  of  our 
own  Treasury. 

And  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  find 
these  considerations  exclusively  in  the  situation  of  some  of  the 
States  of  this  Union.  There  is  no  feature  in  the  condition  of 
the  country,  lamentable  as  that  condition  is  in  so  many  respects, 
which  is  calculated  to  excite  such  serious  apprehension  for  its 
prosperity  and  its  honor,  as  the  deep  indebtedness  of  so  many  of 
the  States.  Sir,  we  may  not  assume  their  debts,  directly  or 
indirectly.  We  have  no  constitutional  power  to  do  so.  But 
we  may  do  something,  and  by  this  bill  we  should  do  something, 
to  aid,  encourage,  and  sustain  them  in  their  efforts  to  relieve 
themselves.     And  whatever  we  can  do  constitutionally,  we  are 


298  TIIE  PROCEEDS   OP  THE  PUBLIC   LANDS. 

bound  to  do  by  every  consideration  of  expediency  and  of  equity, 
of  interest  and  of  honor. 

Who  is  there  that  desires,  or  is  willing  if  he  can  help  it,  to 
see  the  sovereign  States  of  this  Union,  or  any  number  of  them, 
dishonored  before  the  world,  their  character  lost,  their  credit 
ruined,  their  faith  a  by-word  among  the  nations?  If  there  be 
any  such  man  here  or  elsewhere,  he  is  no  true  friend  to  his 
country's  honor.  For,  Sir,  the  honor  of  each  individual  State  in 
this  Union  is  bound  up  in  the  same  bundle  of  life  with  that  of 
every  other,  and  they  constitute  together  the  honor  of  the  nation. 
It  is  in  vain  to  say  that,  if  we  can  only  pay  our  own  way,  and 
keep  our  own  head  above  water,  our  character  is  safe.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  are  one  people.  They  rule  alike,  in 
State  and  in  nation.  They  cannot  keep  their  faith  and  break 
their  faith.  They  cannot  maintain  two  characters,  nor  can  a 
stain  upon  the  character  of  any  portion  of  them  fail  to  cast  a 
reflected  stain  upon  the  character  of  all  the  rest. 

Doubtless,  the  conduct  of  many  of  the  States  has  been  rash 
and  reckless  in  incurring  so  great  liabilities.  But  who  stimulated 
that  rashness  ?  who  spurred  on  that  recklessness  ?  It  is  not  my 
desire  to  mingle  party  criminations  in  this  debate,  but  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  it  is  the  duty  of  those  who  are  now  in  power 
to  remember,  in  this  connection,  that  these  wild  investments  of 
State  credit  in  banks  and  internal  improvements  were  among 
the  most  direct  and  undoubted  consequences  of  that  mad  spirit 
of  speculation  which  the  wanton  experiments  of  our  predecessors 
originally  engendered,  —  a  spirit  whose  ravages  upon  the  pros- 
perity and  welfare  of  the  country  it  is  our  high  and  special  com- 
mission from  the  people  to  repair. 

But  there  is  another  consideration  connected  with  the  origin 
of  these  debts  which  we  ought  even  less  to  lose  sight  of.  By 
far  the  greater  part  of  the  liabilities  under  which  so  many  of  the 
States  are  now  oppressed,  were  incurred  for  a  national  object. 
Let  not  gentlemen  start  when  I  pronounce  internal  improve- 
ments a  national  object.  I  am  not  going  to  argue  the  constitu- 
tionality or  expediency  of  undertaking  such  works  by  national 
authority.  What  I  mean  to  say,  and  all  I  mean  to  say,  is,  that 
they  exert  a  most  powerful  and  momentous  influence  on  the  na- 


THE  PROCEEDS  OP  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  299 

tional  prosperity  and  the  national  permanency.  What  is  there 
so  eminently  calculated  to  bind  together  this  blessed  Union  of 
ours  in  the  bonds  of  mutual  friendship  and  mutual  interest,  mu- 
tual confidence  and  kindness,  as  the  railroad  system  ?  How  does 
it  enable  us  to  laugh  to  scorn  the  prophecies  of  dissolution  and 
separation,  which  are  so  often  founded  on  our  extent  of  territory  ? 
"What  capacities,  of  almost  indefinite  reach,  has  it  not  given  to 
our  republican  machinery  ?  What  new  elements  of  democracy 
has  it  not  introduced  into  the  action  of  that  machinery  ?  James 
Madison,  in  the  Federalist,  pronounced  the  necessary  limits  of 
a  democracy  to  be  those  within  which  the  whole  people  could 
meet  together  conveniently  to  consult  on  their  own  affairs,  —  and 
the  necessary  limits  of  a  republic,  those  within  which  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  could  assemble,  as  often  as  it  was  need- 
ful, to  attend  to  the  business  of  their  constitutents.  Sir,  railroads 
are  to  distance,  what  representation  is  to  numbers.  From  what 
corner  of  the  continent  of  North  America  might  not  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  easily  and  often  come  together  by  the 
agency  of  this  railroad  system?  Nay,  has  not  the  same  mira- 
culous agency  exhibited  the  people  themselves,  during  the  last 
year,  taking  their  own  business  into  their  own  hands,  and  com- 
ing together  from  places  hundreds,  and  I  had  almost  said  thou- 
sands, of  miles  apart,  to  consult  on  their  common  fortunes  ? 

Our  fathers,  Mr.  Chairman,  without  distinction  of  party,  con- 
sidered internal  improvements,  even  before  railroads  were  known, 
as  national  objects.  They  differed  as  to  the  constitutional  power 
of  constructing  them.  But  even  those  who  maintained  that 
such  a  power  did  not  exist,  were  of  opinion  that  it  ought  to 
exist.  Hear  what  Thomas  Jefferson  himself  said  on  this  subject, 
in  his  last  message  of  his  last  term,  when  he  was  parting  from 
public  life  forever,  and  had  no  longer  any  ambitious  objects  to 
subserve, —  a  passage  to  which  I  beg  the  attention  of  the  Com- 
mittee, as  proving  not  only  that  Jefferson  was  in  favor  of  inter- 
nal improvements  at  that  period  of  his  life,  but  of  accumulat- 
ing even  a  surplus  revenue  to  pay  for  them  : 

"  The  probable  accumulation  of  the  surpluses  of  revenue  beyond  what  can  be 
applied  to  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,  whenever  the  freedom  and  safety  of  our 
commerce  shall  be  restored,  merits  the  consideration  of  Congress.     Shall  it  lie  unpro- 


300  THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

ductive  in  the  public  vaults  I  Shall  the  revenue  be  reduced  ?  Or,  shall  it  not  rather 
be  appropriated  to  the  improvement  of  roads,  canals,  rivers,  education,  and  other 
great  foundations  of  prosperity  and  union,  under  the  powers  which  Congress  may 
already  possess,  or  such  amendment  of  the  Constitution  as  may  be  approved  by  the 
States  ? " 

This  was  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1808.  He  may- 
have  changed  his  opinions  at  a  later  day,  but  these  were  the 
opinions  which  he  expressed  in  his  last  official  declaration  to  the 
country.  The  same  sentiments  may  be  found  even  more  fully- 
developed  in  one  of  his  previous  messages.  The  same  senti- 
ments were  more  than  once  expressed  by  Mr.  Monroe.  And 
we  all  know  what  were  the  opinions  of  my  honored  colleague 
in  front  of  me  (Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams.)  Had  his  views  been  sus- 
tained by  the  country,  it  may  be  safely  said  that  the  States 
would  have  had  far  less  occasion  to  involve  themselves  in  debt 
for  works  of  this  sort.  But,  Sir,  the  day  for  any  regret  on  that 
score  is  past.  I  only  desired  to  remind  the  Committee  that  it 
was  mainly  for  these  objects  of  internal  improvement,  —  thus 
by  the  united  testimony  of  our  fathers,  and  thus  tenfold  more 
by  our  own  experience  of  agencies  invented  since  they  went 
down  to  their  graves,  objects  of  national  concern,  —  that  it  was 
for  these  that  the  great  burden  of  State  liabilities  had  been 
contracted.  Unquestionably  the  States  have  prosecuted  these 
works  too  extensively.  Unquestionably  many  of  the  works  they 
have  constructed  are  greatly  in  advance  of  the  public  wants. 
Led  away,  in  part,  by  the  seductive  influence  of  government 
experiments,  they  were  hurried  along  still  more  by  the  admira- 
tion and  excitement  which  the  extraordinary  inventions  of  our 
day  could  not  but  occasion.  They  caught  something  of  the 
impetus  of  the  marvellous  enginery  they  were  constructing. 
They  did  not  learn  soon  enough  the  use  of  the  brakes,  or  were 
too  much  excited  to  hold  them  hard  enough  down ;  and  they 
have  thus  been  borne  along  to  the  very  brink  of  their  own  ruin. 
But  it  was  in  a  noble  cause,  and  one  which,  though  it  has 
involved  them  in  embarrassments,  has  contributed  incalculably 
to  the  prosperity  and  permanency  of  the  Union. 

And  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  must  be  allowed  to  allude  to  an 
imputation  upon  the  Northern  and  Eastern  members  of  this 


THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.         301 

House,  which  fell  originally,  I  think,  from  the  honorable  member 
from  Maine,  (Mr.  Clifford,)  but  which  was  repeated  by  the  honor- 
able member  from  Georgia,  (Mr.  Alford.)     It  was  this,  —  that 
we  were  in  favor  of  the  measure  on  your  table  only  as  the  basis, 
or  entering  wedge,  I  believe  it  was  called,  of  a  protective  tariff. 
The  same  charge  was  made  against  us  a  day  or  two  ago  from 
another  quarter,  when  we  voted  for  the  paltry  sum  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  for  the  relief  of  the  widow  of  the  lamented 
Harrison.     There  was  something  more  of  absurdity  in  the  latter 
charge  than  in  the  former,  but  there  was  no  more  of  injustice. 
Sir,  I  shall  never  disclaim  the  character  of  being  a  friend  to  the 
American  System,  nor  ever  fail  to  give  my  vote  or  voice  in  its 
behalf,  whenever  an  opportunity  occurs.     But  I  spurn  the  impu- 
tation that  any  opinions  on  this  subject  are  the  source  of  my 
support  to  the  present  bill.     It  would  be  easy,  if  I  were  disposed 
to  indulge  in  retorts  or  recriminations,  to  charge  upon  gentle- 
men who  oppose  this  bill,  that  the  principles  on  which  they  con- 
demn it  are  only  the  cover  for  their  hostility  to  every  thing  like 
a  custom-house  duty.     But  I  will  make  no  charges  of  any  sort. 
It  is  enough  for  me  to  deny  for  myself  and  my  northern  col- 
leagues, that  there  is  any  thing  selfish  or  sectional  in  our  support 
of  this  measure.     Sir,  if  there  be  any  thing  sectional,  it  is  not 
our  own  section  that  we  regard  in  this  matter.    It  is  for  Georgia 
we  feel,  if  she  has  contracted  any  debts  which  she  finds  it  diffi- 
cult to  discharge.     It  is  for  Mississippi,  and  Alabama,  and  Illi- 
nois, and  Indiana,  and  Ohio,  and  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania- 
As   for   New  England,  there   are   but  five   millions  of    State 
debts  among  all  six  of  her  States,  and  four  millions  and  a  half 
of  those  are  the  debts  of  Massachusetts.     And  let  me  assure  the 
House  I  do  not  plead  for  Massachusetts  in  this  business.     She 
would  not  thank  me  for  asking  aid  from  any  quarter  in  redeem- 
ing her  liabilities.     Her  stock  has,  from  the  beginning,  stood 
second  to  none  on  the  foreign  Exchange,  and  second  to  none  it 
will  stand  to  the  end.     The  character  of  her  roads  is  an  ample 
guaranty  of  her  bonds.   But  her  credit  rests  on  something  higher 
than  the  profits  of  her  travel  or  the  income  of  her  treasury.     The 
industry  of  her  people  is  the  indorser  of  her  paper ;  —  an  indus- 
try, the  manufacturing  branch  of  which  alone  has  been  proved 
26 


302  THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

to  yield  a  product  of  almost  ninety  millions  of  dollars  in  a  sin- 
gle year,  and  which  would  be  ready,  I  will  warrant,  to  respond 
in  the  full  amount  of  its  hard  but  honest  earnings,  rather  than  the 
credit  of  the  Commonwealth  should  be  called  in  question  for  a 
moment. 

It  is  no  mere  figure  of  speech,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  say  that  the 
industry  of  the  population  of  Massachusetts  is  the  indorser  of 
her  bonds.  I  remember  well  to  have  heard  my  honored  friend, 
the  Secretary  of  State,  say,  on  some  public  occasion,  that,  hap- 
pening to  show  to  an  English  gentleman  of  fortune,  during  his 
late  visit  to  the  mother  country,  a  copy  of  the  statistical  tables 
which  exhibited  the  enormous  annual  product  of  Massachusetts 
labor,  the  inquiry  was  instantly  made  —  has  she  any  stock  in 
the  market?  —  which,  being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  was 
forthwith  followed  by  an  investment  in  her  stock  of  some  fifty 
or  sixty  thousand  dollars,  or,  it  may  have  been,  pounds. 

Indeed,  Sir,  I  may  say,  not  only  as  to  this,  but  as  to  all  the 
other  great  measures  of  reform  which  are  proposed  for  our  con- 
sideration at  the  present  session,  that  no  part  of  the  country  is 
more  independent  than  New  England,  and  no  State  more  so 
than  Massachusetts.  Whether  you  look  to  the  Distribution  Act, 
or  the  Bank  Act,  or  the  Bankrupt  Act,  which  constitute,  per- 
haps, the  trinoda  necessitas  of  the  times,  Massachusetts  can  af- 
ford to  be  as  indifferent  as  any  State  in  the  Union.  She  needs 
no  proceeds  of  land  sales  to  prop  her  credit.  She  needs  no  Na- 
tional Bank  to  render  her  own  currency  sound  and  uniform. 
"While,  as  to  the  bankrupt  law,  her  main  interest  in  that,  is  the 
interest  of  a  creditor,  anxious  that  her  debtors  in  the  South  and 
West  should  have  a  chance  to  wipe  off  their  old  scores  even  at 
great  loss  to  herself,  in  order  that  they  may  once  more  resume 
their  relations  as  customers,  and  give  her  an  opportunity  to  trade 
with  them  and  trust  them  again. 

And  even  as  to  the  tariff  itself,  I  am  inclined  to  think  she  can 
hold  out  without  murmuring,  under  a  reduction  of  duties,  at 
least  as  long  as  the  iron  workers  of  Pennsylvania,  or  the  wheat 
growers  of  New  York,  or  the  tobacco  planters  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland.  Nor  does  she  desire,  as  I  believe,  the  adoption  of 
any  measure  on  the  subject,  but  such  as  may  seem  necessary,  in 


THE  PROCEEDS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.         303 

a  broad,  comprehensive,  national  view,  and  after  a  due  investi- 
gation of  the  facts,  to  protect  the  common  interests  of  all 
branches  of  American  industry,  against  the  unequal  competi- 
tion of  foreign  labor,  or  the  injurious  influence  of  foreign  legis- 
lation. 

But  there  are  other  States  in  the  Union  with  far  heavier  loads 
upon  their  backs,  and,  perhaps,  a  good  deal  less  able  to  bear 
them.  And  though  this  bill  may  not  give  them  all  they  require, 
it  will  afford  them  unquestionably  a  most  welcome  relief.  As 
was  justly  remarked  by  the  President,  in  his  late  message, 
"  with  States  laboring  under  no  extreme  pressure  from  debt, 
the  fund  which  they  would  derive  from  this  source  would 
enable  them  to  improve  their  condition  in  an  eminent  degree." 
"  With  the  debtor  States,  it  would  effect  relief  to  a  great  extent 
of  the  citizens  from  a  heavy  burden  of  direct  taxation  which 
presses  with  severity  on  the  laboring  classes,  and  eminently 
assist  in  restoring  the  general  prosperity.  An  immediate  ad- 
vance would  take  place  in  the  price  of  the  State  securities,  and 
the  attitude  of  the  States  would  become  once  more,  as  it  ever 
should  be,  lofty  and  erect." 

And  now  let  me  protest  once  more  against  being  charged  with 
advocating  either  a  direct  or  indirect  assumption  of  the  State 
debts.  And  in  aid  of  that  protest,  let  me  summon  up  a  single 
fact  from  the  most  familiar  history  of  the  past.  I  mean  the  fact 
that  this  same  measure  of  distribution  was  not  only  proposed,  but 
passed  by  a  majority  of  both  branches  of  Congress,  before  one 
dollar  of  State  debt  was  contracted.  General  Jackson's  veto  ar- 
rested it.  There  can  be  no  pretence,  then,  that  this  measure  was 
devised  with  any  reference  to  State  debts.  The  most  that  can  be 
said  is,  —  and  that  I  fearlessly  avow, — that  we  are  impelled  by 
the  existence  and  pressure  of  those  debts,  to  make  another  and 
a  stronger  effort  to  carry  through  and  consummate  a  scheme, 
which  we  had  long  before  approved  and  advocated. 

Mr.  Chairman,  these  are  the  views,  briefly  and  imperfectly  ex- 
pressed, which,  in  my  own  mind,  outweigh  all  considerations  of 
the  necessities  of  our  own  Treasury,  and  compel  me  to  vote  for 
this  bill.  The  necessities  of  the  Treasury  can  be  supplied  from 
other  sources.     The  nation  is  not  yet  in  such  a  beggarly  condi- 


304  THE   PROCEEDS   OF   TIIE   PUBLIC   LANDS. 

tion  as  gentlemen  would  have  us  think.  True,  Sir,  the  revenues 
of  the  country  have  been  most  extravagantly  and  wastefully 
dealt  with,  for  some  years  past.  Our  cash  on  hand  has  all  been 
expended,  and  our  credit  largely  drawn  upon.  But  we  have 
inexhaustible  resources  still  left,  and  a  generous  and  patriotic 
people  to  sustain  us  in  putting  them  in  requisition.  It  will  be 
time  enough  to  discuss  this  question,  however,  when  the  Revenue 
Bill  comes  up.  I  will  only  say  now,  in  reply  to  calculations  and 
estimates  which  have  been  made  on  the  other  side,  that,  —  from 
the  best  information  I  can  obtain,  from  those  accustomed  to  ex- 
amine into  such  matters  in  the  mercantile  community  which  I 
have  the  honor  to  represent,  —  an  additional  revenue  of  many 
millions  of  dollars  might  be  raised  by  a  twenty  per  cent,  ad  valo- 
rem duty  on  a  home  valuation  of  three  articles  only,  which  are 
now  on  the  free  list,  —  I  mean  silks,  stuff-goods,  and  linens. 

One  idea  more,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  I  will  conclude.  Sir,  I 
maintain  that  this,  after  all,  is  not  a  question  between  distribut- 
ing the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  among  the  States,  and  re- 
taining them  honestly  and  permanently  in  the  Treasury.  Gen- 
tlemen hold  up  to  the  House  and  to  the  country  a  false  issue  in 
presenting  the  question  in  that  form.  Have  they  forgotten  that 
there  is  such  a  word  as  cession  in  the  dictionary,  or,  as  my  col- 
league in  front  of  me  said  the  other  day,  on  another  subject,  are 
their  "  lips  forbid  to  name  that  once  familiar  word  ?  "  I  do  not 
mean  s-e-s-session.  We  have  heard  enough  about  extra  sessions, 
and  extraordinary  sessions,  and  the  extraordinary  doings  of  extra- 
ordinary sessions.  Honorable  members  all  round  the  House 
have  rung  these  changes  to  our  heart's  content.  I  mean  c-e-s- 
cession.  Have  gentlemen  forgotten  that  General  Jackson  him- 
self proposed  in  his  first  message  to  Congress,  that  "  the  public 
lands  should  cease  as  soon  as  practicable  to  be  a  source  of  reve- 
nue," and  that  the  proposition  was  approved  and  sustained  by 
the  great  mass  of  his  friends  and  followers  ?  Have  they  forgot- 
ten that  a  plan  for  ceding  the  lands  to  the  States  in  which  they 
lie,  —  a  measure  which,  if  commenced  in  favor  of  the  existing 
States,  must  in  all  equity  be  carried  out  as  fast  as  new  States 
are  formed,  and  which  would  thus  ultimately  cover  the  whole 
public  domain, —  was  devised  not  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  not 


THE  PROCEEDS  OP  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.         305 

a  thousand  miles  from  South  Carolina  itself  ?  —  A  plan  for 
giving  up  outright  one  half  of  the  proceeds,  and  leaving  us,  as  I 
think,  little  or  no  hope  of  ever  seeing  any  thing  of  the  other 
half.  It  does  not  lie,  Mr.  Chairman,  with  gentlemen  who  have 
advanced  or  sustained  such  schemes  as  these,  to  charge  the 
friends  of  distribution  with  abstracting  the  revenues  or  robbing 
the  exchequer. 

I  will  not  detain  the  Committee  by  going  into  any  examina- 
tion of  this  project  of  cession.  Let  me  only  say,  that  all  that  is 
just  and  reasonable  I  shall  always  be  willing,  so  far  as  my  vote 
is  concerned,  to  yield  to  the  new  States.  I  rejoice  in  the  rapid- 
ity of  their  advancement,  even  although,  in  the  scale  of  national 
importance,  the  law  of  their  increase  is  the  law  of  our  decrease. 
I  welcome  their  Representatives  as  they  come,  thronging  in 
augmented  numbers,  under  a  new  apportionment,  to  occupy  this 
hall,  even  though  it  should  be  to  push  some  of  us  from  our 
stools.  It  gave  me  a  thrill  of  pleasure  and  of  pride  not  often 
experienced,  when  an  honorable  Senator  from  Indiana  (Mr. 
Smith)  told  me  the  other  day  in  conversation  that,  after  careful 
examination,  he  believed  that  no  one  measure  which  had  ever 
been  passed  by  Congress  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  States,  could 
have  been  carried  through  without  the  votes  of  Massachusetts. 
I  hope  they  may  never  ask  for  those  votes  in  vain.  For  one,  I 
will  not  cavil  about  the  ten  per  cent,  allowed  them  in  this  bill. 
I  do  not  begrudge  them  the  half  million  of  acres  which  it  pro- 
poses to  make  up  to  them.  I  go  cheerfully  even  for  the  preemp- 
tion clause.  But  I  believe  the  contemplated  cession  would  be  a 
fatal  dowry  to  them,  as  well  as  a  measure  full  of  injustice  to  us. 
Between  that,  therefore,  and  distribution,  which  I  consider  the 
real  question  at  stake,  I  cannot  hesitate  a  moment. 


26 


THE 

POLICY  OF  DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES. 

A  SPEECH  IN  FAVOR  OF  MR.  FILLMORE'S  RESOLUTION,  TO  REFER  THAT 
PART  OF  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  RELATING  TO  THE  TARIFF  TO  THE 
COMMITTEE  ON  MANUFACTURES,  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRE- 
SENTATIVES OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  DECEMBER  30,  1841. 


I  have  been  hoping,  from  day  to  day,  and  from  hour  to  hour, 
Mr.  Speaker,  that  this  debate  would  be  brought  to  a  close,  and 
have  more  than  once  repressed  a  strong  disposition  to  address 
the  House,  from  a  reluctance  to  render  myself  in  any  degree 
responsible  for  prolonging  a  discussion,  which  seems  to  me  so 
exceedingly  unreasonable  and  unprofitable ;  but  as  the  House 
has  exhibited  a  purpose  to  allow  it  to  run  on  without  let  or  limit- 
ation, at  least  until  after  the  holy  days,  I  have  determined  to  deny 
myself  no  longer. 

I  have  no  intention,  however,  to  go  into  a  general  discussion 
of  the  policy  of  a  protecting  tariff.  If  I  had  succeeded  in  get- 
ting the  floor  this  day  last  week,  when  I  made  three  or  four 
unsuccessful  efforts  to  obtain  it,  I  might  have  been  tempted  to 
do  so.  But  my  honorable  friend  and  colleague,  (Mr.  Hudson,) 
who  addressed  the  House  a  few  days  ago,  has  anticipated  me  in 
so  many  of  the  views  I  had  intended  to  present,  as  to  leave  me 
very  little  material  for  such  a  discussion.  And  he  has  presented 
those  views,  let  me  add,  with  so  much  fulness  and  so  much 
force,  as  to  afford  no  apology  whatever  for  repeating  them.  I 
can  but  follow  as  a  gleaner,  therefore,  in  a  field  which  has  been 
most  effectively  reaped,  and  can  only  hope  to  offer  some  addi- 
tional facts  and  illustrations  on  points  which  have  already  been 
most  ably  enforced.     And  even  this,  Sir,  I  should  have  had  much 


THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES.  307 

hesitation  at  attempting,  but  for  the  remarks  of  the  honorable 
member  from  Georgia,  (Mr.  Meriwether,)  who  has  just  taken  his 
seat,  and  who,  in  the  course  of  a  very  able  speech,  has  advanced 
some  ideas  which  ought  not  to  be  passed  over  in  silence. 

Before  proceeding  to  notice  them,  however,  I  desire  to  make 
one  or  two  preliminary  observations.  And  in  the  first  place,  Sir, 
I  freely  acknowledge  that,  in  my  judgment,  something  more  of 
importance  has  been  attached  to  the  precise  issue  before  us  than 
really  belongs  to  it.  As  a  question  of  parliamentary  propriety, 
indeed,  it  is  by  no  means  unworthy  of  consideration.  This 
House,  in  its  organization,  has  adopted  the  principle  of  a  divi- 
sion of  labor.  It  has  distributed  its  members  into  twenty  or 
thirty  different  committees,  with  reference  to  the  twenty  or  thirty 
distinct  subjects  into  which  the  business  of  the  nation  has  been 
arranged.  Among  these  is  a  Committee  of  Manufactures.  It  is 
in  vain  for  gentlemen  to  say  that  there  ought  to  be  no  such 
committee.  It  actually  exists.  And  in  reply  to  a  suggestion 
thrown  out  the  other  day,  that  the  Southern  members  of  the 
House  must  have  been  asleep  —  must  have  been  caught  nap- 
ping—  when  such  a  committee  was  constituted,  let  me  say,  that 
the  motion  upon  which  the  Committee  of  Manufactures  was 
separated  from  the  Committee  of  Commerce  in  1819,  and 
received  a  distinct  existence,  was  made  by  a  Southern  member. 
Mr.  Peter  Little,  a  representative  from  Maryland,  was  the  author 
of  the  motion;  and,  for  aught  which  appears  on  the  journals, 
it  was  adopted  entirely  without  opposition.  And  now  I  see  not, 
for  my  life,  what  subject  this  committee  can  fairly  claim  as  its 
own,  if  not  this  very  one  of  discriminating,  in  the  imposition  of 
duties,  with  reference  to  our  manufacturing  interests.  What, 
let  me  ask,  is  my  honorable  colleague,  (Mr.  Saltonstall,)  at  the 
head  of  that  committee,  and  what  are  his  eight  associates  to  do, 
in  fulfilment  of  the  purposes  of  their  appointment,  if  not  to  deal 
with  this  precise  question  ?  To  deny  it  to  them  is  virtually  to 
proscribe  them,  and  put  them  in  Coventry  for  the  session,  so  far 
as  their  relations  as  a  committee  are  concerned.  Why,  Sir,  my 
honorable  colleague,  I  know,  comes,  emphatically,  from  a  city  of 
peace,  (Salem,)  and  we  Northern  men  are  none  of  us  eager  to  take 
offence  at  any  thing  which  is  said  or  done  in  this  House.     But 


&  OF  THB^4£J 

IJJI7BRSITtf 


308  THE   POLICY  OF    DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES. 

I  honestly  believe  that,  were  some  of  the  gentlemen  who  have 
taken  part  in  this  discussion  at  the  head  of  the  Committee  on 
Manufactures,  they  would  be  disposed  to  regard  it  as  a  matter 
of  personal  indignity,  to  be  thus  unceremoniously  deprived  of 
the  due  honors  and  just  responsibilities  of  the  station,  to  which 
they  had  been  fairly  assigned. 

Let  me  repeat,  however,  Mr.  Speaker,  that,  apart  from  this 
point  of  parliamentary  propriety  and  personal  justice,  I  regard 
the  question  of  reference  as  one  of  but  little  practical  importance. 
Certainly,  the  idea  which  seems  to  be  entertained  in  some  quar- 
ters, that  the  whole  subject  of  a  protecting  tariff,  —  its  constitu- 
tionality, its  necessity,  its  propriety,  its  policy,  —  is  to  be  dis- 
posed of  forever,  or  even  for  the  session,  by  a  decision  of  the 
question,  whether  a  few  somewhat  equivocal  paragraphs  in  a 
President's  message  shall  be  referred  to  nine  gentlemen  asso- 
ciated under  the  denomination  of  a  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  or  to  nine  other  gentlemen  who  have  been  designated 
as  a  Committee  of  Manufactures,  is  altogether  preposterous. 
The  subject,  depend  upon  it,  Sir,  will  not  be  found  of  so  easy  an 
adjustment.  You  may  refer  these  paragraphs  of  the  message  to 
what  committee  you  please,  and  with  what  instructions  you 
please;  you  may  refuse  to  refer  any  matter  whatever  to  the 
Committee  of  Manufactures ;  you  may  adopt  the  suggestion  of 
a  gentleman  from  Virginia,  over  the  way,  (Mr.  Smith,)  and 
abolish  that  committee  forthwith,  but  still  the  subject  will  be 
agitated  among  the  people,  and  still  it  will  be  forced  upon  the 
consideration  of  the  representatives  of  the  people.  The  voice 
of  American  labor  cannot  be  so  easily  hushed  off;  it  will  make 
itself  heard  in  this  House,  and  sooner  or  later  it  will  make  itself 
heeded.  Why,  Sir,  since  we  have  been  debating  this  question, 
a  convention  of  iron  manufacturers  has  been  held  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  they  have  adopted  a  memorial  to  Congress,  set- 
ting forth  their  condition  and  their  claims.  Other  conventions 
will  be  held  by  other  classes  of  mechanics  and  artisans,  and 
other  memorials  adopted.  What  will  you  do  with  them  ?  Lay 
them  on  the  table,  as  you  did  at  the  last  session  ?  Reject  them 
outright  ?  Adopt  another  21st  rule  ?  Declare  that  no  petition 
which  contains  this  odious  term,  protection,  shall  be  received, 


THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  309 

considered,  or  entertained,  in  any  way  whatsoever  ?  No,  Sir, 
you  must  receive  them,  you  must  refer  them,  you  must  act  upon 
them. 

There  is  another  remark  which  I  desire  to  make,  by  way  of 
preamble.  I  have  very  little  fear,  Mr.  Speaker,  but  that  the 
industry  of  the  country  is  about  to  receive,  at  an  early  day,  some 
considerable  amount  of  fresh  incidental  protection,  come  to  what 
conclusions  you  may  upon  these  abstract  questions  of  power  and 
of  policy ;  and  that,  Sir,  from  the  mere  necessity  of  the  case. 
I  had  almost  said,  I  defy  you  to  carry  on  the  government  with- 
out involving  such  a  result.  Who  imagines  that  this  government 
can  be  supported  on  the  scale  now  proposed,  or,  indeed,  upon 
any  scale,  unless  it  be  one  of  degradation  and  bankruptcy,  under 
your  existing  revenue  system  ?  Who  dreams,  more  especially, 
that  these  magnificent  projects  of  reform  which  have  recently 
emanated  from  the  various  departments  of  the  administration; 
the  increase  of  the  navy;  the  building  of  these  steam  frigates 
and  sloops  of  war ;  the  establishment  of  these  naval  schools  at 
home,  and  these  naval  posts  abroad ;  the  endowment  of  these 
private  mercantile  steam-packet  corporations ;  the  trebling  of  the 
marine  corps ;  the  addition  of  new  regiments  to  your  army  ;  the 
improvement  of  harbors;  the  completion  of  fortifications;  the 
establishment  of  founderies ;  the  extension  of  a  chain  of  military 
posts  from  Council  Bluffs  to  the  Pacific;  the  purchase  of  a  right 
of  way  for  the  national  mail  over  the  various  railroads  along  its 
route ; — who  dreams,  I  say,  that  all  or  any  of  these  truly  noble, 
truly  national  projects,  so  many  of  which  have  commended 
themselves  at  first  sight  to  the  approbation  and  admiration  of  a 
patriotic  people,  can  —  I  do  not  say,  be  carried  through,  for  no- 
body supposes  that  they  are  to  be  completed  in  a  day  but  —  be 
commenced,  be  initiated,  be  put  on  the  way  to  a  gradual  and 
economical  accomplishment,  without  greater  resources  than  will 
be  afforded  under  the  final  operation  of  the  compromise  act? 
Nobody,  I  am  sure.  Where,  then,  will  you  look  for  additional 
resources?  To  loans  and  treasury  notes  ?  That  will  be  looking 
to  the  means  of  postponement,  not  to  the  means  of  payment. 
To  duties  on  tea  and  coffee  ?  Party  competition,  the  struggle 
of  political  leaders  to  outrun  each  other  in  a  scrub-race  for  a 


310  THE  POLICY  OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

little  momentary  popularity,  has  put  an  end,  for  the  present  at 
least,  I  imagine,  to  all  hopes  of  obtaining  revenue  from  that 
source,  even  were  there  a  willingness  to  resort  to  it  upon  other 
considerations.  Do  you  look  to  the  proceeds  of  the  public 
lands?  I  do  not  believe,  Sir,  that  there  is  a  majority  in  this 
House  ready  to  repeal  so  soon  the  great  measure  of  the  last 
session,  by  which  those  proceeds  were  distributed,  and  to  wrench 
the  proffered  cup  of  relief  from  the  States,  in  this  hour  of  their 
utmost  agony,  and  before  they  have  tasted  one  cordial  draught. 
But  even  should  this  be  done,  your  revenues  would  still  be  in- 
sufficient. Upon  what,  then,  can  you  rely  for  increasing  them  ? 
Does  any  one  propose  a  resort  to  direct  taxation  ?  More  than 
one  of  the  minority  in  this  House  have  expressed  their  appro- 
bation of  such  a  course,  and  eulogized  the  equality  and  demo- 
cracy of  its  operation.  I  do  not  find,  however,  that  anybody 
expects  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  it  will  be  adopted.  There 
is,  then,  but  one  mode  left.  You  must  increase  your  resources 
by  raising  the  duties  on  imposts.  And  when  you  do  this,  not- 
withstanding the  confident  declaration  of  the  gentleman  from 
South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Rhett,)  that  revenue  and  protection  are 
utterly  incompatible,  and  that  where  one  begins  the  other  ends, 
I  have  little  fear  but  that  the  industry  of  the  country  will  receive 
some  share  of  the  advantage. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  in  turning  to  a  consideration  of  that 
protecting  policy  which  has  been  so  long  the  subject  of  discus- 
sion, I  am  met  at  the  threshold  by  the  declaration  of  the  honor- 
able member  from  Georgia  yesterday,  that  he  and  his  constituents, 
as  Southern  men,  do  not  oppose  these  discriminating  duties  merely 
because  they  would  affect  their  own  interests ;  that  they  do  not 
plant  themselves  on  the  mere  pecuniary  question  ;  but  that  they 
take  higher  ground,  —  that  they  stand  on  the  Constitution. 
I  am  not,  however,  about  to  enter  into  an  elaborate  argument 
on  this  question  of  constitutionality.  The  whole  history  of  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution ;  the  condition  of  the  country  at 
the  time  of  its  adoption  ;  the  debates  of  the  Federal  Convention 
which  framed,  and  of  the  popular  conventions  which  ratified  it ; 
the  petitions,  resolutions,  and  proceedings  of  the  people  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  both  immediately  before  and  immediately 


THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  311 

after  its  adoption,  and  particularly  of  the  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  classes  of  the  people, — from  Paul  Pritchard,  the  ship- 
wright, of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  whose  petition  stands  on 
the  first  page  of  one  of  the  first  volumes  of  our  American  State 
Papers,  to  Paul  Revere,  the  coppersmith,  of  Boston,  Massachu- 
setts, who  preached,  if  he  did  not  pray,  to  the  same  effect ;  —  the 
debates  and  enactments  of  the  first  Congress,  too,  in  immediate 
response  to  these  petitions  of  the  people ;  all  these,  Sir,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  whole  history  of  legislation  since,  constitute  a 
chain  of  evidence  on  this  point  so  close  and  so  complete,  that, 
for  one,  I  am  entirely  unwilling  to  give  sanction  to  the  idea  that 
it  is  an  open  question,  by  arguing  it  further.  It  seems  to  me,  I 
confess,  that  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  quite  too  literally 
stands  upon  the  Constitution,  and  tramples  its  true  intent 
beneath  his  feet,  in  the  doctrine  for  which  he  contends. 

If  the  honorable  gentleman,  however,  really  desires  to  run  a 
tilt  and  break  a  lance  upon  this  part  of  the  subject,  let  me  refer 
him  to  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Madison.  Not,  Sir,  to  any  mere 
obiter  dictum  in  a  Presidential  message,  but  to  a  detailed  and 
elaborate  argument,  contained  in  a  letter  devoted  to  the  subject, 
and  written  to  Mr.  Cabell,  of  Virginia,  in  September,  1828.  As 
this  document  has  not  been  alluded  to  in  the  course  of  the 
debate,  I  beg  leave  to  present  to  the  House  a  brief  abstract  of  it, 
which  I  have  hastily  prepared. 

Mr.  Madison  proposes,  in  this  letter,  to  give  the  grounds  of 
the  "confident  opinion"  which  he  had  previously  expressed  in 
conversation,  "  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  power  in  Congress 
to  impose  a  tariff  for  the  encouragement  of  manufactures." 

He  derives  this  power  from  the  authority  expressly  given  to 
Congress  "  to  regulate  trade  with  foreign  nations ; "  and,  after 
some  introductory  remarks  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  term.  "  regu- 
lation of  trade,"  as  contended  for  by  our  fathers  in  their  contro- 
versies with  the  mother  country,  he  states  the  subject  which  he 
is  about  to  argue  in  these  explicit  terms,  — "  It  is  a  simple 
question,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  whether 
the  power  to  regulate  trade  with  foreign  nations,  as  a  distinct 
and  substantive  item  in  the  enumerated  powers,  embraces  the 
object  of  encouraging,  by  duties,  restrictions,  and  prohibitions, 


312  THE  POLICY  OF    DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES. 

the  manufactures  and  products  of  the  country."  And  he  then 
proceeds  to  argue  that  "  the  affirmative  must  be  inferred  "  from 
the  eight  following  considerations,  upon  each  of  which  he  dwells 
at  more  or  less  length  :  — 

1.  The  meaning  of  the  phrase  "to  regulate  trade"  must  be 
sought  in  the  objects  to  which  the  power  was  generally  under- 
stood to  be  applicable,  when  it  was  inserted  in  the  Constitution. 

2.  The  power  has  been  understood  and  used  by  all  commercial 
and  manufacturing  nations,  without  exception,  as  embracing  the 
object  of  encouraging  manufactures. 

3.  This  has  been  particularly  the  case  with  Great  Britain, 
whose  commercial  vocabulary  is  the  parent  of  ours. 

4.  Such  was  understood  to  be  a  proper  use  of  the  power  by 
the  States  most  prepared  for  manufacturing  industry,  whilst 
retaining  the  power  over  their  foreign  trade. 

5.  Such  a  use  of  the  power  by  Congress  accords  with  the 
intention  and  expectation  of  the  States,  in  transferring  the  power 
over  trade  from  themselves  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States. 

6.  If  Congress  have  not  the  power,  it  is  annihilated  for  the 
nation  ;  a  policy  without  example  in  any  other  nation. 

7.  If  revenue  be  the  sole  object  of  legitimate  impost,  and  the 
encouragement  of  domestic  articles  be  not  within  the  power  of 
regulating  trade,  it  would  follow  that  no  monopolizing  or  unequal 
regulations  of  foreign  nations  could  be  counteracted;  that  neither 
the  staple  articles  of  subsistence,  nor  the  essential  implements 
of  the  public  safety,  could  be  insured  or  fostered  at  home ;  and 
that  American  navigation  must  be  at  once  abandoned  or  speed- 
ily destroyed. 

8.  That  the  encouragement  of  manufactures  was  an  object  of 
the  power  to  regulate  trade,  is  proved  by  the  use  made  of  the 
power  for  that  object  in  the  first  session  of  the  first  Congress, 
under  the  Constitution,  when  among  the  members  present  were 
so  many  who  had  been  members  of  the  Federal  Convention 
which  framed  the  Constitution,  and  of  the  State  Conventions 
which  ratified  it ;  each  of  these  classes  consisting,  also,  of  mem- 
bers who  had  opposed,  and  who  had  espoused,  the  Constitution 
in  its  actual  form,  by  no  one  of  whom  wTas  that  power  denied. 


THE   POLICY   OF  DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES.  313 

And  here  Mr.  Madison  proceeds  to  mention  that  several  Virginia 
members,  of  the  anti-federal  as  well  as  federal  party,  proposed 
not  only  duties,  but  prohibitions,  in  favor  of  several  articles  of 
Virginia  production;  one,  for  instance,  a  duty  on  foreign  coal; 
another,  a  duty  on  foreign  hemp  ;  and  a  third,  a  prohibition  on 
foreign  beef. 

Such,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  the  elaborate  argument  of  one  who  has 
often  been  called  the  Father  of  the  Constitution.  I  need  not 
detain  the  House  by  pointing  out  how  perfect  an  answer  it  con- 
tains to  the  argument  of  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  yesterday, 
and  how  completely  it  scatters  into  thin  air  all  the  distinctions 
and  differences  which  he  has  attempted  to  set  up  this  morning. 
Let  me  only  say  that,  when  the  constitutionality  of  the  protect- 
ing system  is  assailed,  I,  for  one,  desire  nothing  better  to  hold 
up  in  its  defence  than  this  true  old  Virginia  shield ;  fabricated, 
let  me  add,  upon  the  same  old  Virginia  forge  which  gave  shape 
and  substance  to  the  celebrated  resolutions  of  '98. 

But  my  excellent  friend  from  North  Carolina,  (Mr.  Rayner,) 
some  days  ago,  seemed  disposed  to  escape  from  the  force  of 
these  old  opinions  and  these  historical  arguments,  by  declaring 
that  we  lived  under  a  new  dispensation.  A  new  dispensation, 
Sir  !  By  whom  was  it  delivered  ?  By  whom  has  it  been  sanc- 
tioned ?  Was  it  the  work  of  the  people,  or  of  the  States  ?  Who 
was  its  high-priest  ?  Quibus  indiciis  —  upon  what  evidence  does 
it  rest,  and  by  what  signs  has  it  been  attested  ?  Where  does 
he  find  the  terms  of  it?  In  the  South  Carolina  ordinance,  or 
in  that  notorious  epistle  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  the  citizens  of 
Scott  County,  Kentucky,  in  which  he  told  us  that,  after  a  depart- 
ure of  half  a  century,  our  Government  had  been  brought  back, 
by  a  single  signature  of  his  own,  to  the  true  spirit  of  the  Con- 
stitution ?  My  honorable  friend,  I  am  sure,  will  look  to  no  such 
documents  as  these  for  his  authority.  And  he  must  pardon  me 
if,  in  default  of  some  better  evidence  of  its  genuineness  and 
authenticity  than  has  yet  been  adduced,  I  pronounce  this  new 
dispensation  of  his  altogether  apocryphal. 

But  perhaps  the  gentleman  referred  to  the  compromise  act. 
Why,   Sir,  the  compromise  act,  as   I  maintain,  abandons  the 
whole  idea  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  a  protecting   system. 
27 


314  THE  POLICY  OF  DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES. 

That  act,  by  the  express  admission  of  all  the  parties  to  it,  pro- 
vides for  protecting  duties  below  the  maximum  of  20  per  cent. 
And  in  what  clause  of  the  Constitution  is  it  found  written,  that 
protection  below  20  per  cent,  is  any  more  legitimate  than  pro- 
tection above  20  per  cent.  ? 

I  cannot  part  from  this  point  of  the  subject,  Mr.  Speaker,  with- 
out alluding  to  a  remark  made  by  the  honorable  member  from 
South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Rhett,)  the  other  day,  that  Mr.  Appleton 
and  Mr.  Lawrence,  of  Boston,  were  once  foremost  in  denying 
the  constitutionality  of  duties  for  protection,  and  that  Mr.  Web- 
ster had  argued  to  the  same  effect,  even  in  old  Faneuil  Hall  itself. 
Sir,  if  these  distinguished  gentlemen,  all  of  them  my  predecessors 
in  the  seat  which  I  have  the  honor  to  hold,  have  been  guilty  of 
any  such  inconsistency  of  opinion, — if  these  Northern  stars  have, 
at  any  time,  been  seen  shooting  thus  wildly  across  the  sky,  and 
exhibiting  themselves  in  the  very  opposite  quarter  of  the  heavens 
from  that  in  which  they  first  attracted  the  eye  of  the  observer, 
they  have  at  least  not  been  without  example  in  this  irregular 
motion.  There  are  Southern  luminaries,  which  might  be  named, 
which  have  manifested  far  more  of  this  wandering,  planetary 
character,  which  have  shot  far  more  madly  from  the  spheres 
which  they  once  adorned,  and  whose  orbits,  to  this  day,  defy 
the  utmost  power  of  politico-astronomical  calculation.  But  I 
take  issue  with  the  gentleman  as  to  the  fact.  A  large  part  of 
the  people  of  Boston,  undoubtedly,  were  at  one  time  strongly 
opposed  to  a  protecting  tariff.  Their  interests  were,  and  are 
still,  greatly  commercial.  And  some  of  them,  in  the  belief  that 
their  commercial  interests  were  about  to  be  injuriously  affected 
by  a  system  of  discriminating  duties — a  belief,  let  me  add, 
which  very  few  of  them,  as  I  think,  now  entertain  —  expressed 
themselves  warmly  and  strongly  against  their  imposition,  by 
resolutions  and  otherwise,  in  Faneuil  Hall  and  elsewhere.  But 
that  Mr.  Lawrence  or  Mr.  Appleton  ever  disputed  the  constitu- 
tional authority  of  Congress  to  impose  such  duties,  I  know  of 
no  evidence  whatever,  while  Mr.  "Webster  expressly  denied  the 
correctness  of  this  allegation  in  regard  to  himself,  in  his  memo- 
rable reply  to  General  Hayne. 

And  here,  Sir,  let  me  turn  to  another  point  in  the  case.     An 


THE   POLICY   OP  DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES. 


315 


attempt  has  been  made,  in  the  course  of  this  debate,  to  give  to 
this  tariff  question  the  shape  of  a  controversy  between  New 
England  and  the  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Indeed,  it  has  been 
always  a  favorite  policy  with  the  opponents  of  the  protecting 
system,  to  hold  it  up  to  odium  as  a  mere  New  England,  and  some- 
times even  as  a  mere  Massachusetts,  interest.  The  honorable 
gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  especially,  spoke  most  empha- 
tically of  the  insatiate  importunity  of  the  Eastern  manufacturers 
on  this  subject.  Not  satisfied,  he  told  us,  with  the  protection 
they  obtained  in  1816,  they  came  again  in  1824 ;  they  came 
again  in  1828 ;  they  came  again  in  1832 ;  and  he  represented 
them  as  coming  still,  and,  like  the  daughters  of  the  horseleech, 
crying  always,  give!  give!  Sir,  my  honorable  colleague,  (Mr. 
Hudson,)  has  already  well  said  that  there  are  other  and  many 
other  States  quite  as  much  interested  in  this  question  as  the 
New  England  States.  New  England  labor,  depend  upon  it,  can 
earn  a  living  under  any  system  which  will  suit  the  labor  of  the 
Middle  and  Western  States.  If  they  can  do  without  protection, 
we  can.  If  they  are  ready  to  surrender  the  principle  of  discri- 
mination, we  are  ready.  And  we  shall  see  who  will  hold  out 
longest,  and  who  will  cry  out  first.  But  what  is  the  historical 
fact  in  relation  to  the  tariffs  of  '16  and '24,  and '28  and  '32? 
How  does  the  record  bear  out  the  assertion  that  these  were  the 
results  of  New  England  importunity  and  greediness?  Here, 
Sir,  is  a  tabular  statement  exhibiting  the  votes  of  the  different 
States  by  which  these  various  bills  were  carried  through  the 
House  of  Representatives.     Let  us  see  how  it  runs : 


Tariff  of  1816. 


New  England 
Middle  States 
Western  States 
Southern  States 


Yeaa. 
16 
44 
14 
14 


Nays. 

10 

10 

3 

31 


Tariff  of  1824. 


New  England 
Middle  States 
Western  States 
Southern  States 


Yeas. 
15 
60 
31 

1 


Nays. 

23 

15 

7 

57 


Absent. 

16 

13 

5 

7 


Absent. 
1 
1 
2 
0 


Tariff  of 

1828. 

Yeas. 
New  England         15 
Middle  States         57 
Western  States       29 
Southern  States       3 

Nays. 
24 
11 
10 
50 

Absent 
0 
8 
1 
5 

Tariff  of 

1832. 

Yeas. 
New  England         17 
Middle  States          52 
Western  States       36 
Southern  States      27 

Nays. 

17 

18 

3 

27 

Absent 
5 
6 
1 

4 

316 


THE   POLICY   OF   DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES. 


Here,  too,  is  another  table  exhibiting  the  votes  of  Massachu- 
setts alone  on  these  several  occasions  : 


Yeas. 

Nays. 

Absent. 

Yeaa. 

Nays. 

Absent. 

Tariff  of  1816 

7 

4 

9 

Tariff  of  1828 

2 

11 

0 

1824 

1 

11 

1 

1832 

4 

8 

1 

And  thus  falls  to  the  ground  the  whole  charge  of  the  gentle- 
man from  South  Carolina  against  New  England  monopolists 
and  extortioners  !  Thus  we  see  that  in  favor  of  not  one  of  these 
four  tariffs  was  there  a  majority  either  of  the  New  England  or  of 
the  Massachusetts  delegation!  Of  the  tariff  of  1816  we  all 
know  something  of  the  parentage.  Its  principal  authors  and 
advocates  are  understood  to  have  been  Mr.  Lowndes  and  Mr. 
Calhoun  of  South  Carolina ;  and  I  have  more  than  once  heard, 
from  those  whose  authority  can  hardly  be  questioned,  that  the 
friends  of  this  measure  in  Massachusetts  endeavored  to  exert  an 
influence  upon  at  least  one  of  these  gentlemen,  (Mr.  Lowndes,) 
to  prevent  him  from  overdoing  the  matter,  and  pushing  his  pro- 
tective policy  too  far.  We  see,  too,  in  these  tables,  by  whose 
votes  all  these  successive  measures  were  sustained.  They  were, 
emphatically,  the  measures  of  the  Middle  and  Western  States; 
and  whatever  benefit  New  England  has  received  from  them,  has 
been  received  in  spite  of  her  own  votes. 

But  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Georgia  (Mr.  Meriwether) 
has  undertaken  to  prove  that  the  Middle  and  Western  States 
have  no  interest  at  all  in  this  protecting  system.  He  has  told 
us  that  the  South  furnishes  the  best  market  for  the  grazing  and 
grain-growing  States.  He  has  given  us  a  graphic  description  of 
the  great  droves  and  herds  of  cattle,  mules,  and  swine,  which  he 
has  seen  "  on  their  winding  way  "  from  the  West  to  the  South, 
the  like  of  which,  he  thinks,  were  never  beheld  in  New  England. 
And  he  has  proceeded  to  argue  from  all  this,  that  the  true  inte- 
rest of  the  Middle  and  Western  States  is  to  unite  with  the  South 
in  opposition  to  discriminating  duties. 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  glad  to  hear  a 
Southern  gentleman  thus  frankly  admit,  that  the  South  is  not 
independent  of  all  the  world  beside,  or  even  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
Union,  for  its  supplies ;  and  that  something  beside  the  fertility  of 
its  own  lands,  and  the  labor  of  its  own  negroes,  enters  into  the 


THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES.  317 

production  of  its  annual  crop.  It  is  true  that  the  Middle  and 
Western  States  furnish  the  South  with  vast  quantities  of  indis- 
pensable stores  and  stock.  The  Yankees,  also,  let  it  not  be 
forgotten,  send  her  "  a  heap  of  notions  ; "  supplying  her  not  only 
with  much  of  her  clothing  and  many  of  her  implements,  but  with 
ships  to  transport  her  great  staple  to  a  market.  The  exports  of 
the  country  are  thus  not  altogether  of  Southern  production. 
The  North,  the  Middle,  and  the  West,  it  appears,  lend  a  hand 
in  raising  that  much-vaunted  cotton  crop.  Even  if  the  famous 
forty-bale  theory  were  true,  therefore,  and  the  duties  on  imports 
were  a  burden  only  on  the  producer  of  the  exports,  the  South 
alone  would  not  be  oppressed,  but  the  other  parts  of  the  Union 
would  bear  a  share  of  the  burden. 

But,  again,  sir,  admitting  it  to  be  true  that  the  South  furnishes 
the  best  market  for  the  produce  of  the  grain-growing  States,  how 
does  it  follow  that  it  is  therefore  the  interest  of  these  States  to 
join  with  the  South  in  opposing  a  protective  tariff  ?  Why,  such 
an  inference  is  a  plain  petitio  principii — a  begging  of  the  whole 
question  at  issue.  It  takes  for  granted  that  it  is  the  interest  of 
the  South  to  oppose  protection.  It  takes  for  granted  that  the 
Southern  theory  is  correct,  and  that  the  power  of  the  South  to 
raise  cotton,  and  to  dispose  of  it  to  advantage  when  raised,  and 
to  purchase  and  pay  for  the  products  of  the  Middle  and  Western 
States  with  the  proceeds,  is  in  some  way  diminished  or  im- 
paired by  the  encouragement  of  domestic  manufactures. 

Now,  the  gentleman  well  knows  that  this  is  a  theory  which  the 
friends  of  protection  utterly  dispute  and  deny.  They  maintain, 
in  precise  contradiction  to  all  this,  that  the  establishment  of 
American  cotton  mills,  under  a  system  of  discriminating  duties, 
not  only  leaves  the  power  of  producing  the  raw  material  at  the 
South  entirely  unimpaired,  but  encourages  the  extension  of  that 
production,  creates  a  new  market  for  it  at  home,  and  insures  it 
a  readier  and  a  more  certain  sale,  and  at  an  enhanced  price. 
And  they  maintain  that  this  has  actually  been  the  result  of  such 
a  system  as  long  as  it  has  existed. 

Sir,  I  confess  I  was  not  a  little  astonished  to  hear  the  gentle- 
man from  Georgia  place  so  light  an  estimate  on  the  home  market 
which  has  been  already  created  for  cotton.     Does  the  gentleman 

27* 


318  THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES. 

forget  that,  if  that  cloud,  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  which  has 
so  long  been  visible,  instead  of  sinking  below  the  horizon  again, 
as  I  heartily  hope  it  soon  will,  should  come  up,  as  gentlemen  are 
so  fond  of  predicting  it  will,  and  overspread  the  sky,  and  bring 
down  upon  us  the  pitiless  storm  of  war,  this  home  market  would 
be  the  only  market  for  that  great  staple  ?  But,  without  dwell- 
ing on  its  importance  in  case  of  war,  is  it  really  so  insignificant 
and  contemptible  as  the  gentleman  has  pronounced  it,  in  time 
of  peace  ?  The  consumption  of  cotton  in  the  United  States  has 
already  reached  the  amount  of  one  hundred  and  ten  millions  of 
pounds  per  annum,  —  an  amount  greater  than  that  which  this 
country  has  exported  to  France  until  the  last  year,  and  within 
fifteen  or  twenty  millions  of  pounds  as  large  as  the  whole  French 
consumption ;  an  amount  equal  to  one  third  of  our  average  export 
of  cotton  to  Great  Britain,  and  to  about  one  fourth  of  the  entire 
British  consumption ;  an  amount  as  great  as  was  consumed  in 
Great  Britain  at  the  date  of  the  tariff  of  1816  ;  an  amount  equal 
to  the  whole  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States  in  1821,  about  the 
time  the  first  cotton  factory  was  erected  at  Lowell ;  and  more 
than  one  sixth  part  of  the  average  crop  at  this  day. 

Nor  is  the  influence  of  the  home  market,  if  I  have  heard  aright, 
confined  to  the  amount  of  its  direct  purchases.  It  has  been  often 
stated,  both  in  public  and  private,  and  never  to  my  knowledge 
denied,  that  the  agents  of  the  Eastern  factories  come  into  the 
market  early,  and  buy  the  first  part  of  the  crop,  and  do  much 
towards  fixing  a  price,  and  a  high  price,  for  the  whole.  The 
value  of  this  influence  of  the  Eastern  demand  has  sometimes 
been  rated  as  high  as  from  one  to  two  cents  a  pound,  which,  in 
the  whole  six  or  seven  hundred  millions  of  pounds,  would 
amount  to  from  six  to  twelve  or  thirteen  millions  of  dollars. 

And  this  is  the  market  which  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Georgia  is  perfectly  willing  to  part  with  !  It  is  the  foreign  mar- 
ket, and  the  foreign  market  only,  that  he  cares  to  keep.  Why, 
one  would  really  think,  from  his  remarks,  that  cotton  was  good 
for  nothing  except  to  export ;  that  it  underwent  some  myste- 
rious and  magical  sea-change  on  its  passage  across  the  Atlantic, 
which  imparted  to  it  all  its  value  ;  or  that  it  was  only  in  the  hands 
of  foreigners  that  it  could  be  wrought  up  into  any  thing  which 


THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES.  319 

would  pay  for  its  production  ;  and  that  all  that  remained  on  this 
side  the  ocean,  or  was  worked  up  by  American  labor,  was  so 
much  thrown  away  and  sacrificed ! 

And  what,  let  me  ask,  —  what  is  the  ground  of  that  confident 
reliance  which  the  gentleman  seems  to  place  on  the  stability  and 
certainty  of  the  foreign  market  ?  Does  he  find  it  in  the  earnest 
and  ardent  exertions  in  which  Great  Britain  is  at  this  moment 
engaged,  to  supply  herself  with  this  great  staple  from  her  own 
colonies  ?  Is  the  gentleman,  is  the  South,  aware  of  the  success 
with  which  those  efforts  have  thus  far  been  crowned  ?  Does  he 
not  know  that  a  new  and  indomitable  impulse  has  been  given 
to  them  by  that  abolition  spirit  which  is  agitating  the  British 
mind  so  deeply  ?  Southern  gentlemen  seem  to  have  been  very 
sharp-eyed  in  describing  the  direct  dangers  in  which  that  spirit 
may  involve  their  peculiar  institutions  in  case  of  war.  We  all 
observe  a  mighty  new-born  zeal  in  certain  quarters  in  favor  of 
the  navy.  Not  a  word  about  gunboats  in  these  days  !  The 
South  is  quite  ready  now  to  unite  with  the  North  in  establishing 
home  squadrons,  and  building  steam  frigates  and  sloops  of  war, 
to  defend  themselves  against  the  possible  incursions  of  certain 
black  regiments  in  the  West  Indies.  I  rejoice  that  it  is  so.  I 
rejoice  that  any  thing  has  brought  about  so  signal  a  revolution 
of  opinion  in  favor  of  the  navy.  I  rejoice  that  we  are  no  longer 
disposed  to  let  the  sovereignty  of  the  seas  rest  undisputed  in  the 
hands  of  any  single  power  ;  that  we  will  no  longer  recognize  the 
supremacy  of  any  Ocean  Queen,  holding  imperial  sway  "of  every 
salt  flood  and  each  ebbing  stream,"  and  only  giving  leave  to 
other  Powers  — 

°  To  wear  their  sapphire  crowns, 
And  wield  their  little  tridents." 

But  do  Southern  gentlemen  see  no  danger  in  the  progress  of 
that  British  abolition  movement,  in  time  of  peace,  towards  what 
has  been  called  a  rescue  of  the  British  conscience  from  the  pains 
and  penalties  of  aiding  and  abetting  the  American  slave  system, 
by  the  patronage  and  purchase  of  its  products  ?  What  are  the 
facts  as  to  the  increased  importation  of  cotton  from  the  East 
Indies  into  Great  Britain?     The  receipts  of  cotton  from  the  back 


320  THE  POLICY  OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

country  into  Bombay,  between  June,  1840,  and  June,  1841,  are 
stated  to  have  been  478,606  bales,  of  325  pounds  each  —  more 
than  the  whole  crop  of  the  United  States  in  1826.  Again,  the 
consumption  of  American  cotton  in  England,  in  the  year  1816, 
averaged  4,036  bales  per  week,  and  the  consumption  of  East 
India  cotton  in  the  same  year  averaged  207  bales  per  week; 
while  in  1839  the  consumption  of  American  cotton  had  increased 
to  15,644  bales,  and  of  East  India  cotton  to  2,142  bales  per  week, 
— the  latter  having  increased  more  than  tenfold,  while  the  former 
had  increased  less  than  fourfold. 

Nor  let  gentlemen  imagine  that  the  market  of  the  United 
States  is  so  absolutely  essential  to  Great  Britain  for  disposing  of 
her  printed  fabrics,  that  she  will  be  unwilling  to  take  the  risk  of 
losing  it.  We  take  from  her  only  about  twenty-one  millions  of 
yards  of  these  goods  per  annum,  while  her  whole  export  has  ave- 
raged, for  three  years  past,  more  than  three  hundred  and  five 
millions  of  yards.  She  has  a  dozen  better  customers  than  us. 
The  West  Indies  take  more  than  twice  as  much,  the  Brazils  and 
South  American  States  nearly  four  times  as  much,  as  we  take, 
of  this  most  important  branch  of  her  manufactures. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  know  that  the  idea  that  American  cotton 
should  ever  cease  to  be  sought  after,  and  readily  salable,  in  any 
and  every  market  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  will  not  easily  be  en- 
tertained by  a  Southern  mind.  Gentlemen  of  the  Southern 
States  seem  to  imagine  that  the  very  thread  of  the  destiny  of 
this  nation  is  a  thread  of  cotton.  They  speak  as  if  our  political 
Fates — the  Clotho,  Lachesis,  and  Atropos  of  our  republic —  had 
nothing  else  to  spin,  weave,  and  cut,  but  a  cotton  thread.  The 
destiny  of  the  Southern  States  may,  perhaps,  have  no  other  in- 
gredient in  its  composition ;  and,  if  so,  Heaven  forbid  that  the 
staple  should  be  shortened  or  the  fibre  weakened !  But  have 
there  been  no  revolutions  of  trade,  even  in  our  own  land,  and 
within  the  memory  of  those  now  living,  which  should  teach  them 
less  presumption  on  this  point  ?  Where  is  that  indigo  crop  of 
theirs,  which,  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  supplied  the  markets  of  the 
world  ?  —  That  crop,  which,  the  historian  of  South  Carolina  tells 
us,  proved  more  beneficial  to  Carolina  than  the  mines  of  Mexico 
or  Peru  to  Old  or  New  Spain  ?     Where  is  it  now  ?     Not  only 


THE   POLICY    OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  321 

is  there  scarce  a  pound  of  indigo  exported,  but  there  is,  probably, 
scarce  a  plant  of  it  grown  for  any  thing  but  curiosity,  in  any  part 
of  the  Union.  It  has  given  place  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton. 
But  under  what  circumstances  did  it  give  place  ?  Let  me  read 
you  the  history  of  this  occurrence  in  a  little  paragraph  from 
McCulloch's  Commercial  Dictionary,  which  was  made  the  sub- 
ject of  a  very  striking  article  in  one  of  the  newspapers  of  my 
own  city  a  day  or  two  since  :  — 

"  For  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  English  became  masters  of  Bengal,  the  culture 
and  manufacture  of  indigo,  now  of  such  importance,  was  unknown  as  a  branch  of 
British  industry,  and  the  exports  were  but  trifling.  The  European  markets  were,  at 
this  period,  principally  supplied  from  America.  In  1783,  however,  the  attention  of  the 
English  began  to  be  directed  to  this  business.  In  their  hands  the  growth  and  prepara- 
tion of  indigo  has  become  the  most  important  employment,  at  least  in  a  commercial 
point  of  view,  carried  on  in  the  country.  The  indigo  made  by  the  natives  supplies  the 
internal  demand,  so  that  all  that  is  raised  by  Europeans  is  exported." 

And  in  the  same  paper,  (the  Boston  Atlas,)  I  find  an  extract 
from  Ramsay's  History  of  Carolina,  stating,  even  more  directly, 
that  the  Indigo  crop  of  that  State  was  abandoned  in  a  great  de- 
gree, owing  to  the  "  large  exportations  of  the  article  from  the 
East  Indies  into  England,"  which  so  lowered  the  price  as  to 
make  the  culture  and  preparation  of  it  unprofitable. 

Sir,  is  there  not  a  moral  in  these  extracts  upon  which  the 
planter  may  well  ponder  ?  Is  there  not  enough  in  them,  at  any 
rate,  when  taken  in  connection  with  other  facts  to  which  I  have 
already  alluded,  to  make  him  pause  before  he  expresses  so  utter 
a  contempt  for  the  idea  of  establishing  a  home  market  for  his 
cotton  ? 

The  honorable  gentleman  from  Georgia,  however,  is  willing  to 
run  the  risk,  and  declares  his  readiness,  moreover,  to  have  the 
duty  of  three  cents  a  pound  upon  cotton  imported  into  our 
own  country  abolished  forthwith  and  forever.  Well  now,  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  do  not  consider  this  proposition  of  the  gentleman,  to 
abolish  the  duty  on  raw  cotton,  as  any  very  great  concession  on 
the  part  of  the  South.  After  a  fabric  or  a  product  of  any  sort 
has  enjoyed  a  protection,  almost  amounting  to  absolute  prohibi- 
tion, for  fifty  years,  and  has  attained,  under  its  influence,  to  a 
perfection  and  a  maturity  which  have  enabled  it  thus  far  to  over- 


322  THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

come  all  competition  in  almost  all  the  markets  of  the  world,  it 
is  no  such  infallible  indication  of  one's  devotion  to  free  trade 
principles,  as  the  gentleman  seems  to  imagine,  to  be  willing  to 
have  the  duty  taken  off.  But  it  has  been  denied,  more  than 
once  during  the  debate,  that  this  duty  on  raw  cotton  ever  ope- 
rated, or  ever  was  intended  to  operate,  as  a  protection  to  the 
planter;  and  gentlemen  have  added  that  the  South  never  desired 
its  imposition,  and  has  been  always  ready  to  see  it  done  away. 
Sir,  I  take  issue,  again,  upon  both  these  points.  I  do  not  pre- 
tend that  the  duty  of  three  cents  a  pound  has  operated  to  pro- 
tect the  Southern  planter  to  any  great  extent  for  some  years 
past,  although  I  am  not  without  high  authority  for  thinking  that 
some  of  the  Bengal  cottons  might  have  been  imported  to  advan- 
tage, and  wrought  up  into  the  commoner  and  coarser  goods  at 
our  own  looms,  had  the  duty  not  existed.  Nay,  I  am  not  with- 
out authority  for  thinking  that  some  of  this  East  India  cotton 
can  be  imported  to  advantage  even  under  the  duty  as  it  now 
stands,  reduced,  as  it  has  been  by  the  operation  of  the  compro- 
mise act,  to  about  one  cent  a  pound;  and  an  experiment  of  that 
sort,  I  learn,  is  at  this  moment  about  to  be  instituted.  But,  let 
this  be  as  it  may,  I  maintain  that  the  duty  in  question  was  a 
protecting  duty  in  its  origin ;  that  it  was  intended  as  such ;  that 
it  operated  as  such ;  and,  moreover,  that  it  was  complained  of 
as  such,  by  those  to  whose  benefit  it  did  not  enure.  And,  in 
support  of  this  assertion,  I  appeal  to  the  report  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  on  the  subject  of  manufactures,  in  1791 — a  docu- 
ment which  will  be  admitted  as  good  evidence  of  a  fact,  how- 
ever it  may  be  disputed  as  authority  for  a  principle. 

Mr.  Hamilton,  while  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  ordered 
by  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  January,  1790,  to  consider 
the  subject  of  domestic  manufactures,  and,  more  especially,  to 
give  his  views  upon  "  the  means  of  promoting  such  as  will  tend 
to  render  the  United  States  independent  on  foreign  nations  for 
military  and  other  essential  supplies."  And  in  this  very  order, 
I  may  remark,  we  have  another  infallible  index  of  the  under- 
standing of  the  first  Congress  as  to  the  power  to  regulate  trade. 
In  the  course  of  his  report,  Mr.  Hamilton  speaks  of  the  great 
importance  of  encouraging  the  manufactories  of  cotton,  one  or 


THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  323 

two  of  which  had  just  been  established  in  Rhode  Island  and 
Massachusetts,  and  then  proceeds  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  present  duty  of  three  cents  per  pound  on  the  foreign  raw  material  is,  un- 
doubtedly, a  very  serious  impediment  to  the  progress  of  those  manufactories.'" 

"  While  a  hope  may  reasonably  be  indulged  that,  with  due  care  and  attention,  the 
national  cotton  may  be  made  to  approach  nearer  than  it  now  does  to  that  of  regions 
somewhat  more  favored  by  climate,  and  while  facts  authorize  an  opinion  that  very 
great  use  may  be  made  of  it,  and  that  it  is  a  resource  which  gives  greater  security  to 
the  cotton  fabrics  of  this  country  than  can  be  enjoyed  by  any  which  depends  wholly 
on  external  supply,  it  will  certainly  be  wise,  in  every  view,  to  let  our  infant  manufac- 
tures have  the  full  benefit  of  the  best  materials  on  the  cheapest  terms." 

"  To  secure  to  the  national  manufacturers  so  essential  an  advantage,  a  repeal  of  the 
present  duty  on  imported  cotton  is  indispensable." 

I  might  cite  other  passages  from  the  same  document,  in  which 
it  is  proposed,  among  other  things,  to  substitute,  as  a  more  ex- 
pedient mode  of  protecting  the  cotton  planter,  a  bounty  on  the 
national  cotton  when  wrought  at  a  home  manufactory,  and  also 
a  bounty  on  its  exportation.  But  I  have  given  enough  to  prove, 
conclusively,  that  the  duty  in  question  was  regarded,  in  its  ori- 
gin, as  a  duty  of  protection,  and  was  thought  to  operate  to  the 
advantage  of  the  planter,  at  the  expense  of  the  manufacturer,  — 
to  the  advantage  of  the  South,  at  the  expense  of  the  North. 
Nor  can  it  be  correct  that  there  has  been  always  a  readiness  for 
its  repeal.  If  so,  why  was  it  not  repealed,  according  to  Hamil- 
ton's recommendation,  in  1791  ?  Why  has  it  not  been  repealed 
since  ?  A  provision  for  its  repeal  was  contained  in  the  original 
draught  of  the  compromise  act.  According  to  that  bill,  as  ori- 
ginally introduced,  unmanufactured  cotton  was  to  be  a  free  arti- 
cle after  1842.  Why  was  it  stricken  out  ?  A  vote  was  actually 
passed,  too,  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  making  cotton  a 
free  article,  in  company  with  salt  and  sugar;  but  not  a  few  of 
the  Southern  members  united  in  carrying  its  immediate  recon- 
sideration, who  voted  against  the  reconsideration  in  relation  to 
both  the  other  articles.  Where  is  the  evidence,  in  all  this,  that 
the  South  is  so  very  indifferent  to  the  continuance  of  this  duty  ? 
Are  the  Eastern  manufacturers  responsible  for  this  measure  of 
protection  also  ?  As  much  so,  perhaps,  Sir,  as  they  were  for  the 
tariff  of  1816.  But  even  if  the  South  is  ready  for  making  cot- 
ton a  free  article  now,  it  would  be,  as  I  have  already  suggested, 


324  THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

but  poor  evidence  of  their  willingness  to  endure  martyrdom  in 
vindication  of  their  free  trade  notions.  The  very  theory  of  pro- 
tection supposes  that,  at  some  time  or  other,  the  protected  fabric 
or  product  will  be  able  to  sustain  itself  without  further  aid. 
And  for  Southern  gentlemen  to  boast  of  their  devotion  to  free 
trade,  because  they  think  protection  has  done  its  work  in  regard 
to  their  own  great  staple,  is  very  much  like  the  boasting  of  the 
British  manufacturers  of  their  readiness  for  free  trade,  now  that 
their  own  establishments  have  been  built  up  beyond  the  reach 
of  competition. 

And  this  brings  me,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  a  remark  or  two  on  the 
recent  free  trade  movements  in  Great  Britain.  The  gentleman 
from  Georgia  alluded  to  them  yesterday  with  great  satisfaction, 
and  pointed  us  particularly  to  the  conclusions  of  Mr.  Hume's 
report.  Now,  Sir,  there  is  very  little  evidence  that  the  British 
nation  is  about  to  sustain  and  adopt  the  doctrines  of  that  report. 
Already,  as  everybody  knows,  a  proposition  to  that  effect  has 
cost  its  supporters  their  posts  in  the  cabinet.  But  the  report, 
notwithstanding,  is  a  document  of  considerable  interest ;  and  I 
desire  to  present  to  the  House  a  few  passages  in  it,  which  im- 
pressed me  very  deeply  in  a  cursory  perusal  of  it  last  summer, 
and  which  the  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  have  re- 
called to  my  remembrance.  I  quote  first  from  the  testimony  of 
Dr.  Bowring :  — 

"I  believe,"  says  he,  "inasmuch  as  the  commercial  relations  of  England  are  greater 
than  those  of  any  other  country,  that  England  is  always  the  country  that  is  the  recipi- 
ent of  the  greatest  proportion  of  the  prosperity  of  other  nations. 

"Every  commercial  relation  entered  into  between  England  and  every  other  part  of 
the  world  is  likely  to  be  more  profitable  to  England  than  to  any  other  country  1  Yes, 
England  gets  the  greatest  proportion  of  the  benefit." 

I  take,  next,  a  passage  or  two  from  the  testimony  of  Mr.  James 
Deacon  Hume:  — 

"  Do  you  consider  the  wealth  of  England  to  be  caused  and  maintained  by  her  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  industry  ? 

"Certainly;  if  meant  as  in  contradistinction  from  the  produce  of  the  soil.  It  is 
only  necessary  to  look  round  the  world  and  see  what  countries  there  are,  of  much 
richer  soil,  that  are  in  a  state  of  comparative  poverty,  and  also  to  look  to  our  own 
history,  of  no  long  period,  to  see  that,  with  the  same  quantity  of  land  we  have  now, 
we  were  a  poor  country,  compared  with  what  we  are  5  therefore,  having  always  had 


THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  325 

the  land,  but  not  the  trade,  I  must  conceive  that  the  increase  of  our  riches  arises  from 
the  trade,  and  not  from  the  land. 

"  Has  not  the  wealth  of  the  country  arisen  from  the  greatly  increased  prosperity  of 
our  manufacturing  and  commercial  relations  1 

"  I  conceive  that  it  can  be  traced  to  no  other  source.  The  only  difference  that  I  can 
see  in  the  present  state  of  the  country  and  the  country  a  century  ago  is,  that  by  com- 
merce and  manufactures  we  have  acquired  riches,  and  raised  up  a  population  which 
are  not  only  able  to  consume,  but  also  able  to  pay  good  prices  for  the  produce  of  our 
land.  If  the  same  population  had  been  raised  by  other  means,  they  would  have  been 
a  burden  to  the  land  instead  of  an  advantage. 

"  Does  not  every  limitation  of  food,  and  every  rise  in  the  price  of  food,  tend  to  un- 
dermine the  manufactures  of  the  country  on  which  we  depend  ? 

"  I  conceive  that  it  must  do  so,  because  we  place  ourselves  at  the  risk  of  being  sur- 
passed by  the  manufactures  in  other  countries  ;  and,  as  soon  as  it  happens,  if  ever  the 
day  should  arrive,  that  we  should  be  put  to  a  severe  trial  as  to  our  manufacturing 
power,  I  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  prosperity  of  this  country  will  recede  much  faster 
than  it  has  gone  forward. 

"  Do  you  mean  whenever  England  shall  be  unable  to  compete  with  foreign  markets 
in  her  principal  staples,  with  other  countries  which  are  less  burdened,  and  have 
cheaper  food  than  ourselves,  that  then  the  prosperity  of  this  country  must  begin  to 
wane? 

"  Whenever  foreign  countries  can  so  compete  with  us,  from  whatever  cause,  I  con- 
ceive that  our  prosperity  must  decline;  but  I  cannot  help  believing  that  there  can  be 
no  other  cause  for  that  than  other  countries  having  cheaper  food. 

"  Is  not  the  increased  price  of  food  in  this  country  one  of  the  principal  ingredients 
of  the  increased  cost  of  our  manufactures,  so  as  to  prevent  our  competing  with  other 
countries  % 

**  I  conceive  that,  in  the  long  run,  it  must  be  so.  It  either  must  be  so,  or  the  manu- 
facturers and  laborers  must  suffer  great  privations ;  wages  would  first  be  lowered  as 
far  as  possible ;  and,  as  many  masters  would  be  withdrawing  from  their  trade,  it  is 
possible  that  the  supply  of  labor  would  be  so  much  greater  than  the  demand,  that  the 
reduction  might  go  to  the  limit  of  starving  or  riots.  But  it  is  not  merely  that,  —  it  is 
the  diverting  of  other  countries  from  manufactures,  and  inducing  them  to  take  to 
agriculture  instead,  and  also  producing  an  interchange  of  goods  and  creating  markets 
for  returns  for  our  goods,  as  well  as  finding  markets  for  them  to  go  to.  Although,  I 
conceive  that  the  reduction  in  the  price  of  food,  and  particularly  the  admission  of  it 
from  abroad,  must  tend  to  prevent  other  countries  from  being  able  to  surpass  us  in 
manufactures. 

"  Do  you  not  consider  that  we  have  greater  advantages  in  production  than  any  other 
country  in  the  world,  as  regards  capital  and  skill  ? 

"  I  think  that  is  the  only  thing  that  has  kept  us  up ;  but  I  do  not  think  the  advanta- 
ges are  such  that  we  can  rely  upon  them  forever. 

"  We  are  losing  markets  for  our  goods  in  return  for  corn,  and  we  are  compelling 
those  countries  to  establish  interests  to  rival  us  in  other  countries. 

"  I  have  always  thought  that  when  the  great  change  in  this  world  took  place,  after 
the  French  war,  before  which  time  the  foreigners  had  not  attempted  manufactures  to 
any  material  extent,  and  when  they  had  been  greatly  encouraged  in  agricultural  pur- 
suits, because  through  the  war  we  had  been  great  importers,  —  if  from  that  time  we 
had  thrown  open  our  ports  for  raw  produce  and  removed  protections,  we  should  have 
28 


326  THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

had  our  manufactures  in  a  most  secure  position,  for  the  other  countries  who  are  now 
attempting  to  rival  us  would  not  have  attempted  it  But  it  would  be  difficult  now  to 
get  back  to  the  point  at  which  we  then  were.  Starting  at  that  point,  we  were  then  the 
only  manufacturers." 

Here,  then,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  a  nation  which,  by  the  declaration 
of  its  own  witnesses,  is  "  always  the  country  that  is  the  reci- 
pient of  the  greatest  proportion  of  the  prosperity  of  other  na- 
tions ; "  which  "  gets  the  greatest  proportion  of  the  benefit  of 
every  commercial  relation  entered  into  between  it  and  every 
other  portion  of  the  world  ; "  which,  in  a  word,  has  obtained  a 
vantage-ground  from  which  it  can  assert  its  claim  to  the  lion's 
share  of  every  thing  that  is  going,  —  a  nation,  too,  which,  by  the 
declaration  of  the  same  witnesses,  has  attained  to  this  proud 
predominance  and  peerless  superiority  by  "  her  commercial  and 
manufacturing  industry,"  which  could  never  have  reached  it,  had 
it  relied  "  on  the  produce  of  the  soil,"  and  whose  population, 
had  it  been  raised  by  any  other  means  than  commerce  and  ma- 
nufactures, "  would  have  been  a  burden  to  the  land,  instead  of 
an  advantage,"  —  here  is  this  nation,  I  say,  endeavoring  to 
prove  to  the  world  that  the  system  of  domestic  protection,  under 
which  those  manufactures  have  sprung  up  and  that  commerce 
spread  abroad,  is  a  false  and  foolish  system !  Having  climbed 
to  the  very  top  itself,  and  placed  itself  on  a  platform  of  secu- 
rity and  power,  it  is  now  proposing  to  throw  down  the  ladder 
by  which  it  mounted,  in  hopes,  by  its  example,  to  induce  others 
who  are  but  half  way  up,  or  who,  it  may  be,  have  just  placed 
their  feet  upon  the  lowest  round,  to  do  likewise  ! 

In  these,  and  other  passages  of  this  report,  too,  we  see  the 
real  origin  of  the  recent  free  trade  movement  in  England.  It 
was  in  the  fact  that  some  of  the  continental  countries  were  be- 
ginning to  manufacture  for  themselves,  and  that  our  own  coarse 
cotton  fabrics  were  found  competing  successfully  with  those  of 
the  British  in  the  Brazilian,  South  American,  and  East  India 
markets.  The  testimony  exhibits  the  apprehension  of  the  Eng- 
lish manufacturers,  that  they  may  "  one  day  be  surpassed  by 
the  manufacturers  of  other  countries."  It  expresses  the  opinion 
that,  "  if  that  day  should  ever  arrive,  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try would  recede  much  faster  than  it  has  ever  gone  forward."     It 


THE  POLICY   OP  DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES.  327 

openly  recommends  the  abolition  of  the  corn  laws,  as  "  a  means 
of  diverting  other  countries  from  manufactures,  and  inducing 
them  to  take  to  agriculture  instead ;  "  and  it  intimates  the  diffi- 
culty, while  it  implies  the  desirableness,  of  getting  back  to  that 
palmy  point  at  which  the  British  nation  stood  at  the  end  of  the 
French  war,  when  "  they  were  the  only  manufacturers." 

And  is  this  a  policy  which  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  would 
seriously  advise  us  to  fall  in  with?  Would  he  have  us  grant 
to  Great  Britain,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  this  manufacturing 
monopoly  which  she  seeks ;  abandon  the  social  advantages  and 
national  independence  which  result  from  a  division  of  labor 
among  our  own  population ;  and  rely  henceforth  for  our  support 
exclusively  upon  the  produce  of  the  soil  ?  Would  this  be,  let 
me  ask  him,  the  surest  way  of  conferring  a  benefit  upon  that 
great  agricultural  interest,  which,  I  acknowledge,  has  claims  upon 
our  regard  and  protection  second  to  those  of  no  other  interest 
whatever  ?  Would  the  farmers  of  our  country  thank  us  for  adopt- 
ing a  policy  which  should  divert  the  whole  people  from  all  other 
pursuits,  and  "  induce  them  to  take  to  agriculture  instead  ?  " 
Would  such  a  course  be  the  best  mode  of  securing  them  a  gene- 
rous, or  even  a  just,  reward  for  their  labor  ?  And  that,  too,  before 
the  British  ports  have  been  thrown  open  to  their  raw  produce  ; 
and  while  a  hundred  nearer  granaries  stand  ready  to  pour  into 
those  ports,  whenever  they  are  opened,  the  products  of  lands  not 
less  fertile,  and  of  labor  cheaper  than  our  own  ?  Sir,  it  will  be 
an  evil  day  for  the  farmers  of  our  country,  when  they  follow  the 
example  of  the  planters,  and  place  their  exclusive  reliance  upon 
a  foreign  market.  A  steady  foreign  market  they  never  will  have. 
To  say  nothing  of  the  competition  they  will  encounter  from  the 
grain-growing  countries  of  Europe, — how  long  would  it  be  before 
the  corn  laws  would  be  revived,  even  were  they  once  removed! 
The  object  of  their. removal  having  been  accomplished,  —  other 
countries  having  been  "diverted  from  manufactures,"  and  "in- 
duced to  take  to  agriculture  instead,"  —  how  long  would  it  be 
before  the  landed  interest  of  Great  Britain  would  again  be  found 
vindicating  its  title  to  protection  !  It  would  cost  Great  Britain 
nothing  to  reconstruct  a  sliding  scale.  It  might  be  done  in  a  day. 
But  what  would  it  not  cost  us  to  reconstruct  our  mills  and  looms, 


328  TUB   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING   DUTIES. 

to  rebuild  our  furnaces,  to  reestablish  our  abandoned  arts,  and 
place  them  in  the  position  of  security  which  they  now  enjoy! 
And  where  would  be  our  farmers  meanwhile  ?  With  an  incal- 
culable surplus  produce  on  hand,  everybody  raising  and  nobody 
consuming  at  home,  and  with  no  longer  any  outlet  for  disposing 
of  it  to  advantage,  or  even  disposing  of  it  at  all,  abroad,  —  how 
much  cause  they  would  have  for  gratitude  to  those,  who,  under 
the  profession  of  an  exclusive  friendship  to  their  interests,  had 
imposed  upon  the  country  a  policy  involving  such  consequences! 
It  is  treachery,  Sir,  to  the  agricultural  population  of  the  country, 
to  flatter  them  with  the  idea  of  a  secure  and  sufficient  foreign 
market.  Such  a  market  they  cannot  have  in  war,  and  such  a 
market  they  never  will  have  in  peace.  Their  true  interest  lies 
at  home. 

But  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  has  discovered  that  the  ma- 
nufacturers of  the  United  States  are  doing  a  better  business  than 
any  other  class  in  the  community  already,  and  has  cited  figures 
from  a  book,  to  prove  that  many  of  them  are  making  not  less 
than  eighty-eight  per  cent,  per  annum  on  their  capital  stock. 
Many  of  them,  too,  he  tells  us,  are  actually  exporting  their  fabrics 
to  foreign  markets,  where  they  enter  into  successful  competition 
with  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain.  "With  what  face,  then, 
can  they  ask  for  any  greater  protection  than  they  now  enjoy  ? 

Well,  now,  Sir,  these  inordinate  profits  of  our  American  manu- 
facturers are  very  easily  explained  away,  —  much  more  easily 
than  I  wish  they  were,  for  the  sake  of  those  whom  they  concern. 
In  this  eighty-eight  per  cent,  per  annum,  nothing  is  allowed  for 
the  cost  of  the  raw  material,  nothing  for  the  wages  of  labor,  nothing 
for  the  commissions  of  sale,  nothing  for  the  wear  and  tear  of  ma- 
chinery, nothing,  in  fact,  for  any  of  the  thousand  expenses,  great 
and  small,  attending  the  management  of  such  kinds  of  business. 
Everybody  knows  that  a  portion  of  the  capital  of  manufactur- 
ing establishments  is  kept  floating,  as  it  is  called,  for  these 
expenses,  and  is  consequently  found  entering,  as  a  large  item, 
into  the  accounts  both  of  the  annual  outlay  and  of  the  annual 
returns.  The  gross  yield  of  these  establishments,  therefore, 
always  exhibits  the  disproportion  and  excess  to  which  the  gentle- 
man has  referred.     I  find  the  whole  manufacturing  capital  of 


THE  POLICY   OF   DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  329 

Great  Britain  estimated  at  £217,773,872,  and  the  gross  annual 
yield  at  £  259,412,702 ;  while  the  entire  agricultural  capital  pf 
the  same  empire  is  stated  to  be  £3,258,910,810,  and  its  annual 
yield  only  £538,536,201.  Does  the  gentleman  imagine,  there- 
fore, that  the  British  manufacturers  really  pocket  one  hundred 
and  twenty  per  cent,  per  annum,  or  that  they  net  nearly  half  as 
much  annual  income  as  the  farmers  of  their  own  land,  from  a  capi- 
tal only  one  fifteenth  part  as  large  ? 

Sir,  the  manufacturers  of  the  United  States  are  enjoying  no 
such  rich  spoils.  Some  of  them  have  been  doing,  I  doubt  not, 
a  profitable  business,  and  there  may  have  been  here  and  there  a 
corporation  which,  from  long  experience,  and  fortunate  invest- 
ment, and  economical  management,  may  have  been  able  to 
declare  great  dividends.  The  most  successful  of  them,  however, 
(I  speak  of  those  in  my  own  State,)  have  had  their  years  of  scar- 
city as  well  as  their  years  of  abundance ;  and  their  average  profits 
would  probably  not  at  all  exceed  a  fair  interest  upon  their  outlay. 
As  to  the  exportations  which  have  been  referred  to,  they  have 
been  mainly  of  a  single  class  of  goods  —  the  coarse  cottons,  or 
domestics,  as  they  are  called  —  into  which  skill  and  labor  enter 
least,  and  for  the  manufacture  of  which  we  enjoy  peculiar  ad- 
vantages in  having  an  abundant  supply  of  the  raw  material  at  our 
own  doors.  With  these  goods,  it  is  true,  we  compete  success- 
fully with  Great  Britain  in  the  East  India,  Brazilian,  and  South 
American  markets,  —  so  successfully,  that  the  British  manufac- 
turers have  even  counterfeited  our  stamps,  in  order  to  undersell 
us  with  an  inferior  article.  For  this  branch  of  manufacture,  pro- 
tection is  no  longer  needed.  It  has  done  its  work  ;  and  we  point 
to  this  triumph  of  the  past,  as  the  best  pledge  of  the  achieve- 
ments it  is  destined  to  accomplish  in  the  future,  if  not  too 
summarily  abandoned. 

The  gentleman  from  Georgia  seems  not  to  remember,  how- 
ever, that  the  success  of  American  manufactures,  hitherto,  has 
been  under  a  state  of  things  which  is  now  about  to  be  materially 
altered.  Under  the  operation  of  the  compromise  act,  a  large  part 
of  the  protection  which  they  now  enjoy  is  to  be  taken  off  this  very 
week,  and  another  large  part  at  the  end  of  the  next  six  months. 
This  reduction  will  be  on  some  articles  three  per  cent,  on  others 


330  THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DTJTIE3. 

six  per  cent.,  on  others  nine  or  ten  per  cent.,  and  on  almost  all 
woollen  articles  eighteen  per  cent.  Any  success  of  our  domestic 
manufactures  in  the  past,  therefore,  affords  no  ground  of  assurance, 
and  no  ground  of  argument,  for  the  future.  Nor  is  it  just  to  say, 
that  the  manufacturers  are  seeking  an  increased  protection.  At 
most,  they  are  only  remonstrating  against  a  greatly  reduced  protec- 
tion. Sir,  nothing  is  less  true  of  the  manufacturers  in  the  part  of 
the  country  from  which  I  come,  than  that  they  seek  any  thing 
extreme  or  extravagant  in  the  rate  of  duties,  or  are  desirous  of 
pressing  a  high  tariff  again  upon  the  country.  On  the  contrary, 
there  is  a  uniform  and  universal  disposition  among  those  whose 
opinions  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  to  acquiesce  in  the  most 
moderate  system  of  discrimination  which  will  enable  them  to 
stand  up  against  an  overwhelming  competition  from  abroad. 
And  they,  one  and  all,  are  of  opinion,  that  such  a  system  maybe 
arranged  in  a  manner  to  promote  the  best  interests  of  all  the  va- 
rious branches  of  the  national  industry,  and  without  levying  a 
dollar  more  of  duties  upon  the  people,  than  will  be  absolutely 
necessary  to  an  economical  support  of  the  Government. 

But  the  honorable  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Rhett) 
seems  to  think  that  the  idea  of  combining  the  objects  of  revenue 
and  protection  in  a  single  system  is  altogether  impracticable. 
He  has  told  us  that  the  two  things  are  totally  incompatible,  and 
that  where  protection  begins,  revenue  ends.  Does  the  gentleman 
intend,  by  this  remark,  to  assert,  that  the  protecting  tariffs,  about 
which  he  and  his  friends  have  so  long  complained,  and  against 
which  some  of  them  proceeded  to  the  length  of  preparing  to 
take  up  arms,  yielded  no  revenue  to  the  country  ?  Or,  will  he 
take  the  other  horn  of  the  dilemma,  and  assert,  that,  having 
yielded,  as  they  did,  a  most  ample  revenue  to  the  government, 
they  were  not  protecting  tariffs?  Certainly,  he  cannot  have 
employed  this  language  in  any  sense  which  would  involve  him 
in  such  a  contradiction.  What,  then,  could  have  been  his  mean- 
ing ?  Did  he  only  intend  to  argue,  that  inasmuch  as  complete 
protection  could  only  be  effected  by  prohibitory  duties- — from 
which,  of  course,  no  revenue  could  accrue  —  that,  therefore,  pro- 
tection and  revenue  were  incompatible  ?  Why,  Sir,  it  would  be 
as  fair  for  me  to  argue  that,  because  the  entire  absence  of  pro- 


THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES.  331 

tection  could  only  be  produced  by  perfect  freedom,  therefore  the 
want  of  protection  was  incompatible  with  revenue.  This  is  one 
of  those  instances  where  extremes  meet.  It  is,  undoubtedly,  true 
that  as  you  approximate  closely  towards  duties  of  prohibition, 
you  diminish  the  revenue  from  the  article  on  which  those  duties 
are  laid.  But  it  is  by  no  means  sure,  that  a  moderately  high 
duty  which  will  decrease  importations  to  a  very  considerable 
extent,  may  not  yield  as  large  a  revenue  as  a  duty  so  low  as  not 
to  diminish  them  at  all.  Take  an  easy  illustration.  Four  mil- 
lion dollars'  worth  of  cottons  or  wollens  imported  at  a  five  per 
cent,  duty,  will  yield  a  revenue  of  $  200,000.  But  raise  the  duty 
to  twenty  per  cent.,  and  suppose  that  by  so  doing  you  exclude 
three  fourths  of  the  importation,  the  one  million  which  is  left 
will  yield  the  same  amount,  —  the  increase  of  the  duty  making 
up  for  the  diminution  of  the  imports. 

The  honorable  gentleman,  however,  has  in  some  degree  ex- 
plained himself  on  this  point,  in  a  reply  to  a  remark  of  my 
colleague,  (Mr.  Hudson,)  and  he  must  pardon  me  for  saying, 
that  he  seems  to  have  explained  away  the  whole  force  of  his 
paradox.  I  understood  him  to  admit,  that  protecting  duties  did 
not  immediately  destroy  revenue;  that,  on  the  contrary,  they 
might  increase  it  for  one,  two,  three,  or  any  number  of  years ; 
and  that  it  was  only  when  they  had  enabled  the  domestic  manu- 
facturer or  producer  to  supply  the  entire  demand  of  the  country, 
that  they  would  put  an  end  to  it  entirely.  It  was  thus  only  an 
ultimate  tendency  of  protecting  duties  to  destroy  revenue,  and 
not  their  immediate  result.  Well,  now,  Sir,  sufficient  unto  the 
day  is  the  evil  thereof.  Let  the  gentleman  join  wTith  us  in  esta- 
blishing a  moderate  system  of  protecting  duties,  graduated  upon 
a  revenue  standard;  and  whenever  his  theory  is  verified,  and 
protection  and  revenue  have  been  proved  to  be  no  longer  com- 
patible, it  will  be  early  enough  to  assign  this  as  a  reason  for 
supplying  the  necessities  of  the  treasury  in  some  other  way. 

But  I  have  alluded  to  this  point  principally  for  the  sake  of 
saying,  that  the  gentleman  has,  in  my  judgment,  placed  an  utterly 
unwarrantable  construction  on  the  phrase,  now  so  much  in  vogue, 
that  duties  should  be  laid  primarily  for  the  purposes  of  revenue, 
and  that  protection  is  only  to  be  incidental  to  that  object.     His 


332  THE  POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

construction  of  this  doctrine  appears  to  be,  that  we  are  to  apply 
the  principle  to  each  individual  article  of  import,  —  selecting 
those  articles,  in  the  first  place,  on  which  to  lay  a  duty,  and  lay- 
ing upon  each  of  them  precisely  that  rate  of  duty,  which  will 
yield  the  largest  possible  amount  of  revenue.  This  is  what  he 
seems  to  understand  by  looking  primarily  to  revenue.  And  it  is 
easy  to  perceive  that  the  protection  incidental  to  such  a  system 
of  imposts  might  be  very  inconsiderable.  Such  a  system  would 
find  its  legitimate  commencement  in  the  imposition  of  the  high- 
est duties  on  the  most  indispensable  necessaries  of  life,  and 
more  particularly  on  such  of  them  as  we  were  least  able  to 
produce  or  manufacture  for  ourselves  ;  and  would  resort  to  a  duty 
upon  luxuries,  and  upon  articles  entering  into  competition  with 
our  own  labor,  only  when  all  other  sources  of  additional  revenue 
were  exhausted. 

But  in  no  such  sense  as  this,  I  need  hardly  say,  Sir,  was  the 
doctrine,  that  revenue  was  to  be  the  primary  object,  and  protec- 
tion only  incidental,  ever  asserted  or  understood  by  the  friends 
of  a  discriminating  tariff.  The  whole  sum  and  substance  of  this 
doctrine,  as  avowed  by  them,  is,  that  no  more  duties  are  to  be 
collected  in  the  aggregate  than  are  necessary  for  purposes  of 
revenue ;  that  we  are  not  to  accumulate  a  surplus  in  the  Trea- 
sury by  laying  high  duties  merely  for  protection ;  that,  in  a  word, 
no  more  moneys  are  to  be  levied  upon  the  people  than  are 
wanted  for  the  support  of  the  government.  But  having  ascer- 
tained how  much  is  wanted,  having  fixed  the  aggregate  amount 
of  revenue  which  it  is  necessary  to  raise,  we  contend  for  the 
right  and  for  the  obligation  to  raise  it  by  such  duties  upon  such 
articles  as  the  great  agricultural,  manufacturing,  or  commercial 
interests  of  the  country  may  render  expedient.  This  was  the 
doctrine  so  clearly  and  emphatically  expressed  by  Mr.  Webster, 
in  the  resolutions  which  he  laid  on  the  table  of  the  Senate  at 
the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  compromise  act,  and  in  explana- 
tion of  the  views  with  which  he  opposed  that  act.  This  is  what 
I  understand  to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  present  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  where  he  says, "  it  is  fully  acknowledged  that  all  duties 
should  be  laid  with  primary  reference  to  revenue ;  and  it  is 
admitted,  without  hesitation  or  reserve,  that  no  more  money 


THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES.  333 

should  be  raised,  under  any  pretence  whatever,  than  such  an 
amount  as  is  necessary  for  an  economical  administration  of  the 
government."  And  this,  too,  is  the  only  interpretation  I  can  put 
upon  these  paragraphs  of  the  President's  message,  —  "In  impos- 
ing duties,  however,  for  the  purposes  of  revenue,  a  right  to  dis- 
criminate as  to  the  articles  on  which  the  duty  shall  be  laid,  as 
well  as  the  amount,  necessarily  and  most  properly  exists."  — 
"  So,  also,  the  government  may  be  justified  in  so  discriminating 
by  reference  to  other  considerations  of  domestic  policy  connected 
with  our  manufactures.  So  long  as  the  duties  shall  be  laid  with 
distinct  reference  to  the  wants  of  the  Treasury,  no  well-founded 
objection  can  exist  against  them."  Sir,  I  do  not  presume  that 
the  opinion  of  the  President,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  to  have  any 
very  controlling  influence  in  this  House.  But  if  this  language 
in  his  message  was  not  used  to  mislead  those  to  whom  it  was 
addressed,  was  not  designed  to  give  a  promise  to  the  ear  to  be 
broken  to  the  hope,  (and  no  one  has  ventured  to  intimate  such 
an  idea,)  it  must  have  been  intended  to  express  an  opinion  in 
favor  of  discrimination,  within  the  standard  of  revenue,  for  the 
purposes  of  protection. 

The  honorable  gentleman  from  Virginia,  indeed,  (Mr.  Jones,) 
informed  us  many  days  ago,  that  the  President's  whole  life  pre- 
cluded such  a  construction ;  and  the  remark  has  been  indorsed 
in  a  quarter  from  which  an  indorsement  is  supposed  to  come 
with  something  more  than  common  authority,  —  the  columns  of 
the  Madisonian.  But  I  must  insist  that  there  is  at  least  one 
passage  in  his  life,  and  that  of  very  recent  occurrence,  which  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia  could  not  have  remembered,  or  could 
not  have  intended  to  include. 

During  the  late  political  campaign,  Mr.  Tyler  was  interrogated 
on  this  question  of  a  tariff  by  Mr.  William  Robinson,  Jr.,  of 
Pittsburg ;  and  here  is  an  extract  from  his  reply  :  — 

"  My  opinions  were  fully  expressed  at  St.  Clairsville,  and  at  Steubenville.  At  both 
places,  in  regard  to  the  question,  what  are  your  opinions  as  to  the  tariff?  I  answered 
that  I  was  in  favor  of  sustaining  the  compromise  bill.  That  it  contained  the  principle 
of  retroaction  the  moment  the  duty  attained  its  minimum,  which  forced  up  the  protec- 
tion, eo  instanti,  to  what  was  equivalent  to  forty  per  cent.  That  the  change  which  it 
effected  in  the  plan  of  valuation  and  the  mode  of  payment,  was  fully  equal,  in  my 
view,  to  twenty-five  or  twenty  per  cent. ;  and  that,  with  a  cessation  of  the  war  upon  the 


334  THE   POLICY   OF    DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

currency,  which  hart  paralyzed  the  industry  of  the  country,  I  was  sanguine  in  the  hope 
and  the  belief  that  prosperity  would  be  speedily  restored." 

Mr.  Tyler  was  thus  in  favor  of  the  compromise  act,  because  it 
contained  a  retroactive  principle  which  forced  up  the  protection 
to  what  was  equivalent  to  forty  per  cent.  How,  then,  can  any 
one  say  that  his  whole  life  has  proved  him  to  be  an  enemy  to 
protection  ?  And  let  me  add  here,  that,  with  this  understanding 
of  the  compromise  act,  I  am  in  favor  of  sustaining  it  also ;  and 
if  its  friends  will  unite  with  us  in  so  adjusting  the  cash  duty 
and  home  valuation  principles,  to  which  Mr.  Tyler  referred,  as  to 
make  them  equivalent  to  forty  per  cent.,  nay,  or  even  to  a  fairly 
imposed  and  fully  collected  thirty  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  —  I  will 
venture  to  say,  that  it  will  soon  cease  to  have  any  opponents. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  let  me  say  a  few  words  in  conclusion 
of  the  whole  matter,  and  with  more  immediate  reference  to  the 
precise  question  upon  which  we  are  about  to  divide.  The  com- 
promise act,  as  it  is  called,  is  about  reaching  its  final  consumma- 
tion. Its  ten  years  of  transition  state  are  about  to  expire.  Its  pro- 
posed experiment  of  a  uniform  twenty  per  cent,  ad  valorem  system 
is  about  to  commence.  Sir,  in  the  judgment  of  a  large  portion 
of  the  people  of  this  country,  that  experiment  is  destined  to 
prove  a  failure.  Its  failure,  indeed,  is  regarded  by  many,  as  a 
foregone  conclusion.  They  think  there  is  evidence  enough  on 
that  point  already.  In  their  judgment,  it  will  inevitably  fail,  in 
the  first  place,  to  produce  revenue  enough  to  meet  the  economi- 
cal wants  of  the  government,  —  using  the  word  economy,  not  as 
some  gentlemen  in  the  course  of  this  debate  have  used  it,  with 
mere  reference  to  dollars  and  cents,  but  with  relation  to  the  honor, 
the  dignity,  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare  of  the 
country.  In  their  judgment,  too,  it  will  no  less  signally  fail  in 
exerting  those  favorable  influences  on  all  the  great  interests  of 
American  industry  —  commercial  and  agricultural,  as  well  as 
manufacturing  —  which  may  be  justly  expected  from  the  opera- 
tion of  a  permanent  revenue  policy.  They  believe  that  the  pay- 
ment of  duties  in  cash  which  it  prescribes,  will  be  a  serious 
grievance  to  the  mercantile  community,  without  the  intervention 
of  what  is  known  as  the  warehousing  system.  They  believe 
that  the  ad  valorem  duties  which  it  universally  imposes,  will  not 


THE   POLICY   OF   DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES.  335 

only  be  a  source  of  infinite  fraud  upon  the  Treasury,  but  will 
drive  out  the  honest  American  merchant  from  his  rightful  busi- 
ness and  occupation,  and  throw  the  whole  importing  trade  of  the 
country,  where  a  large  part  of  it  has  already  gone,  into  the  hands 
of  the  unscrupulous  and  fraudulent  agents  of  foreign  houses. 
They  believe,  too,  that  the  home  valuation  principle  which  it 
contains,  will  be  found  utterly  impracticable,  and  will  involve 
our  collection  system,  if  attempted,  in  a  state  of  things  alike 
unequal  and  unconstitutional.  They  believe,  still  further,  that 
the  rate  of  duties  which  it  establishes,  and  more  especially  if 
their  payment  in  cash  and  their  assessment  upon  a  home  valua- 
tion be  abandoned,  will  prove  entirely  insufficient  to  protect  the 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  labor  of  the  country  from  a  ruin- 
ous competition  with  the  cheaper  labor  of  the  old  world,  and 
that  not  merely  our  cotton-mills  and  woollen-mills  will  many  of 
them  be  prostrated,  but  great  numbers  of  the  artisans  and  me- 
chanics of  our  humbler  workshops  will  be  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment. They  believe  that  large  quantities  of  ready  made  clothing, 
of  hats,  of  boots  and  shoes,  of  ropes  and  cordage,  of  paper,  of 
iron  ware,  and  wooden  ware,  and  glass  ware,  will  be  imported 
under  a  twenty  per  cent,  duty,  and  will  undersell  in  our  own  mar- 
kets the  fabrics  of  our  own  industry.  And  let  no  gentleman  be- 
lieve it  impossible  that  some  of  our  workshops  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  other  lands.  It  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  within  a  few 
days  past,  that  an  entire  set  of  machinery  for  spinning  arid  laying 
hemp,  with  the  hands  to  manage  it,  has  been  very  recently  sent 
out  from  Massachusetts  to  Manilla,  from  which  a  liberal  supply 
of  ready-made  rope  may  soon  be  expected,  —  a  fact,  which,  per- 
haps, may  prove  interesting  to  the  hemp-growers  in  Kentucky 
and  elsewhere.  But,  still  again,  they  believe  that  the  fresh 
flood  of  importations  which  such  a  system  of  revenue  will  throw 
in  upon  us,  will  not  only  distress  and  prostrate  much  of  our 
manufacturing  industry,  but  will  involve  the  agriculture  of  the 
nation  equally  in  its  disastrous  results,  both  by  diminishing  the 
power  of  paying  for  its  products  in  the  home  market,  and  by 
compelling  it  to  reduce  the  price  of  those  products  to  an  amount, 
at  which  they  can  be  used  to  advantage  in  balancing  the  account 
of  the  country  in  the  foreign  market.     They  believe,  yet  further, 


336  THE   POLICY   OF   DISCRIMINATING    DUTIES. 

that  the  currency  of  the  Union  will  partake  largely  of  the  com- 
mon calamity ;  that  our  specie  will  be  drawn  away  from  us  in 
ruinous  amounts  to  pay  for  our  excessive  importations  ;  and  that 
the  long  desired  day  of  return  to  a  sound  state  of  things  will  be 
still  further  postponed. 

It  would  be  easy,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  enlarge  on  each  of  these 
points  of  objection  to  the  anticipated  operation  of  the  compro- 
mise act.  But  I  have  detained  the  House  too  long  already,  and 
other  opportunities  will  occur.  All  I  will  add  now  is,  that  such 
being  the  opinion  of  great  numbers  of  persons  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  it  is  but  reasonable,  it  is  but  just,  that  the  subject  should 
be  deliberately  investigated  in  all  its  bearings.  We  seek  no  ex- 
clusive hearing  for  the  manufacturing  interests.  We  desire  that 
the  labor  of  the  country  should  be  looked  to,  in  all  its  branches. 
We  believe  that  the  existing  revenue  system,  if  adhered  to,  will 
be  disastrous  to  all  alike ;  and  we  desire  that  its  operations 
should  be  examined  in  reference  to  all  alike.  The  House  will 
bear  me  witness  that  the  resolution  of  inquiry  introduced  by  me 
at  the  last  session,  and  afterwards  sanctioned  by  the  Committee 
on  Commerce,  was  thus  broad,  comprehensive,  and  general  in  its 
terms.  I  heartily  wish  that  resolution  could  have  been  adopted, 
and  that  the  fruits  of  the  investigation  it  proposed  were  now  be- 
fore us.  We  should  not,  in  such  case,  be  engaged  in  disputing 
on  such  a  barren  and  bootless  issue  as  the  present.  It  was  a 
measure^vhich  commended  itself  to  the  intelligent  approbation  of 
the  whole  community,  and  nothing  but  a  most  groundless  jea- 
lousy of  its  object  could  have  occasioned  its  defeat.  I  pray 
gentlemen  to  join  in  repairing  the  consequences  of  that  defeat 
as  far  as  we  can.  I  pray  them  not  to  deny  to  this  subject  of 
the  tariff  a  fair  and  full  hearing  at  the  present  session,  and  not 
to  send  it  to  any  committee  who  will  be  prevented,  either  by 
occupation  or  inclination,  and  much  less  by  instruction,  from  at- 
tending to  it  thoroughly. 

Sir,  the  strongest  objection  I  have  to  the  amendment  and  the 
instructions  now  under  consideration  is,  that  they  seem  to  be 
proposed  and  pressed  with  a  view  to  foreclose  all  further  consi- 
deration or  agitation  of  this  subject  of  protection.  They  seem 
to  have  had  their  origin  in  something  of  the  same  design  to  de- 


THE  POLICY  OF  DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES.  337 

prive  the  citizens  of  the  free  States  of  a  hearing  in  relation  to 
what  may  be  called  their  own  peculiar  institutions,  which  has 
already  deprived  them  of  a  hearing  in  regard  to  the  peculiar  in- 
stitutions of  the  Southern  States.  Protection  is  an  exploded 
term,  says  one.  It  is  unconstitutional,  and  ought  not  to  be  so 
much  as  named  in  this  House,  says  another.  Abolish  the  Com- 
mittee on  Manufactures,  says  a  third.  Instruct  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means,  says  a  fourth,  to  have  no  reference  to  the 
industry  of  the  country.  Sir,  I  implore  gentlemen  to  take  no 
such  proscriptive  course.  I  am  not  accustomed  to  deal  in  warn- 
ings. We  have  had  quite  too  many  of  them  from  other  quarters. 
But  I  tell  them,  that  the  excitement  produced  by  your  twenty- 
first  rule,  deep  and  pervading  as  it  has  been  in  many  parts  of 
the  country,  —  when  compared  with  that  which  would  be  pro- 
duced by  an  arbitrary  effort  to  rule  this  subject  of  discrimination 
in  favor  of  our  own  labor  out  of  the  House,  —  would  be  as  the 
light  murmuring  of  the  distant  wind,  compared  with  the  deep- 
toned  thunder  of  the  raging  storm.  The  whole  country  has 
looked  forward  to  this  tenth  year  of  the  compromise  act,  as  the 
time  when  the  tariff  was  to  be  revised,  as  the  time  when  the 
seal  of  silence  which  that  act  imposed  was  to  be  taken  off,  as 
the  time  when  all  who  were  interested  in  its  provisions,  were 
once  more  to  be  fairly  and  fully  heard.  I  pray  the  House  to 
grant  that  full  and  fair  hearing  by  a  Committee  appropriate  to 
the  purpose. 

There  would  be  work  enough,  indeed,  in  such  an  investigation, 
for  half  a  dozen  Committees,  and  I  would  not  object,  myself,  to 
having  the  labor  thus  distributed.  The  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means  might  examine  the  revenue  system  of  the  country,  for  in- 
stance, simply  with  reference  to  the  finances.  The  Committee 
on  Agriculture  might  investigate  its  operation  on  the  farming 
and  planting  interests,  the  corn,  and  wheat,  the  cotton,  tobacco, 
and  rice  interests.  The  Committee  on  Commerce  might  inquire 
into  its  effects  upon  the  commercial  and  navigating  interests  of 
the  nation,  and  might  well  extend  their  examination  into  the  in- 
fluence of  those  reciprocity  treaties,  as  they  are  called,  which  are 
giving  such  an  advantage  to  the  shipping  of  foreign  countries 
in  our  ports;  —  that  West  India  Treaty  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's, 

29 


338  THE   POLICY   OF  DISCRIMINATING  DUTIES. 

more  particularly,  which,  during  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years, 
has  increased  the  British  tonnage  clearing  from  our  ports  for  the 
British  colonies  and  provinces,  more  than  twentyfold,  while  it 
has  increased  the  American  tonnage  clearing  from  the  same  ports 
less  than  threefold;  which  has  increased  the  British  tonnage 
clearing  for  all  foreign  ports  from  our  own  ports  more  than  five- 
fold, while  it  has  increased  the  American  tonnage  less  than  two- 
fold; and  which  has  already  reduced  the  American  tonnage 
entering  our  ports  direct  from  the  British  West  Indies  more  than 
one  half.  The  Committee  on  Manufactures  might,  then,  con- 
fine their  attention  to  the  condition  of  our  manufactures  and 
mechanic  arts,  and  to  the  effect  which  is  likely  to  be  produced 
upon  them  by  the  ultimate  operation  of  the  compromise  act. 
"We  should  thus  have  a  series  of  reports  of  great  interest  and 
value,  embracing  different  views  of  the  same  general  subject, 
and  affording  a  basis  for  sound,  intelligent,  and  impartial  legis- 
lation. 

The  paragraphs  of  the  President's  message  now  under  con- 
sideration relate,  however,  solely  to  discrimination  in  reference  to 
manufactures.  Let  them  go,  then,  to  the  Committee  on  Manu- 
factures. Why  should  they  not  ?  Is  that  Committee  com- 
posed of  gentlemen  friendly  to  a  protecting  policy  ?  So  much 
the  more  reason  for  such  a  reference.  It  is  the  parliamentary 
right  of  every  interest  to  be  heard  through  a  Committee  of  its 
friends.  What  harm  can  result  from  such  a  course  ?  The  mere 
reference  will  commit  the  House  to  no  particular  course  of  ac- 
tion. The  report  of  the  Committee  will  be  obligatory  upon 
nobody.  You  have  committed  the  President's  plan  of  finance 
to  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  favorable  to  the  scheme ;  but 
you  can  crush  the  project,  when  it  comes  back,  if  you  desire  to 
do  so,  as  easily  as  if  you  had  referred  it  originally  to  its  known 
opponents.  So  it  will  be  with  a  protecting  tariff,  if  one  should 
be  reported.  If  you  are  resolved  to  strike  down  the  Labor  of 
our  own  land,  strike  it  down  ;  but,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  just 
and  equitable,  hear,  hear,  before  you  strike,  and  hear  fairly,  deli- 
berately, and  fully. 


NOTE. 


The  petition  of  Paul  Pritchard,  which  was  among  the  first  presented  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and 
which  is  alluded  to  on  page  311,  will  not  be  read  without  interest 

April  13,  1789. 

TO    THE  HON".   SPEAKER   AND   MEMBERS    OP   THE    HOUSE   OP  REPRESENTA- 
TIVES IN  THE  CONGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA : 

The  petition  of  the  Shipwrights  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina  humbly 
showeth : 

That  your  petitioners  reflect  with  pleasure  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  gives  the  exclusive  right  of  forming  treaties  and  regulating  commerce  to 
the  General  Government  of  the  Union,  which  can  alone  equally,  safely,  and 
effectually,  exercise  the  same. 

From  the  diminished  state  of  ship-building  in  America,  and  the  ruinous  re- 
strictions to  which  our  vessels  are  subject  in  foreign  ports ;  from  the  distressed 
condition  of  our  commerce,  languishing  under  the  most  disgraceful  inequalities, 
its  benefits  transferred  from  our  own  citizens  to  strangers,  who  do  not,  nor  ever 
will,  feel  those  attachments  which  can  alone  render  a  mercantile  interest  useful 
to  the  country ;  and  above  all,  mortified  at  the  daily  humiliating  sight  of  our 
valuable  staples  lading  the  vessels  and  enriching  the  merchants  of  Powers  who 
neither  have  treaties  with  us  nor  are  friendly  to  our  commerce  ;  with  deference 
and  respect,  your  petitioners  humbly  entreat  the  early  and  earnest  attention  of 
your  honorable  House  to  these  important  considerations. 

Enjoying  a  country  which  possesses  every  thing  to  make  its  commerce  flou- 
rishing and  its  reputation  respectable,  there  wanted  but  a  supreme  energetic  sys- 
tem, capable  of  uniting  its  efforts  and  drawing  its  resources  to  a  point,  to  render 
us  a  great  and  happy  people.  This  system  we  trust  the  wisdom  of  the  General 
Convention  has  produced,  and  the  virtue  of  the  people  confirmed.  Under  your 
able  and  upright  administration  of  the  ample  powers  it  contains,  we  look  for- 
ward with  pleasing  hopes  to  the  period  when  we  shall  once  more  see  public 


340  NOTE. 

credit  firmly  established,  private  rights  secured,  and  our  citizens  enjoying  the 
blessings  of  a  mild  and  active  government 

No  more,  we  trust,  shall  we  lament  our  trade  almost  wholly  in  the  possession 
of  foreigners ;  our  vessels  excluded  from  the  ports  of  some  nations,  and  fettered 
with  restrictions  in  others;  or  materials,  the  produce  of  our  country,  which 
should  be  retained  for  our  own  use,  exported,  and  increase  the  maritime  conse- 
quence of  other  powers. 

To  the  wisdom  of  the  General  Legislature  we  look  up  for  a  correction  of  these 
public  evils.  The  formation  of  treaties  and  the  regulation  of  commerce  are 
questions  which  can  be  committed  with  safety  to  the  enlightened  councils  of  the 
Union  alone ;  it  would  be  as  unnecessary,  as  it  would  be  unbecoming,  in  us  to 
presume  to  point  out  the  measures  proper  to  be  adopted.  It  is  sufficient  for  us 
to  join  with  our  Northern  brethren  in  asserting,  that  we  have  most  severely  felt 
the  want  of  such  a  navigation  act  as  will  place  our  vessels  upon  an  equality  with 
other  nations.  To  you,  who  are  the  only  proper  guardians  of  our  general  rights, 
we  resort  with  confidence  for  redress,  assured  that  no  means  will  be  left  unat- 
tempted,  to  remedy  these  evils,  and  to  render  us  respectable  abroad  and  at 


And  your  petitioners,  as  in  duty  bound,  will  ever  pray. 

Signed,  in  the  city  of  Charleston,  this  2d  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1789,  by  order 
of  the  shipwrights. 

Paul  Pritchard,  } 

James  George,      v  Committee. 

David  Hamilton,) 

It  was  in  response  to  a  similar  movement  among  the  ship-owners  and  ship- 
builders in  Boston,  which  seemed  to  aim  at  the  exclusive  protection  of  the  navi- 
gating interests,  that  the  Boston  mechanics,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Paul  Re- 
vere, put  the  following  well-remembered  interrogatory :  —  "  What  difference 
does  it  make  to  us,  whether  hats,  shoes,  boots,  shirts,  handkerchiefs,  tin  ware, 
brass  ware,  cutlery,  and  every  other  article,  come  in  British  ships,  or  come  in 
your  ships ;  since,  in  whatever  ships  they  come,  they  take  away  our  means  of 
living?" 


THE  IMPRISONMENT 

OP 

FREE   COLOEED   SEAMEN. 

A   REPORT  MADE   TO  THE    HOUSE  OF   REPRESENTATIVES    OF   THE    UNITED 
STATES,  JANUARY  20,  1843. 


The  Committee  on  Commerce,  to  whom  was  referred  the 
memorial  of  Benjamin  Rich  and  others,  submit  the  subjoined 
report : 

The  memorial  was  commended  to  the  most  attentive  and  re- 
spectful consideration  of  the  committee,  as  well  by  the  subject- 
matter  to  which  it  relates,  as  by  the  character  of  those  from 
whom  it  comes. 

It  is  signed  by  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  citizens  of 
Boston,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  a  large  part  of  whom  are 
very  deeply  interested  in  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  the 
country,  others  of  whom  are  eminently  distinguished  in  legal, 
scientific,  or  literary  pursuits,  and  all  of  whom  are  quite  beyond 
the  reach  of  a  suspicion,  that  they  would  approach  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  nation  in  any  cause,  in  which  they  did  not 
sincerely  believe  that  important  principles  or  valuable  interests 
were  involved.  Probably  no  paper  was  ever  addressed  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  represented  more  of  the 
intelligence,  virtue,  patriotism,  and  property  also,  of  the  metro- 
polis of  New  England.  In  attestation  of  this  statement,  the 
memorial,  with  its  signatures,  is  appended  to  this  report. 

The  memorialists  appear  in  the  character  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  adding,  also,  that  many  of  them  are  masters  and 
owners  of  vessels. 

29* 


342  THE  IMPRISONMENT   OF  FREE   COLORED   SEAMEN. 

They  set  forth,  that  on  board  the  large  number  of  Massachu- 
setts vessels  which  are  accustomed  to  touch  at  the  Southern 
ports  of  this  Union,  it  is  frequently  necessary  to  employ  free 
persons  of  color.  They  proceed  to  state,  that  it  often  happens, 
at  the  ports  of  Charleston,  Savannah,  Mobile,  and  New  Orleans, 
that  these  free  persons  of  color  are  taken  from  the  vessels  to 
which  they  belong,  thrown  into  prison,  and  there  detained  at 
their  own  expense.  They  submit,  that  such  proceedings  are 
greatly  to  the  prejudice  and  detriment  of  their  interests,  and  of 
the  commerce  of  the  nation.  And  they  conclude  by  praying, 
that  relief  may  be  granted  to  them,  and  that  the  privileges  of 
citizenship,  secured  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
may  be  rendered  effectual  in  their  behalf. 

The  committee  regret  to  say,  that  the  facts  which  are  set  forth 
in  the  memorial,  have  been  of  too  frequent  and  too  notorious 
occurrence  to  admit  of  any  denial  or  doubt.  They  regret  still 
more  to  add,  that  the  acts  of  violence  complained  of  by  the  me- 
morialists, have  owed  their  occurrence,  not  to  any  temporary 
excitement  or  any  local  outbreak,  but  to  the  deliberately  enacted 
laws  of  the  States  in  whose  ports  they  have  been  perpetrated. 
It  is  known  to  every  one,  that  laws,  making  it  the  imperative 
duty  of  the  local  magistrates  to  search  for,  arrest,  and  imprison, 
any  free  persons  of  color  belonging  to  the  crews  of  vessels  which 
may  enter  their  harbors,  have  existed,  and  have  often  been  most 
oppressively  executed,  during  a  long  series  of  years,  in  some  of 
the  Southern  States  of  this  Union. 

The  existence  of  such  a  law  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina 
gave  occasion,  almost  twenty  years  ago,  to  a  formal  remon- 
strance to  our  National  Executive,  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
of  Great  Britain,  as  being  in  direct  conflict  with  the  rights  which 
had  been  stipulated  to  British  commerce  by  the  most  solemn 
treaties.  An  interesting  correspondence,  relating  to  this  remon- 
strance, was  communicated  to  this  House  during  the  last  session 
of  Congress,  and  is  annexed  to  this  report,  for  more  convenient 
reference. 

Laws  of  the  same  character  have  been  more  recently  enacted 
in  other  States.  Within  the  past  year  only,  such  a  law  has  been 
introduced  into  the  code  of  Louisiana,  whether  as  an  original 


THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF  FREE  COLORED  SEAMEN.      343 

enactment  on  the  subject,  or  as  a  revised  statute,  the  committee 
have  not  thought  it  important  to  inquire. 

The  committee  have  no  hesitation  in  agreeing  with  the  memo- 
rialists, that  the  acts  of  which  they  complain,  are  violations  of 
the  privileges  of  citizenship  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ex- 
pressly provides,  (art.  4,  sec.  2,)  that  "  citizens  of  each  State 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in 
the  several  States."  Now,  it  is  well  understood  that  some  of 
the  States  of  this  Union  recognize  no  distinction  of  color  in  rela- 
tion to  citizenship.  Their  citizens  are  all  free ;  their  freemen  all 
citizens.  In  Massachusetts,  certainly  — the  State  from  which  this 
memorial  emanates  —  the  colored  man  has  enjoyed  the  full  and 
equal  privileges  of  citizenship  since  the  last  remnant  of  slavery 
was  abolished  within  her  borders  by  the  constitution  of  1780, 
nine  years  before  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  therefore,  at  its 
adoption,  found  the  colored  man  of  Massachusetts  a  citizen  of 
Massachusetts,  and  entitled  him,  as  such,  to  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  a  citizen  in  the  several  States.  And  of  these 
privileges  and  immunities,  the  acts  set  forth  in  the  memorial 
constitute  a  plain  and  palpable  violation. 

It  matters  not  to  this  argument,  in  the  opinion  of  the  commit- 
tee, what  may  be  the  precise  interpretation  given  to  this  clause 
of  the  Constitution.  However  extended  or  however  limited  may 
be  the  privileges  and  immunities  which  it  secures,  the  citizens  of 
each  State  are  entitled  to  them  equally,  without  discrimination 
of  color  or  condition  ;  and  unless  it  is  maintained  that  the  citi- 
zens of  Massachusetts  generally,  may  be  made  subject  to  seizure 
and  imprisonment  for  entering  these  Southern  ports  in  the  pro- 
secution of  their  rightful  business,  whenever  the  Legislatures  of 
South  Carolina,  or  Louisiana,  or  Alabama,  or  Georgia,  may  see 
fit  to  enact  laws  to  that  effect,  it  is  impossible  to  perceive  upon 
what  principle  the  acts  in  question  can  be  reconciled  with  this 
constitutional  provision. 

The  State  laws  under  which  these  acts  are  committed,  are 
also,  in  the  judgment  of  the  committee,  in  direct  contravention 
of  another  provision  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


344  THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF  FREE   COLORED   SEAMEN. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  gives  the  power  to  Con- 
gress "to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  among 
the  several  States."  This  power  is,  from  its  very  nature,  a  para- 
mount and  exclusive  power,  and  has  always  been  so  considered 
and  so  construed.  There  is  no  analogy  between  this  power  of 
regulating  commerce  and  most  of  the  other  powers  which  have 
been  granted  to  the  General  Government.  The  power  to  regu- 
late admits  of  no  partition.  It  excludes  the  idea  of  all  concurrent, 
as  well  as  of  all  conflicting,  action.  It  can  be  exercised  but  by 
one  authority.  Regulation  may  be  as  much  disturbed  and 
deranged,  by  restraining  what  is  designed  to  be  left  free,  as  by 
licensing  what  is  designed  to  be  restrained.  The  grant  necessa- 
rily carries  with  it  the  control  of  the  whole  subject,  leaving 
nothing  in  reference  to  it  for  the  States  to  act  upon.  But  it  is 
too  obvious  to  require,  or  even  bear,  an  argument,  that  the  laws 
in  question,  imposing  severe  penalties,  as  they  do,  upon  certain 
classes  of  seamen  for  entering  certain  ports,  are  infringements, 
by  the  States  in  which  they  have  been  enacted,  upon  this  exclu- 
sive authority  of  the  General  Government. 

Nor  can  the  States  which  have  enacted  these  laws  escape,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  committee,  from  the  charge  of  having  vio- 
lated still  another  provision  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  The 
sixth  article  of  that  instrument  declares,  that  "  all  treaties  made, 
or  which  shall  be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the  United 
States,  shall  be  a  part  of  the  supreme  law  of  the  land."  But 
the  provisions  of  the  laws  in  question,  wherever  they  are  appli- 
cable to  the  crews  of  foreign  vessels,  are  in  direct  conflict  with 
most,  if  not  with  all,  of  the  commercial  treaties  which  have  been 
made  by  the  United  States  with  foreign  nations.  Certainly,  no 
treaty  of  commerce  between  the  United  States  and  any  other 
nation  is  known  to  the  committee,  which  contains  any  restric- 
tions as  to  the  color  of  the  crews  by  which  that  commerce  is  to 
be  carried  on. 

It  seems  to  be  understood,  that  the  application  of  these  laws 
to  foreign  vessels  has  of  late  years  been  suspended.  This  consi- 
deration, however,  if  true,  cannot  make  the  laws  themselves  less 
obnoxious  to  constitutional  objections;  still  less  can  it  render 
them   more   acceptable  to  our   own   citizens.     The  idea   that 


THE  IMPRISONMENT   OP  FREE   COLORED   SEAMEN.  345 

foreign  seamen  are  treated  with  greater  clemency  in  our  own 
ports  than  native  American  seamen,  can  only  serve,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  increase  the  impatience,  and  aggravate  the  odium,  with 
which  such  laws  are  justly  regarded. 

The  committee  are  aware  that  the  laws  in  question  have 
sometimes  been  vindicated  upon  considerations  of  domestic  po- 
lice ;  and  they  have  no  disposition  to  deny,  that  the  general  police 
power  belonging  to  the  States,  by  virtue  of  their  general  sove- 
reignty, may  justify  them  in  making  police  regulations  even  in 
relations  to  matters  over  which  an  exclusive  control  is  constitu- 
tionally vested  in  the  National  Government. 

But  the  committee  utterly  deny  that  provisions  like  these  can 
be  brought  within  the  legitimate  purview  of  the  police  power. 
That  American  or  foreign  seamen,  charged  with  no  crime,  and 
infected  with  no  contagion,  should  be  searched  for  on  board  the 
vessels  to  which  they  belong ;  should  be  seized  while  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  duties,  or,  it  may  be,  while  asleep  in  their  berths  ; 
should  be  dragged  on  shore  and  incarcerated,  without  any  other 
examination  than  an  examination  of  their  skins  ;  and  should  be 
rendered  liable,  in  certain  contingencies  over  which  they  may 
have  no  possible  control,  to  be  subjected  to  the  ignominy  and 
agony  of  the  lash,  and  even  to  the  infinitely  more  ignominious 
and  agonizing  fate  of  being  sold  into  slavery  for  life,  and  all  for 
purposes  of  police,  —  is  an  idea  too  monstrous  to  be  entertained 
for  a  moment.  It  would  seem  almost  a  mockery  to  allude  to  the 
subject  of  police  regulations  in  connection  with  such  acts  of  vio- 
lence. 

It  may  be  difficult,  perhaps,  to  assign  the  precise  limits  to 
which  this  police  power  of  the  States  may  extend.  There  is  one 
limit  to  it,  however,  about  which  the  committee  conceive  there 
can  be  no  question.  The  police  power  of  the  States  can  never 
be  permitted  to  abrogate  the  constitutional  privileges  of  a  whole 
class  of  citizens,  upon  grounds,  not  of  any  temporary  moral  or 
physical  condition,  but  of  distinctions  which  originate  in  their 
birth,  and  which  are  as  permanent  as  their  being.  Or,  to  use  still 
more  general  terms,  the  police  power  of  the  States  can  never 
justify  enactments  or  regulations,  which  are  in  direct,  positive, 
and  permanent  conflict  with  express  provisions  or  fundamental 
principles  of  the  national  compact. 


346      THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF  FREE  COLORED  SEAMEN. 

This  would  seem  to  be  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  recent  case  of  Prigg  versus  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania.  The  Court  having  in  that 
case  decided  that  "  the  power  of  legislation  in  relation  to  fugi- 
tives from  labor  is  exclusive  in  the  national  government,"  seem 
to  have  anticipated  that  a  necessity  for  State  interference  might 
arise,  in  reference  to  the  peace  and  security  of  the  Common- 
wealth in  which  such  fugitives  might  take  refuge.  They  accord- 
ingly admit,  that  the  general  police  power  of  the  States  would 
reach  to  such  a  case ;  but  they  declare  that  any  such  regulations 
of  police  "  can  never  be  permitted  to  interfere  with,  or  obstruct, 
the  just  rights  of  the  owner  to  reclaim  his  slave,  derived  from 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Now,  if  such  a  limitation  be  applicable  to  the  third  paragraph 
of  the  second  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution, 
it  certainly  cannot  be  less  applicable  to  the  first  paragraph  of  the 
same  section  of  the  same  article.  If  the  police  power  of  a 
State  cannot  be  permitted  to  divest  a  master  of  his  constitutional 
right  over  his  slave,  as  secured  by  one  of  these  provisions,  as 
little  can  it  be  suffered  to  divest  a  free  citizen  of  his  constitu- 
tional right  over  himself,  his  own  actions,  and  his  own  motions, 
as  guaranteed  by  the  other.  If,  on  the  contrary,  this  police 
power  can  make  a  citizen  no  citizen  in  one  State,  it  is  hard  to 
perceive  why  it  cannot  make  a  slave  no  slave  in  another  State. 

There  is  an  act  on  the  statute  book  of  the  United  States 
which  may  seem  to  have  some  reference  to  the  subject  under 
consideration.  It  bears  date  February  28, 1803,  and  contains 
the  following,  among  other  provisions :  — 

"  No  master  or  captain  of  any  ship  or  vessel,  or  any  other 
person,  shall  import  or  bring,  or  cause  to  be  imported  or  brought, 
any  negro,  mulatto,  or  other  person  of  color,  not  being  a  native, 
a  citizen,  or  registered  seaman  of  the  United  States,  or  seamen 
natives  of  countries  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  into  any 
port  or  place  of  the  United  States,  which  port  or  place  shall  be 
situated  in  any  State,  which,  by  law,  has  prohibited,  or  shall 
prohibit,  the  admission  or  importation  of  such  negro,  mulatto, 
or  other  person  of  color. 

"  No  ship  or  vessel  arriving  in  any  of  the  said  ports  or  places 


THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF  FREE  COLORED  SEAMEN.      347 

of  the  United  States,  and  having  on  board  any  negro,  mulatto, 
or  other  person  of  color,  not  being  a  native,  a  citizen,  or  regis- 
tered seaman  of  the  United  States,  or  seamen  natives  of  coun- 
tries beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  as  aforesaid,  shall  be 
admitted  to  an  entry." 

The  act  proceeds  to  prescribe  penalties  for  the  violation  of 
these  provisions,  and  to  make  it  the  duty  of  the  officers  of  the 
revenue  of  the  United  States  to  notice,  and  be  governed  by,  the 
provisions  of  the  laws,  then  existing,  of  the  several  States,  pro- 
hibiting the  admission  or  importation  of  any  negro,  mulatto,  or 
other  person  of  color,  as  aforesaid. 

A  very  brief  examination  of  this  act  will  be  sufficient,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  committee,  to  show  that  it  has  little,  if  any, 
bearing  upon  the  grievances  complained  of  by  the  memorialists 
or  upon  the  State  laws  which  are  the  subject  of  this  report. 
Indeed,  the  committee  would  hardly  have  thought  it  necessary 
to  allude  to  the  act,  had  it  not  been  relied  on  to  some  extent  by 
a  late  Attorney- General  of  the  United  States,  (Mr.  Berrien,) 
whose  opinion  is  annexed  to  the  report  of  the  minority,  to  justify 
the  operation  of  the  law  of  South  Carolina  in  the  case  of  Daniel 
Fraser,  a  British  sailor,  born  in  the  British  West  Indies. 

The  act  of  1803  was  evidently  passed  in  reference  to  that 
provision  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  which  de- 
clares, "that  the  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as 
any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit  shall 
not  be  prohibited  by  Congress  prior  to  the  year  1808."  This 
provision  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  well  understood,  had  imme- 
diate relation  to  the  slave  trade,  and  was  designed  to  secure  to 
the  several  States  of  the  Union,  until  the  year  1808,  the  right 
to  admit  within  their  limits,  or  to  exclude  altogether,  at  their 
own  discretion,  the  unfortunate  subjects  of  this  infamous  traffic. 
The  act  of  1803  was  obviously  intended  to  aid  those  States, 
which  might  prohibit  the  admission  of  such  persons,  in  the 
enforcement  of  such  prohibitions.  Congress,  however,  having 
taken  this  whole  subject  into  its  own  hands  at  the  earliest 
moment  at  which  the  Constitution  empowered  it  to  do  so,  and 
having  enacted  laws,  coextensive  with  the  whole  country,  in 
relation  to  the  introduction   of  such  persons  into  the   United 


348  THE  IMPRISONMENT   OF  FREE   COLORED   SEAMEN. 

States,  the  reasons  of  the  act  of  1803  would  seem  to  have 
wholly  ceased ;  and  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  the  act 
itself,  though  never  formally  repealed,  has  not  ceased  also.  The 
committee  incline  to  the  opinion  that  it  is  a  mere  dead  letter 
upon  the  statute  book. 

If,  however,  it  is  supposed  to  have  any  thing  of  vitality  left, 
it  must  be  observed  that  it  relates  exclusively  to  vessels  arriving 
from  foreign  lands.  This  is  evident,  both  from  the  general 
phraseology  of  the  act,  and  from  the  particular  penalty  pre- 
scribed for  its  violation.  The  vessel,  it  is  declared,  shall  not  be 
admitted  to  "  entry."  But  vessels  bound  to  or  from  one  State 
cannot  constitutionally  be  required  to  "  enter  "  in  another.  The 
act,  moreover,  expressly  excepts  from  the  operation  of  its  pro- 
visions all  colored  persons  who  are  "  natives,  citizens,  or  registered 
seamen  of  the  United  States,  or  seamen  natives  of  countries 
beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope."  In  relation  to  all  colored 
persons  thus  excepted,  therefore,  the  act  of  1803  contains  no 
prohibition  on  the  part  of  the  general  government,  and  author- 
izes none  on  the  part  of  any  State  ;  nor  are  any  of  its  provisions 
applicable  to  vessels  of  the  United  States  passing  from  port  to 
port.  The  direct  implication  of  the  act,  on  the  contrary,  clearly 
is,  that  all  colored  persons  included  in  the  terms  of  the  exception, 
shall  have  free  and  unmolested  ingress  into  all  the  ports  of  this 
Union,  and  that  our  own  vessels  shall  pass  along  from  port  to 
port  with  such  crews,  so  far  as  color  is  concerned,  as  their  masters 
and  owners  may  see  fit  to  employ.  If,  then,  the  act  of  1803  be 
still  in  force,  and  if  this  be  its  just  construction,  no  other  evidence 
can  be  required,  that  the  laws  of  the  Southern  States  complained 
of  by  the  memorialists,  are  in  direct  collision  with  a  law  of  the 
United  States. 

There  is  one  view  in  which  the  law  of  1803  is  certainly  not 
without  importance.  There  is  one  point  on  which,  even  if  dead, 
it  still  speaks.  The  distinct  recognition  which  it  contains,  of 
the  idea  that  a  negro,  mulatto,  or  other  colored  person,  may  be 
a  "  citizen "  of  the  United  States,  is  sufficient  to  prove  the 
opinion  which  was  entertained  by  the  Congress  of  1803,  upon 
a  doctrine  which  of  late  years  has  so  often  been  denied. 

The  Committee  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  dwell  longer  on 


THE  IMPRISONMENT   OF  FREE  COLORED   SEAMEN.  349 

the  constitutional  character  of  the  proceedings  which  the  memo- 
rial sets  forth,  or  of  the  State  laws  by  which  they  are  sanctioned. 
They  content  themselves  with  appending,  as  a  part  of  their 
report,  an  opinion  on  the  subject,  officially  communicated  to  the 
Secretary  of  State,  by  the  late  William  Wirt,  while  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States,  in  the  year  1824 ;  and  also  an 
opinion  of  the  late  Mr.  Justice  Johnson,  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  delivered  in  a  case  arising  under  these 
laws  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in  the  year  1823.  This  lat- 
ter opinion,  for  which  a  call  upon  the  Executive  was  made  by 
this  House  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  contains  a  compre- 
hensive and  conclusive  view  of  the  whole  subject,  and,  as  the 
production  of  a  native  South  Carolinian,  can  hardly  be  subject 
to  the  imputation  of  local  prejudice. 

That  the  operation  of  these  laws  is  oppressive  upon  the 
memorialists,  and  greatly  injurious  to  the  general  interests  of 
commerce,  the  committee  can  see  no  reason  and  no  room  to 
doubt.  For  some  of  the  stations  on  board  both  of  our  sailing 
vessels  and  steamboats,  colored  mariners  are  thought  to  possess 
peculiar  qualifications.  They  are  very  generally  employed  as 
firemen,  laborers,  stewards,  and  cooks.  The  memorialists  state 
that  it  is  frequently  necessary  to  employ  them.  The  abduction 
of  persons  so  employed  immediately  on  the  arrival  of  a  vessel 
in  port,  and  their  detention  at  a  heavy  expense  until  the  very 
moment  of  its  departure,  cannot  be  less  an  injury  to  their  em- 
ployers than  it  is  an  outrage  on  themselves.  The  opinion  of  Mr. 
Justice  Johnson  will  be  found  to  make  mention  of  a  case,  in 
which,  under  the  operation  of  these  laws,  "  not  a  single  man 
was  left  on  board  the  vessel  to  guard  her  in  the  captain's 
absence ! " 

The  committee  are  of  opinion,  that  the  memorialists  are 
entitled  to  the  relief  for  which  they  pray,  and  that  important 
commercial  interests,  as  well  as  the  highest  constitutional 
principles,  call  for  the  repeal  of  the  laws  in  question.  Con- 
gress, however,  seems  to  have  no  means  of  affording  such  relief, 
or  of  effecting  such  a  repeal.  The  Judiciary  alone  can  give 
relief  from  the  oppression  of  these  laws  while  they  exist,  and 
the  States  which  enacted  them  are  alone  competent  to  strike 
30 


350  THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF   FREE  COLORED   SEAMEN. 

them  from  their  statute  books.  The  committee  cannot  conclude 
this  report,  however,  without  putting  the  opinions  at  which  they 
have  arrived  into  a  shape,  in  which  they  may  receive  the  ratifica- 
tion and  adoption  of  the  House ;  trusting  that  such  an  expres- 
sion of  them  may  not  be  without  influence  in  procuring  for  the 
memorialists,  and  still  more  for  the  oppressed  and  injured  seamen 
in  their  employ,  the  redress  which  they  rightfully  demand. 

They  accordingly  submit  the  following  Resolutions : 

Resolved,  That  the  seizure  and  imprisonment,  in  any  port  of 
this  Union,  of  free  colored  seamen,  citizens  of  any  of  the  States, 
and  against  whom  there  is  no  charge  but  that  of  entering  said 
port  in  the  prosecution  of  their  rightful  business,  is  a  violation 
of  the  privileges  of  citizenship  guaranteed  by  the  second  section 
of  the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Resolved,  That  the  seizure  and  imprisonment,  in  any  port  of 
this  Union,  of  free  colored  seamen,  on  board  of  foreign  vessels, 
against  whom  there  is  no  charge  but  that  of  entering  said  port 
in  the  course  of  their  lawful  business,  is  a  breach  of  the  comity 
of  nations,  is  incompatible  with  the  rights  of  all  nations  in  amity 
with  the  United  States,  and,  in  relation  to  nations  with  whom 
the  United  States  have  formed  commercial  conventions,  is  a 
violation  of  the  sixth  article  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  which 
declares  that  treaties  are  a  part  of  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 

Resolved,  That  any  State  laws,  by  which  certain  classes  of 
seamen  are  prohibited  from  entering  certain  ports  of  this  Union, 
in  the  prosecution  of  their  rightful  business,  are  in  contravention 
of  the  paramount  and  exclusive  power  of  the  general  government 
to  regulate  commerce. 

Resolved,  That  tne  police  power  of  the  States  can  justify  no 
enactments  or  regulations,  which  are  in  direct,  positive,  and  per- 
manent conflict  with  express  provisions  or  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  the  national  compact. 


NOTE. 


TO   THE  HONORABLE   THE   SENATE  AND   HOUSE    OF   REPRESENTATIVES  OP 
THE  UNITED  STATES,  IN  CONGRESS  ASSEMBLED  : 

Your  petitioners,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  some  of  them  owners  and 
masters  of  vessels, 
Respectfully  represent,  — 

That  on  board  of  that  large  number  of  vessels  accustomed  to  touch  at  the 
ports  of  Charleston,  Savannah,  Mobile,  and  New  Orleans,  it  is  frequently  neces- 
sary to  employ  free  persons  of  color : 

And  whereas  it  frequently  happens  that  such  crews  are  taken  from  the  vessels, 
thrown  into  prison,  and  there  detained  at  their  own  expense,  greatly  to  the  pre- 
judice and  detriment  of  their  interest,  and  of  the  commerce  of  these  States : 

They  pray  your  honorable  body  to  grant  them  relief,  and  render  effectual  in 
their  behalf  the  privileges  of  citizenship  secured  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

And,  as  in  duty  bound,  will  ever  pray. 


Benjamin  Kich 
Henry  Oxnard 
Samuel  Appleton 
J.  Thomas  Stevenson 
Benjamin  Bangs 
Daniel  P.  Parker 
Theodore  Chase 
Henry  G.  Rice 
S.  C.  Gray 
Abbott  Lawrence 
Thomas  Lamb 
John  D.  Bates 
John  Dorr 
William  Appleton 
Paschal  P.  Pope 
J.  Ingersoll  Bowditch 
Magoun  &  Son 
J.  J.  Dixwell 
S.  Austin,  Jr. 


James  S.  Amory 
Francis  J.  Oliver 
Samuel  May 
G.  M.  Thatcher 
Ozias  Goodwin 
R.  B.  Forbes 
Samuel  Whitwell 
James  Savage 
Caleb  Loring 
Thomas  Motley 
Samuel  A.  Dorr 
William  Ropes 
B.  T.  Reed 
C  J.  Everett 
Robert  G.  Shaw 
Robert  B.  Williams 
George  Hallet 
John  G.  Nazro 
Phineas  Sprague 


Samuel  T.  Armstrong 
James  Dennie 
Henry  J.  Nazro 
Henry  J.  Oliver 
Joshua  Crane 
Bramhall  &  Howe 
C.  Wilkins  &  Co. 
George  Thatcher  &  Co. 
Edward  Oakes 
Charles  C.  Bowman 
John  J.  Eaton 
Henderson  Inches,  Jr. 
M.  Brimmer 
T.  M.  J.  Dehon 
Stephen  Grover 
Thomas  B.  Curtis 
Joseph  Ballister  &  Co. 
Josiah  Bradlee  &  Co. 
James  Parker 


352 


NOTE. 


Henry  Lee 
Peter  R.  Dalton 
B.  C  Clarke  &  Co. 

A.  W.  Thaxter,  Jr. 
Barnard,  Adams,  &  Co. 
James  Huckins 
Tapley  &  Crane 
Billings  &  Bailey 

J.  P.  Townsend  &  Co. 
Samuel  Weltch 
George  Williams 
Cyrus  Buttrick 
Frederick  A.  Sumner 
Jos.  Hunnewell  &  Sons 
N.  A.  Thompson  &  Co. 
Isaac  C.Hall 
Howes  &  Co. 
Charles  G.  Loring 
Franklin  Dexter 
Charles  P.  Curtis 

B.  R.  Curtis 
F.  C.  Loring 
George  T.  Curtis 
Thomas  B.  Pope 
John  R.  Adan 
John  S.  Eldridge 
Joseph  Balch 
Benjamin  Guild 
Nath.  Meriam 
Lemuel  Pope 

C.  Curtis 
Edward  S.  Tobey 
R.  C.  Mackay 


John  R.  Brewer 
Isaiah  Bangs 
John  Q.  A.  Williams 
Rice  &  Thaxter 
Charles  J.  Morrill 
Samuel  Blake 
Albert  A.  Bent 
E.  Williams,  Jr. 
Henry  W.  Pickering 
Richard  W.  Shapleigh 
W.  Cotting 

William  Worthington  &  Co. 
Victor  Constant 
William  Rollins 
Cobb  &  Winslow 
William  Sturgis 
George  R.  Minot 
J.  M.  Forbes 
Alfred  C.  Hersey 
William  Perkins 
Robert  G.  Shaw,  Jr. 
E.  Weston  &  Sons 
Winsor  &  Townsend 
Frothingham  &  Bradlee 
Stephen  Tilton  &  Co. 
S.  R.  Allen 
John  O.  B.  Merrit 
Robert  Vinal 
Gregerson  &  Cox 
Reed  &  Howe 
Robert  Day 
Lot  Day 
Jackson  Riggs 


C.  Allen  Browne 
R.  Lincoln  &  Co. 
William  H.  Prentice 
Benjamin  Rand 
W.  Minot 
Edward  G.  Loring 
W.  W.  Story 
Charles  Henry  Parker 
George  William  Bond 
Richard  Robins 
Henry  Hall 
James  K.  Mills 
Edm.  Dwight 
P.  T.  Jackson 
J.  H.  Wolcott 

A.  C.  Lombard  &  Co. 
T.  H.  Perkins 

John  C.  Gray 
Amos  Lawrence 
S.  Bartlett 

B.  A.  Gould 
Benjamin  C.  White 
W.  H.  Gardiner 
Charles  Jackson 
William  Prescott 
William  H.  Prescott 
N.  I.  Bowditch 
Edward  Pickering 
George  Morey 

W.  R.  P.  Washburn 
A-  A.  Dame 
John  Pickering. 


THE 

SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

A  SPEECH   DELIVERED  IN  THE   HOUSE   OF   REPRESENTATIVES  OF   THE   UNI- 
TED STATES,  JANUARY  25,  1843. 


It  is  with  no  little  reluctance,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  I  enter  into 
this  debate.  There  is  a  well-remembered  proverb  of  Solomon, 
that  "  from  the  fulness  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh."  I  con- 
fess, Sir,  that  I  have  no  fulness  of  the  heart  to  speak  from,  in 
relation  to  the  questions  now  before  us.  The  whole  subject  of 
the  currency  has  been  so  perplexed  and  embarrassed,  by  the 
deplorable  collisions  which  have  occurred  between  the  President 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
that  no  man  can  approach  it  without  something  of  repugnance 
and  aversion. 

In  reference  to  this  subject  of  the  currency,  indeed,  we  have 
been  tossed  to  and  fro  on  the  waves  of  party  contention  for 
almost  ten  years.  A  year  or  two  since  we  were  flattered  with 
the  belief  that  we  were  coming  at  last  to  port;  but  the  objects 
which  we  took  for  land,  and  which  were  eagerly  and  joyously 
hailed  as  such  from  the  mast-head,  turned  out  to  be  only  fresh 
reefs  of  rock  across  our  course ;  and  we  seem  to  be  now  as  far 
as  ever,  or  even  farther  than  ever,  from  the  haven  where  we 
would  be.  In  the  mean  time,  the  subject  itself,  as  a  matter  of 
public  discussion,  has  become  "as  stale  as  the  remainder  biscuit 
after  a  voyage." 

Questions,  however,  seem  likely  to  be  taken  before  this  report 
and  resolution  are  disposed  of,  upon  which  any  vote  that  one 
may  give,  will  be  so  exceedingly  liable  to  misconstruction,  that 
I  cannot  consent  to  forego  some  explanation  of  my  views. 

30* 


354       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

Repeated  challenges  have  been  heard  in  this  hall,  for  one  man 
to  rise  in  his  place  and  say  that  he  was  in  favor  of  adopting  the 
Exchequer  plan  as  originally  presented  to  us  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  I  am  not  about  to  respond  to  these  challenges, 
or  to  take  up  the  gauntlet  which  has  thus  been  thrown  down. 
But  I  greatly  doubt  both  the  policy  and  the  propriety  of  passing 
the  pending  resolution,  and  if  compelled  to  give  a  vote  on  it  at 
all,  that  vote  will  be  in  the  negative. 

Before  proceeding,  however,  to  any  remarks  upon  the  resolu- 
tion itself,  or  upon  the  report  by  which  it  is  accompanied,  I  desire 
to  present  some  general  views  on  the  subject-matter  involved  in 
them. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  Sir,  I  wish  to  express  the  strong  sense 
which  I  entertain  of  the  obligation  which  is  resting  upon  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  to  make  provision,  by  law,  in 
some  form  or  other,  and  without  further  delay,  for  the  collection, 
custody,  and  disbursement  of  the  public  moneys.  How  is  it 
with  these  moneys  now  ?  Who  knows  where  they  are  to-day, 
or  where  they  will  be  to-morrow  ?  Who  knows  how  they  are 
collected,  how  they  are  kept,  how  they  are  disbursed?  Who 
does  not  know  that  they  are  collected,  kept,  and  disbursed,  under 
the  almost  entirely  unregulated  and  discretionary  authority  of 
the  Executive  ?  There  is  a  section  or  two  of  an  old  law  of  1789, 
and  there  is  an  amendatory  act  of  1822,  —  both  of  them  exceed- 
ingly loose  in  their  language  and  indefinite  in  their  import ;  and 
there  is  also  the  resolution  of  1816.  The  first  of  these  acts 
merely  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States 
to  receive  and  keep  the  public  moneys,  and  to  disburse  the  same 
upon  the  warrants  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  leaving  all 
the  subordinate  agencies,  through  which  the  receipts  and  pay- 
ments of  this  great  nation  are  to  be  conducted,  entirely  without 
legal  specification  or  selection.  The  second  of  them  relates  main- 
ly to  moneys  appropriated  for  the  War  and  Navy  Departments, 
and  supplies  none  of  the  defects  of  the  previous  act.  And  the 
resolution  of  1816  prescribes  only  the  medium  in  which  the  public 
revenue  shall  be  collected.  These  comprise  all  the  law  there  is 
on  the  subject.  These  are  the  disjecta  membra,  the  dry  and 
detached  bones,  of  our  existing  fiscal  system ;  and  it  is  left  to 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       355 

Executive  construction  to  knit  them  together  as  it  can,  and  to 
clothe  them  with  what  body  it  pleases.  The  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means  admits  all  this,  and  declares  that, 
since  the  late  vetoes  of  the  President,  "  the  public  moneys  have 
remained  in  the  hands  of  officers  appointed  by  the  Executive, 
without  any  definite  regulation  by  law." 

For  one,  I  cannot  feel  that  my  duty  to  the  country,  as  one  of 
its  humblest  Representatives,  is  discharged,  in  leaving  this  dis- 
cretion longer  unchecked.  Do  gentlemen  tell  me,  that  we  have 
tried  twice  to  accomplish  this  object,  and  that  our  efforts  have 
twice  been  defeated  by  the  interposition  of  Executive  vetoes  ? 
Sir,  I  am  no  vindicator  of  those  vetoes,  and  no  apologist  for 
them  in  any  degree.  I  join  as  heartily  as  any  man  in  this  House 
in  deploring  and  condemning  the  use  which  has  been  made  of 
this  odious  veto  power,  both  in  relation  to  this  and  other  matters ; 
though,  perhaps,  I  may  not  think  it  consistent  with  the  dignity 
and  decorum  which  belongs  to  this  place,  to  indulge  in  such 
expressions  on  the  subject  as  have  too  often  been  heard  here. 
But,  so  far  from  finding,  in  such  considerations  as  these,  any 
ground  for  relaxing  our  efforts  in  relation  to  the  public  moneys, 
I  hold  them  to  be  additional  reasons  for  persevering,  until  our 
duty  has  been  accomplished.  We  are  the  Representatives  of  the 
people.  We  have  something  of  peculiar  constitutional  respon- 
sibility for  the  safety  of  the  moneys  of  the  people.  And  because 
the  Executive,  whose  discretion  we  desire  to  control  and  regu- 
late, has  seen  fit,  from  any  cause,  I  care  not  whether  of  con- 
science or  of  contumacy,  to  arrest  and  resist  our  interposition, 
shall  we,  therefore,  forbear  altogether,  and  leave  him  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  the  Treasury  ?  I  cannot  so  read  our  duty. 
On  the  contrary,  if  there  be  distrust  of  the  Executive ;  if  there 
be  disapprobation  of  his  policy  or  principles ;  if  there  be  alarm 
or  apprehension  as  to  his  aims  and  ends,  and  as  to  the  means 
by  which  he  seeks  to  accomplish  them  ;  there  is  all  the  more  rea- 
son, in  my  judgment,  for  persisting  in  our  attempts,  until  the 
public  moneys  shall  be  again  placed  under  legislative  securi- 
ties and  safeguards.  Sir,  if  there  be  fear  of  a  union  of  purse  and 
sword,  we  have  that  union  now,  in  the  very  form  in  which  it 
first  became  the  subject  of  Whig  denunciation,  when  General 


356      THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

Jackson  removed  the  deposites  from  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States ;  and  it  is  for  us,  if  that  union  must,  in  any  shape,  be 
continued,  at  least  to  provide,  that  it  shall  henceforth  be  a  union 
regulated  and  restricted  by  law. 

Thus  far,  it  is  true,  our  Treasury  has  been  in  little  danger. 
Our  poverty  has  been  our  protection.  The  utter  emptiness  of  the 
public  coffers  has  made  it  almost  a  matter  of  indifference  who 
kept  the  keys,  or  whether  there  were  any  keys  at  all.  Cantabit 
vacuus  coram  latrone  viator.  We  have  enjoyed  something  of  the 
security  of  the  penniless  traveller,  who  whistles  in  the  face  of  the 
highwayman.  But  a  different  state  of  things  is  not  far  off.  I 
have  no  fear  that  the  tariff  of  the  last  session,  if  only  allowed 
to  go  fairly  into  operation,  is  about  to  be  so  ruinous  to  our 
revenue  as  some  gentlemen  have  prophesied.  Let  the  ability 
of  the  people  to  consume  be  stimulated,  until  it  rises  above 
the  famine  standard,  above  the  almost  starving  and  freezing 
point,  to  which  an  unchecked  foreign  competition  with  their 
labor  has  reduced  it,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  present  scale  of 
duties  which  will  prevent  an  ample  influx  of  revenue.  The 
country  has  seen  higher  duties  than  these,  and  an  overflowing 
Treasury  at  the  same  time.  Certainly,  if  the  rigor  of  the  cash 
payments  should  be  mitigated  by  the  adoption  of  that  ware- 
housing system,  which,  I  am  happy  to  say,  has  been  matured 
by  the  Committee  of  Commerce  this  very  morning,  and  if,  too, 
this  House  could  be  prevailed  on  to  impose  a  moderate,  tem- 
porary duty  on  tea  and  coffee, —  a  measure  which  no  one  would 
feel  as  oppressive,  and  which  a  due  regard  to  the  public  credit 
demands  of  us,  in  my  judgment,  to  adopt  before  we  adjourn, — 
we  should  witness  a  very  different  condition  of  the  finances  of 
the  country  at  the  commencement  of  the  next  session.  But,  at 
any  rate,  full  or  empty,  exuberant  or  exhausted,  the  Treasury  of 
the  nation  ought  now  and  always  to  be  under  legislative  regula- 
tion and  control.  This,  Sir,  is  Whig  doctrine,  Republican  doc- 
trine, Democratic  doctrine,  Constitutional  doctrine. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  a 
National  Bank,  of  moderate  capital,  say  fifteen  or  twenty  mil- 
lions at  the  farthest,  with  such  limitations  and  restrictions  as  the 
experience  of  the  last  ten  years  has  abundantly  suggested,  always 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OP  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       357 

has  been,  and  is  still,  my  first  choice  for  the  fiscal  agent  of  the 
Government.  Nor  has  the  profligate  mismanagement  of  such 
an  institution,  which  has  recently  been  exhibited,  destroyed  or 
impaired  my  confidence  in  its  value.  No,  Sir,  no  more  than  the 
monstrous  misrule  to  which  this  nation  has  been  subjected  from 
time  to  time,  during  the  last  twelve  years,  has  destroyed  my 
confidence  in  the  free  and  glorious  form  of  government  under 
which  we  live.  I  am  rash  enough  to  think,  too,  that  this  very 
moment  would  be,  in  many  respects,  a  favorable  moment  for 
establishing  such  an  institution ;  believing  that,  while  our  expe- 
rience of  the  evils  to  which  its  bad  management  has  exposed  us, 
is  still  fresh  and  uneffaced,  a  bank  would  be  established  on  safer 
and  stricter  principles,  and  on  a  less  magnificent  and  dangerous 
scale,  than  at  almost  any  time  hereafter.  The  principles  of  the 
President  have,  however,  rendered  this  an  utterly  impracticable 
idea. 

But  there  are  other  modes  which  might  be  tried,  and  which 
ought  to  be  tried,  for  the  same  end.  If  this  Congress  is  willing 
to  do  nothing  else,  it  might  call  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Trea- 
sury to  set  down  in  black  and  white,  and  to  present  to  us  in  the 
form  of  a  statute,  his  present  working  plan  for  keeping,  collect- 
ing, and  disbursing  the  public  funds.  We  might  examine  it, 
amend  it,  and  give  it  the  sanction  of  a  law.  Better  have  any 
system,  even  a  bad  one,  resting  on  written  law,  than  no  system 
at  all,  or  than  a  bad  system,  resting  on  mere  Executive  will. 

So  strongly,  Mr.  Speaker,  have  I  felt  the  impropriety  of  leaving 
the  custody  of  the  public  treasures  of  the  country  longer  at  the 
mere  discretion  of  the  Executive,  that,  as  events  have  turned  out, 
I  have  more  than  once  been  inclined  to  regret,  that  the  Sub-Trea- 
sury system  itself  was  so  summarily  repealed.  Odious  and  abhor- 
rent as  that  system  was  regarded,  I  could  hardly  bring  myself  to 
vote  for  its  entire  repeal  at  this  moment,  were  it  still  in  existence, 
except  by  voting  for  the  simultaneous  substitution  of  something 
better.  And  I  will  do  the  justice  to  the  party  with  which  I  am 
associated  here,  to  say,  that  I  believe  it  was  no  part  of  their  ori- 
ginal purpose,  at  the  extra  session,  to  repeal  that  system  as  an 
independent  measure.  It  has  often  been  charged,  and  often,  as 
I  think,  most  unjustly  charged,  that  the  Whig  party  were  actu- 


358       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

ated,  at  the  extra  session,  by  a  desire  to  embarrass  and  perplex 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  There  is  far  more  ground, 
Sir,  for  charging  them,  in  some  cases,  with  too  great  a  willingness 
to  yield  to  his  suggestions.  That  accusation  of  a  spirit  of  com- 
pliance, which  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Virginia,  (Mr. 
Wise,)  arrayed  against  us  the  other  day,  has,  in  my  opinion, 
much  more  of  foundation ;  though,  perhaps,  it  hardly  lies  with 
the  President's  immediate  friends  to  cast  it  in  our  teeth.  The 
outright  repeal  of  the  Sub-Treasury  system,  as  a  separate  act, 
was,  as  I  understand  it,  a  measure  of  pure  complaisance  towards 
the  Executive.  Its  history  was  on  this  wise :  The  first  bank 
charter  had  passed,  and  was  under  Executive  advisement.  Its 
signature  would  have  repealed  the  Sub-Treasury  system  prospect- 
ively. Its  veto  would  have  left  that  system  standing  permanently. 
A  suggestion  was  made,  from  some  quarter  or  other,  that  the  Pre- 
sident took  this  course  unkindly,  —  that  it  looked  like  a  purpose 
to  make  him  either  sign  the  bank  charter,  or  be  responsible  for 
the  continuance  of  a  system  which  he  himself  admitted  had  been 
condemned.  It  was  thought  that  it  would  put  him  in  better 
humor  for  a  favorable  consideration  of  the  bank,  if  he  were  reliev- 
ed from  this  predicament.  And  upon  this  hint,  the  Sub-Treasury 
repeal  bill  was  hastily  carried  through.  For  one,  I  can  hardly 
help  regretting  that  such  a  course  was  taken.  I  would  rather 
have  left  the  Sub- Treasury  system  on  the  statute  book,  on  the 
joint  responsibility  of  those  who  originated  it,  and  of  those  who 
prevented  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  substitute,  until  some 
third  system  should  have  been  devised.  We  might  have  taken 
out  the  teeth  of  the  monster.  We  might  have  extracted  the  poi- 
son from  its  fangs.  We  might  have  abolished  the  specie  clause, 
a  provision,  which,  as  Mr.  Gallatin  has  well  remarked,  was 
operative  against  those  banks  alone  which  continued  to  pay  in 
specie,  —  "a  warfare  directed  exclusively  against  those  institu- 
tions which  performed  their  duty,  and,  not  without  difficulty, 
sustained  a  sound  currency."  And  perhaps  other  beneficial 
modifications  might  have  been  ingrafted  on  it  at  a  future  day. 
But,  as  a  system  for  keeping  the  public  moneys,  it  was  at  least 
better  than  none,  and  might  better  have  been  left  in  existence 
until  we  could  agree  upon  something  to  take  its  place. 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OP  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       359 

After  the  expression  of  these  views,  Mr.  Speaker,  no  one  can  be 
surprised,  when  I  say  that  I  prefer  even  to  adopt  that  part  of  the 
Exchequer  plan,  which  provides  for  the  custody  and  disburse- 
ment of  the  public  funds,  to  doing  nothing ;  and  that  I  am, 
therefore,  entirely  unwilling  to  cut  myself  off  from  the  opportu- 
nity of  supporting  so  much  at  least  of  the  President's  plan,  by 
voting  for  the  resolution  before  us. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  part  of  the  Exchequer  plan,  for  which, 
under  all  circumstances,  I  am  disposed  to  vote.  I  am  not  one 
of  those  who  hold  that  the  duty  of  the  Government  on  this  sub* 
ject  ends  with  making  provision  for  the  management  of  its  own 
finances.  I  am  no  subscriber  to  the  doctrine,  which  was  heard  a 
few  years  ago,  that  the  Government  should  look  out  for  itself, 
and  should  let  the  people  look  out  for  themselves.  On  the  con- 
trary, in  relation  both  to  revenue  and  to  finance,  the  interests  of 
the  people  should  be  embraced  in  every  consideration  of  the 
wants  of  the  Government.  Especially,  at  a  moment  of  such 
commercial  embarrassment  and  depression  as  the  present,  we 
should  contemplate,  if  possible,  no  measure  of  relief  to  the 
Treasury,  which  does  not  hold  out  some  hope  of  relief  to  the 
community  also.  We  all  regret, —  all  of  us  at  least  who  consti- 
tute the  majority  in  this  House,  —  that  circumstances  have  pre- 
vented us  from  doing  what  we  desired  to  do  in  this  behalf.  But, 
if  we  cannot  do  all  that  we  wish,  let  us  not  fail  to  do  all  that  we 
conscientiously  and  constitutionally  can,  trusting  to  other  and 
greater  opportunities  for  the  ultimate  fulfilment  of  our  desires. 

Now,  Sir,  I  am  one  of  those  who  believe,  that  a  simple  issue 
of  fifteen  or  twenty  millions  of  Exchequer  notes,  redeemable  in 
specie,  at  sight,  (and  I  would  prefer  them  redeemable  in  the  city 
of  New  York  alone,  or,  at  most,  at  one  or  two  other  points,)  and 
resting  on  a  basis  sufficient  to  secure  their  redeemability  from  all 
danger  and  all  doubt,  at  any  and  every  instant  when  they  might 
be  presented,  would  be  a  very  considerable  convenience  and 
relief,  both  to  the  Government  and  to  the  people.  Government 
paper  is,  indeed,  no  prime  favorite  of  mine,  in  any  form.  I  regret 
that  we  have  been  under  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  it  at  all. 
But,  as  we  have  lived  upon  it  already  for  five  or  six  years,  and 
seem  not  likely,  at  present,  to  obtain  a  national  medium  of  cir- 


360       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

culation  of  any  other  kind,  I  am  willing  to  try  it  in  the  most 
convenient  shape.  Nor  can  I  agree  with  gentlemen  who  pro- 
nounce such  a  medium,  based  upon  specie  even  to  the  extent  of 
dollar  for  dollar,  as  not  worth  having.  Something  a  little  more 
liberal,  so  it  were  safe,  might  undoubtedly  be  preferable.  Some- 
thing more  liberal  would  indeed  be  indispensable,  so  far  as  any 
relief  to  the  Treasury  is  concerned ;  and  the  President's  plan, 
accordingly,  makes  provision  for  basing  an  issue  of  fifteen  mil- 
lions of  notes  upon  five  millions  of  specie,  and  five  millions  of 
Government  bonds  to  be  negotiated  as  needed.  Increase  the 
authority  to  issue  bonds  to  the  full  amount  which  might  be 
necessary  in  any  emergency  for  redeeming  the  entire  issue  of 
notes,  and  the  safety  of  such  a  provision  could  hardly  be  ques- 
tioned. The  bonds  would,  in  all  probability,  never  be  called  for, 
and  the  Treasury  would  have  an  addition  of  ten  millions  to  its 
resources  at  a  moment  when  such  an  addition  may  be  absolutely 
indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  public  credit.  But  the 
mere  substitution  of  paper  for  metal  is  certainly  a  great  conve- 
nience to  the  people  ;  and  gentlemen  forget  one  of  the  heads  of 
their  old  arguments  against  a  hard-money  currency,  when  they 
spurn  such  a  substitution  as  so  utterly  worthless  and  contemptible. 
Such  a  paper  would  be  convenient  for  local  payments,  convenient 
for  Treasury  payments,  and,  more  especially,  convenient  as  a 
medium  of  exchange.  Even  Treasury  notes,  as  now  issued,  at 
interest,  and  on  time,  are  acknowledged  to  have  been  a  great 
convenience  and  relief  in  all  these  respects.  Indeed,  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  conceive  how  the  business  either  of  the  Treasury 
or  of  the  people  could  have  been  conducted,  during  the  difficul- 
ties and  distresses  of  the  last  five  years,  without  the  aid  of  such 
an  instrument  of  receipt  and  payment. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  are  other  features  of  the  Executive  plan  of 
an  Exchequer  about  which  I  have  many  misgivings,  and  for 
which,  I  confess,  I  do  not  see  my  way  clear  to  vote.  I  refer 
particularly  to  the  power  to  purchase  bills  of  exchange.  There 
is  certainly  room  to  apprehend,  that  such  a  power  would  not  be 
exercised  wisely,  even  if  it  were  exercised  honestly,  by  those  to 
whom  it  is  proposed  to  be  intrusted.  In  such  hands  it  would, 
undoubtedly,  be  liable  to  great  abuses,  both  from  ignorance  and 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OP  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       361 

from  intention.  I  have  the  strongest  reluctance,  too,  to  making 
any  part  of  our  fiscal  system  dependent  on  the  assent  of  the 
States,  —  a  condition  without  which  this  Exchange  power  could 
hardly  receive  the  sanction  of  the  President.  I  confess,  Sir,  it 
is  rather  late  in  the  day  for  some  of  us  to  take  umbrage  at  this 
condition.  My  venerable  colleague  (Mr.  Adams)  and  the  honor- 
able member  from  Kentucky  (Mr.  Marshall)  are  perhaps  the 
only  members  on  our  side  of  the  House  who  are  privileged  to 
carp  at  it.  All  the  rest  of  us  voted  for  a  most  miserable  com- 
promise of  this  principle  of  State  assent,  in  the  first  bank  charter 
of  the  extra  session,  and  we  all  remember  the  opening  thunders 
of  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  on  that  occasion.  We  gave 
those  votes  with  an  honest  desire  to  satisfy  the  President's  con- 
science; but  they  only  served  to  wound  our  own  ;  and,  for  one, 
I  am  more  willing  to  cry  peccavi,  in  relation  to  that  vote,  than  to 
have  it  recorded  as  a  precedent  for  my  future  action.  Nor  do  I 
believe  that  this  Exchange  feature  of  the  bill,  under  all  the  limit- 
ations and  restrictions  which  must  be  imposed  upon  it,  would 
be  so  very  great  a  boon  to  the  country.  Public  opinion,  in  some 
quarters  of  the  country  certainly,  has  undergone  great  muta- 
tions on  the  subject  of  exchanges.  Government  regulation  of 
exchanges  is  much  less  called  for  than  it  used  to  be.  As  the 
local  currencies  of  the  country  become  sound,  the  enormous 
rates  of  exchange  are  found  to  disappear.  The  aid  which  is 
now  demanded  of  the  government,  is  aid  through  the  medium 
of  currency ;  and  to  supply  this  aid  to  the  exchanges  is  un- 
doubtedly as  far  as  any  positive  duty  of  the  government  can 
extend.  The  substitution  of  gold  for  silver,  as  the  main  ingre- 
dient of  our  metallic  medium,  as  is  strongly  stated  by  my  re- 
spected predecessor,  (Mr.  Appleton,)  in  his  able  pamphlet  on  the 
currency,  has  exerted  a  most  salutary  influence  in  lessening  the 
rates  of  exchange.  "While  the  transportation  of  silver  would 
hardly  have  been  attempted  between  New  York  and  Boston,  for 
instance,  with  an  exchange  below  one  per  cent.,  —  gold  is  trans- 
ported from  one  city  to  the  other  before  the  exchange  can  rise  to 
a  quarter  of  one  per  cent.  But  I  will  not  dwell  longer  on  the 
subject  of  exchanges,  nor  indeed  on  any  of  the  other  features  of 
the  Exchequer  system.     When  the  bill  itself  shall  come  up  for 

31 


362       THE  SAFE  KEEPI  "G  OF  Tin  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

consideration,  there  will  be  ample  opportunity  for  discussing  its 
details ;  and  I  intend  to  leave  myself  at  liberty  to  vote  as  I  shall 
then  think  fit,  upon  each  and  every  part  of  the  plan.  Meantime, 
I  have  said  enough  to  show,  that,  though  not  ready  to  pledge 
myself  to  the  entire  Executive  project,  I  am  ready  to  adopt,  if 
nothing  better  is  proposed,  some  portions,  if  not  the  whole,  of 
the  bills  which  have  been  reported  in  the  Senate  and  in  the 
House.  In  so  doing,  I  shall  vote  for  that  which  many  persons, 
in  whose  judgment  I  have  the  highest  confidence,  consider  alto- 
gether harmless ;  for  that,  which  many  other  persons,  and  my- 
self among  the  number,  regard  as  likely  to  be  positively  bene- 
ficial ;  and  for  that,  which  not  a  few  persons  will  never  believe 
is  not  the  genuine  specific,  the  Matchless  Sanative,  for  all  the 
troubles  of  the  country,  until  it  has  been  tried  and  found 
wanting.  Above  all,  Sir,  I  shall  vote  for  that,  which  may  give 
something  of  at  least  temporary  rest  and  repose  to  the 
public  mind,  on  this  long-vexed  question  of  the  currency,  and 
which  may  satisfy  the  people  that  there  is  no  purpose  in  any 
quarter  to  keep  the  wounds  of  the  body  politic  open  and  bleed- 
ing, in  order  to  excite  party  sympathy  and  stimulate  party  strug- 
gle two  years  hence. 

I  come  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  a  few  remarks  on  the  report  and 
resolution  before  us.  And  before  making  them,  I  beg  leave  to 
bear  my  humble  testimony  to  the  ability,  integrity,  and  patriot- 
ism of  the  honorable  chairman  (Mr.  Fillmore)  by  whom  the 
report  has  been  prepared.  I  respond  most  cordially  to  the  tones 
of  honest  indignation  with  which  he  yesterday  repelled  an  infa- 
mous slander  upon  himself  and  his  colleagues.  And  I  trust  that, 
in  dissenting  from  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  report,  I  shall 
not  seem  wanting  in  regard  and  respect  for  its  author. 

The  report  admits,  on  one  of  its  earliest  pages,  that  if  it  were 
possible  to  create  such  an  institution,  without  increasing  Execu- 
tive power  or  endangering  the  Treasury,  and  to  have  it  adminis- 
tered by  men  of  undoubted  talents  and  integrity,  it  would  be 
capable  of  rendering  some  service  both  to  the  business  wants  of 
the  country  and  the  financial  embarrassments  of  the  Treasury. 
It  immediately  adds,  however,  "  that  to  hope  for  this,  is  to  ex- 
pect a  change  in  human  nature  itself,  and  in  the  ordinary  mo- 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       363 

tives  that  govern  the  conduct  of  men,  and  especially  political 
men,  little  less  than  miraculous.  Our  institutions  are  based 
upon  no  such  theory  of  human  perfectibility." 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  honorable  chairman  must  pardon  me 
for  saying,  that  if  this  Exchequer  plan  of  the  President  is  too 
much  based  on  a  theory  of  human  perfectibility,  it  really  seems 
to  me  that  his  report  runs  quite  as  far  to  the  other  extreme,  and 
rests  its  objections  to  the  plan  too  much  on  a  theory  of  total 
depravity  and  universal  corruption.  This,  if  I  mistake  not,  is 
the  great  peculiarity  of  the  report.  Its  arguments  are  able  and 
forcible,  but  they  are,  almost  all  of  them,  arguments  from  abuse. 
Every  possible  evil  which  such  an  institution  may  produce,  if 
intrusted  to  dishonest  hands,  is  exhibited  in  its  most  alarming 
aspect.  The  advantages  which  it  might  render,  if  administered 
by  honest  agents,  are  disposed  of  a  good  deal  more  summarily. 
It  really  occurred  to  me,  as  I  read  this  report,  that  my  honorable 
friend  might  have  taken  as  his  text,  in  writing  it,  the  saying  of — 
I  forget  what  statesman  or  philosopher  of  ancient  Greece,  —  that 
the  only  safety  in  relation  to  human  government  is  distrust  — 
distrust  —  distrust ;  or,  as  a  Roman  poet  conveyed  the  same 
idea,  —  "una  salus,  nullam  sperare  salutemP  Sir,  it  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  something  of  distrust  is  useful  in  relation  to  all  hu- 
man governments,  and  more  especially  in  relation  to  our  own 
government.  But  it  is  equally  undeniable  that  some  degree  of 
confidence,  that  a  great  deal  of  confidence,  is  not  only  useful, 
but  absolutely  indispensable,  to  the  successful  operation  of  every 
government,  and  even  to  the  very  existence  of  a  free  govern- 
ment. It  is  true,  our  institutions  are  not  based  on  a  theory  of 
human  perfectibility  ;  but  they  are  based  on  a  theory  of  human 
morality,  integrity,  and  virtue.  This  is  the  distinctive  feature 
of  free  governments.  It  was  laid  down  truly  by  Montesquieu, 
long  ago,  that  the  foundation  principle  of  a  despotism  was  fear; 
of  monarchy,  honor  ;  but  of  a  republic,  virtue.  And  there  must 
be  public  virtue  as  well  as  private  virtue;  —  virtue  in  the  govern- 
ment, as  well  as  virtue  among  the  people.  The  two  things  are 
in  fact  inseparable  for  any  long  period  of  time ;  for,  a  virtuous 
people  will  either  expel  a  corrupt  administration,  or  a  corrupt 
administration  will  debauch  a  virtuous  people.     If  virtue,  there- 


364  THE   SAFE   KEEPING    OP    THE   PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

fore,  shall  indeed  have  taken  its  final  flight  from  our  public 
councils  and  from  those  who  preside  over  them,  —  as  this  report 
would  almost  seem  to  intimate, — vain,  vain,  will  be  the  attempt 
to  bolster  up  our  political  fabric  by  any  mere  artificial  machinery, 
or  to  prevent  its  downfall  by  any  degree  of  distrustful  vigi- 
lance. Sir,  if  such  be  really  the  deplorable  and  desperate  con- 
dition of  our  republic,  the  passage  of  this  resolution  will  do 
nothing  to  save  it  from  ruin,  nor  will  the  adoption  of  the  Exche- 
quer plan  be  at  all  responsible  for  its  overthrow.  It  will  fall  by 
its  own  weakness  and  its  own  weight,  like  any  other  structure 
whose  corner-stone  has  already  crumbled  into  dust. 

But  I  do  not  apprehend  so  disastrous  a  catastrophe  at  present. 
I  freely  admit,  that  we  have  had  no  great  encouragement  to 
cherish  any  very  implicit  trust  in  our  rulers  for  some  years  past. 
"Within  the  last  year  even,  we  have  seen  demonstrations,  and 
heard  declarations,  but  too  well  calculated  to  check  the  flow,  if 
not  entirely  to  congeal  the  current,  of  that  tide  of  returning  con- 
fidence which  came  out  to  greet  the  accession  of  a  new  adminis- 
tration. But  I  am  not  willing  to  believe  that  the  age  of  vir- 
tuous politics  is  gone  forever.  I  trust  that  we  may  again  see  at 
the  head  of  this  republic,  men,  like  those  who  have  stood  there  in 
its  early  days ;  men,  like  those  whom  we  have  seen  there  in  years 
within  our  own  remembrance ;  men,  who  will  feel,  in  entering 
upon  public  office,  that  they  have  been  called  to  no  pitiful  job, 
but  to  a  sacred  function ;  men,  who  may  be  addressed  in  the 
words,  though  certainly  not  in  the  spirit,  in  which  Macbeth  was 
addressed  by  —  the  demi-demon,  I  had  almost  said,  with  whom 
his  destiny  was  associated, 

"  Thou  wouldst  be  great ; 

Art  not  without  ambition ;  but  without 

The  illness  should  attend  it.    What  thou  wouldst  highly, 

That  wouldst  thou  holily." 

And,  Sir,  if  such  a  day  should  again  arrive,  how  would  the 
petty  and  paltry  contentions  which  embitter  and  embroil  us  here, 
and  in  the  prosecution  of  which  the  true  interests  of  the  nation 
are  so  often  forgotten  and  neglected,  be  hushed  into  silence! 
How  would  the  public  prosperity  revive,  the  public  peace  be 
restored,  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  the  government  be 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       365 

reassured,  and  the  public  faith  resume  again,  in  the  eyes  of  all 
the  world,  that  robe  of  stainless  and  inviolate  sanctity  in  which 
it  was  first  clothed  by  the  fathers  of  the  republic ! 

But,  at  all  events,  Mr.  Speaker,  whether  this  hope  be  realized 
or  not,  I  do  not  think  it  quite  time  yet  to  base  our  systems,  or 
our  objections  to  systems,  on  a  theory  of  universal  corruption 
and  corruptibility,  or  even  upon  the  doctrine  of  my  honorable 
friend  who  has  just  taken  his  seat,  (Mr.  Barnard,)  that  public 
office  is  the  very  worst  school  of  morals  on  this  side  the  peni- 
tentiary. This  report  would  really  seem  to  trust  nobody  in 
relation  to  finance  and  currency;  not  the  President,  not  the 
Secretary,  not  the  subordinate  Executive  agents,  not  the  Senate, 
not  the  House  of  Representatives,  not  each  individually,  not  all 
conjointly.  The  President  will  abuse  the  veto  power;  the  Pre- 
sident and  Senate  will  abuse  the  appointing  and  removing 
power ;  the  Secretary  and  subordinate  agents  will  abuse  their 
authority  to  keep  the  public  moneys ;  and  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  even  should  it  restrict  the  issues  of  Exchequer 
notes  within  a  proper  limit  at  the  outset,  will  run  into  ruinous 
excesses  in  the  end.  "  As  you  cannot  check  or  control  Congress 
on  this  subject,  (says  the  report,)  it  would  follow  that  we  ought 
not  to  attempt  to  exercise  this  power." 

Why,  Sir,  it  is  as  much  as  ever  that  even  a  United  States 
Bank  can  find  a  loophole  of  escape  from  the  universal  discredit 
in  which  the  report  deals.  There  is  too  much  foundation  for 
the  remark  of  the  minority  of  the  committee,  that  some  of  the 
objections  of  the  majority  to  this  Exchequer  scheme  apply 
equally  to  a  National  Bank.  As  such  an  institution,  however, 
was  unquestionably  intended  to  be  excepted  from  any  terms  of 
distrust,  I  wish  now  to  say  a  word  or  two  on  some  of  the  ex- 
pressions and  some  of  the  implications  of  the  report  on  that 
subject. 

The  report  seems  to  me  to  lay  a  little  too  much  stress  on  what 
it  denominates  the  watchful  caution  of  the  interested  stock- 
holders of  such  a  bank.  The  private  capital  of  a  national  bank 
is,  undoubtedly,  a  great  security  for  the  safety  of  the  government 
deposits ;  but  the  vigilance  of  stockholders  has  proved  thus  far 
to  be  a  most  miserable  ground  of  reliance.     Where  has  been  the 

31* 


366       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

watchful  caution  of  interested  stockholders,  in  the  countless 
defalcations  and  frauds  which  have  recently  involved  us  in  so 
much  distress  at  home  and  so  much  disgrace  abroad  ?  This 
Argus  of  self-interest  may  have  a  hundred  eyes,  but  it  has  never 
yet  used  one  of  them.  It  has  been  drugged  and  posseted  into 
perfect  blindness.  The  stockholders  of  our  banks,  and  it  ought 
to  be  spoken  to  their  shame,  have  looked  to  nothing  but  the  divi- 
dends, as  long  as  there  were  any  dividends  to  look  to,  while  the 
directors,  clerks,  and  cashiers,  have  exercised  unlimited  control 
over  their  concerns. 

Sir,  I  have  already  said  that  a  national  bank  was  my  first 
choice  as  the  fiscal  agent  of  this  government ;  and  so  far  as  this 
report  goes  in  asserting  or  in  implying  that  such  an  institution 
is  the  first  choice  of  the  committee,  I  most  heartily  agree  with 
it.  But  if  it  is  intended  to  be  implied  that  there  is  no  second 
choice,  —  that  this  government  can,  under  no  circumstances  and 
in  no  emergency,  employ  any  other  fiscal  machinery,  —  I  must 
dissent  from  the  doctrine.  I  have  no  fancy  for  independent 
treasuries,  in  the  sense  in  which  this  phrase  has  lately  been  used, 
but  that  this  government  ought  not,  in  any  case,  to  provide  a 
system  of  its  own,  for  keeping  its  own  moneys,  for  managing 
its  own  finances,  and  for  maintaining  and  regulating  a  national 
currency  for  itself  and  the  people,  I  certainly  am  not  prepared 
to  admit.  Why,  Sir,  let  me  suppose  a  case.  Suppose  that  the 
first  bank  charter,  which  was  passed  by  the  two  Houses  at  the 
extra  session,  instead  of  having  failed  through  the  veto  of  the 
President,  had  failed,  as  most  people  in  my  part  of  the  country 
seem  to  think  it  would  have  failed,  for  want  of  subscribers  to  its 
stock,  would  a  majority  of  this  House,  in  that  event,  have  felt  it 
their  duty  to  leave  things  as  they  were,  and  to  abandon  all  further 
effort  ?  Is  it  not  even  possible  that,  if  we  had  come  together  at 
the  commencement  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  under  such 
circumstances,  and  with  no  cause  of  complaint  against  the  Presi- 
dent, and  no  feelings  of  bitterness  towards  any  body  connected 
with  the  administration,  we  should  have  looked  upon  some  such 
plan  as  this  very  Exchequer,  with  a  good  deal  less  of  alarm  and 
horror  than  we  now  regard  it  ?  Whether  so  or  not,  Sir,  such  an 
exigency  might  have  occurred,  and  may  occur  again.     Are  we, 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       367 

then,  ready  to  say  that  Government  cannot  discharge  its  duty  to 
itself  and  its  duty  to  the  people,  unless  the  capitalists  of  the 
country  will  take  stock  in  a  bank  ?  We  who  refuse  to  make  any 
part  of  our  fiscal  system  dependent  on  the  assent  of  the  States, 
are  we  ready  to  make  that  system  entirely  dependent  on  the 
assent  of  individual  citizens  ?  If  not,  why  should  we  not  do 
now,  that  which  we  should  be  willing  to  do  in  the  case  I  have 
supposed  ?  The  same  exigency  now  exists,  though  arising  from 
a  different  cause.  The  impracticability  of  obtaining  a  bank  at 
this  moment  is  as  clearly  determined,  by  the  refusal  of  the  Pre- 
sident to  subscribe  his  name  to  its  charter,  as  it  would  be  by  the 
refusal  of  capitalists  to  subscribe  their  names  to  its  stock  list. 
And  though  there  may  be  much  more  right  to  complain  in  one 
case  than  in  the  other,  the  emergency  is  the  same  in  both,  and 
our  responsibilities  in  both  are  alike  and  identical. 

One  word,  Sir,  in  reference  to  another  suggestion  of  the  report, 
before  I  proceed  to  the  resolution  with  which  it  concludes.  A 
provision  is  contained  in  the  President's  plan  of  an  Exchequer, 
and  is  improved  upon,  I  believe,  in  the  bills  both  of  the  Senate 
and  House,  to  limit  the  removing  power  of  the  Executive  in 
relation  to  the  commissioners  and  other  officers  of  the  board. 
Such  a  provision  undoubtedly  does  away  many  of  the  dangers 
of  the  system.  But  the  report  pronounces  all  this  unconstitu- 
tional. It  declares  that  Congress  possesses  no  such  power,  and 
that  any  fancied  security,  built  upon  such  a  hypothesis,  must 
prove  fallacious.  Now  this  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the  Whig 
Senate  of  the  United  States  in  days  when  a  Whig  Senate  was 
all  we  had  to  rely  upon.  On  the  contrary,  the  Whig  Senators 
of  those  days,  with  Mr.  Clay  and-  Mr.  Webster  in  perfect  har- 
mony at  their  head,  went  strongly  for  the  right  and  for  the  duty 
of  such  limitations.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  went  very  mUch 
further  than  this  bill  proposes  to  go,  and  declared  themselves  in 
favor  of  reversing  the  decision  of  1789 ;  but  none  of  them,  I 
believe,  made  any  question  that  limitations  of  some  kind  might 
be,  and  ought  to  be,  made. 

The  report  under  consideration  concludes  with  a  resolution 
"that  the  plan  of  an  Exchequer,  presented  to  Congress  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  at  the  last  session,  entitled  '  a  bill, 

^>  OF  THX^^ 

UN  17  BR  SIT 


368       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

amendatory  of  the  several  acts  establishing  the  Treasury  depart- 
ment,' ought  not  to  be  adopted."  This  resolution  is  immediately 
preceded  by  the  remark,  that  the  committee  deem  the  plan  to  be 
"essentially  defective,  and  incapable  of  any  modification,  at 
least  without  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  that  could 
justify  its  adoption."  I  am  told,  however,  that  the  resolution 
may  be  adopted  without  any  reference  to  the  report,  and  that 
it  is  not  intended  to  reach  beyond  the  precise  bill  which  was 
furnished  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  and  some  of  my 
colleagues  and  friends,  from  whom  I  do  not  differ  materially  in 
opinion,  will  vote  for  it,  I  am  aware,  with  this  understanding. 
But  the  common  mind  will  not  so  construe  the  resolution.  Nor 
does  it  seem  reasonable,  that  we  should  be  held  to  the  precise 
provisions,  phraseology,  and  punctuation  of  a  particular  bill,  to 
which  there  has  been  no  opportunity  for  amendment,  and  be 
compelled  to  declare  affirmatively  or  negatively  upon  a  resolution 
for  its  rejection.  Why  should  such  a  resolution  be  pressed  to  a 
vote  ?  Why  not  lay  it  on  the  table,  as  you  do  all  other  adverse 
reports  ?  Why  waste  the  time  and  temper  of  the  House  in  dis- 
cussing mere  abstract  opinions,  instead  of  going  into  committee 
of  the  whole,  and  acting  on  the  bill  to  which  those  opinions 
relate  ?  I  have  no  doubt,  Sir,  that  the  resolution  was  introduced 
into  the  House  in  a  proper  spirit,  and  with  no  unbecoming 
motives.  I  concur  in  no  imputations  on  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means.  But  there  is  not  a  little  sensitiveness  in  many 
quarters,  as  to  the  movements  of  the  present  Congress  upon  this, 
and,  indeed,  upon  every  other  subject.  Every  thing  out  of  the 
common  course,  as  this  certainly  is,  will  be  imputed  to  sinister 
designs.  Pass  this  resolution  by  an  overwhelming  vote,  as  I 
doubt  not  you  will,  if  you  insist  on  taking  the  vote  in  this  form, 
anfl  it  will  be  regarded  as  an  act  of  mere  hostility  to  the  Presi- 
dent, and  of  mere  retaliation  for  his  bank  vetoes.  It  would  be 
regarded  as  intended  to  stamp  something  of  peculiar  reproach 
and  unaccustomed  reprobation  on  this  measure  and  its  author. 
It  will  look  as  if  you  desired  the  triumph  of  holding  up  this  bill 
to  the  scorn  and  derision  of  the  country,  and  saying, —  here  is 
Mr.  Tyler's  and  Mr.  Webster's  famous  fiscal  project,  with  hardly 
one  man  so  poor  as  to  do  it  reverence.    Now,  Sir,  I  am  not  dis- 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       369 

posed  to  shrink  from  any  just  or  necessary  act  of  legislation,  for 
fear  of  misconstruction,  or  to  save  appearances.  But  on  a  mere 
amateur  proceeding  of  this  sort,  I  would  give  no  vote  which  can 
be  so  misconstrued.  "  A  thousand  false  eyes  are  stuck  upon  us." 
Let  us  not  again  gratify  their  malicious  gaze.  Let  us  disappoint, 
for  once,  their  eager  search  for  subjects  of  mystification  and  per- 
version. For  myself,  Sir,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  if  a  vote 
is  insisted  upon,  I  shall  vote  against  the  resolution  ;  both  because 
I  am  opposed  to  the  policy  and  propriety  of  such  a  proceeding, 
and  because  I  am  unwilling  to  foreclose  all  direct  consideration 
of  the  subject,  and  to  cut  myself  off  from  voting  for  the  whole 
or  any  part  of  the  Exchequer  plan,  now  or  hereafter.  I  shall 
give  such  a  vote  with  the  less  reluctance,  from  the  consideration 
that,  in  differing  from  great  numbers  of  my  political  friends,  I 
shall  differ  from,  perhaps,  an  equal  number  of  my  political  oppo- 
nents. There  were  no  party  lines  on  this  resolution  in  commit- 
tee, and  it  is  plain  that  there  will  be  none  in  the  House. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  cannot  feel  justified  in  resigning  the  floor,  as  my 
hour  has  not  quite  yet  expired,  without  alluding  to  a  course  of 
remark  which  has  been  persisted  in,  for  some  weeks  past,  in 
relation  to  the  supposed  author  of  this  Exchequer  plan.  I  am 
not  here,  sir,  as  the  champion  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  Heaven 
help  him,  if  he  has  not  a  more  tried  and  trustworthy  arm  than 
mine  to  look  to,  if  he  shall  ever  require  any  other  than  his  own ! 
He  will,  doubtless,  say  amen  to  this  aspiration ;  for  I  have  no 
idea  that  he  will  thank  me  for  many  of  the  remarks  which  I  have 
already  made,  or  for  many  of  those  which  I  am  about  to  make. 
He  is,  indeed,  one  of  my  most  distinguished  constituents.  I 
might  appeal,  however,  to  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  (Mr. 
Marshall,)  who  counts  among  his  constituents  the  great  and 
gallant  statesman  of  the  West,  to  bear  witness  with  me,  that 
such  a  relation  does  not  necessarily  involve  any  thing  of  peculiar 
cordiality  or  confidence;  though,  certainly,  it  cannot  imply  any 
thing  of  the  reverse.  But,  at  any  rate,  holding,  as  I  do,  that 
great  injustice  has  been  done  to  Mr.  Webster,  on  more  than  one 
occasion,  by  gentlemen  who  have  gone  out  of  their  way  to  in- 
troduce his  name  into  the  debate,  no  fear,  either  of  personal 
imputation  or  of  political  misconstruction,  shall  make  me  shrink 


370       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

from  saying  so.  I  should  be  unworthy  of  sitting  here  as  the 
Representative  of  Faneuil  Hall,  and  should  hardly  dare  to  look 
those  who  are  accustomed  to  meet  there  in  the  face,  were  I  to 
listen  longer,  without  a  word  of  protest,  to  the  wholesale  re- 
proaches which  have  been  cast  upon  one,  who  has  so  long  been 
associated  with  their  fortunes  and  their  fame. 

Sir,  I  was  not  at  Faneuil  Hall  when  Mr.  Webster  made  the 
speech  which  has  been  the  subject  of  such  frequent  allusion.  I 
have  read  that  speech,  however,  more  than  once ;  and,  as  I  do 
not  intend  to  be  charged  with  any  non-committal  or  concealment, 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  contains  many  opinions 
which  I  deeply  regret  were  ever  expressed,  and  from  which  I 
entirely  dissent.  The  idea,  which  seems  to  be  implied  in  one 
part  of  the  speech,  that  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  in  declaring 
"a  full  and  final  separation"  from  President  Tyler,  designed  to 
commit  themselves  to  an  indiscriminate  opposition  to  all  the 
measures  of  his  administration,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  was 
certainly  unwarranted  by  any  thing  which  they  had  ever  done  at 
home,  or  which  their  representatives  had  ever  done  here.  The 
opinion  which  seems  to  be  conveyed  in  another  part  of  the  speech, 
that  the  Whig  party  in  Congress  deserved  no  particular  credit  for 
the  recent  passage  of  a  protecting  tariff;  that,  because  twenty  or 
thirty  Whigs,  in  one  branch  or  the  other,  voted  against  the  tariff, 
and  ten  or  a  dozen  of  their  opponents  voted  for  it,  while  the  great 
body  of  the  Whigs  had,  from  first  to  last,  devoted  their  most  stre- 
nuous efforts  to  its  adoption,  and  the  great  body  of  the  Van  Buren 
party  had  labored  incessantly  to  defeat  and  reject  it ;  that,  there- 
fore, there  was  no  party  element  in  the  proceeding,  and  no  party 
credit  for  the  result,  was,  to  my  mind,  equally  indefensible.  It 
was  confounding  the  rule  and  the  exception,  and  placing  both  up- 
on equal  terms.  The  denial  of  the  authority  of  the  State  Conven- 
tion, also,  to  act  upon  matters  which  every  Massachusetts  Whig 
Convention,  for  ten  years  before,  had  been  accustomed  to  act 
upon  without  qualification  or  question,  was  any  thing  but  reason- 
able. But,  Sir,  there  are  other  passages  of  this  speech,  upon 
which  constructions  have  been  put,  which  are  utterly  ungenerous 
and  unjust.  The  idea,  which  has  more  than  once  been  advanced 
in  this  House,  that  Mr.  Webster's  exclamation  on  that  occasion, 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       371 

"  where  do  they  mean  to  place  me  ?  where  am  I  to  fall  ?  "  — 
instead  of  being  applied,  as  it  was,  simply  and  solely  to  his  rela- 
tions to  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  with  whom  he  had  stood 
so  long  on  terms  of  confidence  and  respect,  such  as  few  other 
men  ever  before  enjoyed  —  was  an  expression  of  a  corrupt,  base, 
unprincipled  lust  for  office,  or  of  an  abject,  craven,  cringing  fear 
of  being  turned  out  of  office,  is  as  unfounded  as  it  is  gross.  It 
is  wholly  unsustained  by  the  spirit  or  by  the  letter  of  the  speech. 
The  very  next  sentence  to  that  in  which  these  questions  are  con- 
tained, destroys  all  apology  for  such  a  construction.  "  If  I  choose 
to  remain  in  the  President's  councils,  do  these  gentlemen  mean 
to  say  that  I  cease  to  be  a  Massachusetts  Whig  ?" —  This  is  the 
sum  and  substance  of  both  the  interrogatories  which  have  been 
rung  through  these  halls  with  so  much  scorn,  and  which  have 
formed  the  foundation  of  this  infamous  charge  of  servility  and 
corruption.  The  question,  as  to  the  collectors,  attorneys,  postmas- 
ters and  marshals,  is  fairly  susceptible  of  no  other  interpretation. 
And  so,  also,  with  that  in  relation  to  my  excellent  and  distin- 
guished friend,  (Mr.  Everett,)  the  present  Minister  to  England. 
The  inquiry,  as  to  all  of  them,  was  whether,  by  this  full  and  final 
separation  from  Mr.  Tyler,  the  WThigs  of  Massachusetts  meant  to 
say  that  they  intended  to  discard  and  denounce  so  many  of  their 
eminent  brother  Whigs  who  then  were  holding  office,  unless  they 
either  resigned  or  were  turned  out.  And  this  is  "  the  detestable 
doctrine"  which  has  so  disgraced  Daniel  Webster,  and  so  dese- 
crated Faneuil  Hall !  The  questions  may  all  have  been  uncalled 
for ;  but  if  they  imply  a  love  for  any  thing,  it  is  a  love  of  party 
and  not  of  place  ;  if  a  fear  of  any  thing,  it  is  a  fear  of  being  aban- 
doned by  friends,  rather  than  of  being  turned  out  of  office. 

Sir,  it  would  have  been  better,  far  better,  for  all  concerned,  if 
this  little  family  jar  in  Massachusetts  had  not  been  meddled 
with  by  strangers,  and  if  the  parties  to  it  had  been  left  to  scold 
it  out  among  themselves.  But  I  utterly  protest  against  such  an 
exaggeration  of  its  details  and  history,  and  such  a  misrepresent- 
ation of  the  language  which  was  used  on  the  occasion.  As  to 
Mr.  Webster's  love  of  office,  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  love 
is  stronger  in  him  than*  in  many  other  gentlemen  who  are  justly 
esteemed  and  honored  in  the  land.     He  retained  office,  indeed, 


372       THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

when  other  gentlemen,  his  colleagues  in  the  cabinet,  retired. 
But  there  was  as  little  reason  in  charging  him  with  having  held 
on  to  his  commission  from  the  mere  love  of  office,  as  there  would 
be  in  charging  them  with  having  resigned  for  the  mere  hate  of 
office.  These  gentlemen,  for  whom  I  have  always  entertained 
and  expressed  the  highest  possible  regard  and  respect,  felt  that  it 
was  due  to  their  own  honor  to  withdraw  from  the  cabinet.  They 
did  so.  And,  though  there  were  some  of  their  friends  who 
would  have  preferred  that  they  should  have  remained,  and  put 
the  President  to  his  removing  power,  if  he  desired  to  get  rid  of 
them,  yet  all,  all,  acquiesced  in  their  decision,  and  in  their  own 
right  to  make  that  decision  for  themselves.  Mr.  Webster,  on 
the  contrary,  felt  it  consistent  with  his.  honor  to  stay,  and  carry 
on  that  great  work  of  negotiation  with  Great  Britain,  upon 
which  he  had  just  entered.  My  venerable  colleague  (Mr.  Adams) 
has  recently  told  his  constituents  and  the  country  that  he  advis- 
ed him  to  stay,  at  least  until  that  negotiation  was  concluded. 
"Thinking  I  was  in  a  post  where  I  was  in  the  service  of  the 
country,"  says  Mr.  Webster,  himself,  in  this  Faneuil  Hall  speech, 
"  and  could  do  it  good,  I  staid  there.  I  leave  it  to  you,  to-day, 
to  say,  I  leave  it  to  my  country  to  say,  whether  the  country 
would  have  been  better  off  if  I  had  left  also.  I  have  no  attach- 
ment to  office.  I  have  tasted  of  its  sweets,  but  I  have  tasted  of 
its  bitterness.  I  am  content  with  what  I  have  achieved ;  I  am 
more  ready  to  rest  satisfied  with  what  is  gained  than  to  run  the 
risk  of  doubtful  efforts  for  new  acquisitions."  Who  doubts,  Sir, 
that  Mr.  Webster  has  tasted  of  the  bitterness  of  office  as  well  as 
of  its  sweets  ?  Who  doubts  that  he  has  had  his  perplexities  and 
provocations,  during  the  political  hurly-burly  of  the  last  two 
years,  as  well  as  we  ours  ?  And  who  denies  that,  amid  them 
all,  he  has  discharged  the  peculiar  and  most  responsible  duties 
of  his  post,  with  unsurpassed  ability  and  success  ?  He  has  ren- 
dered great  services  to  his  country, — services  which  will  prevent 
the  present  administration,  unfortunate  and  odious  as  it  may 
have  been  in  many  respects,  from  being  quite  so  mere  a  paren- 
thesis on  the  page  of  history  as  was  at  one  time  suggested. 
The  treaty  of  Washington  can  never  be  passed  over,  in  the 
future  perusal  of  our  annals,  "  without  destroying  the  sense."     It 


THE  SAFE  KEEPING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MONEYS.       373 

may  not  catch  the  eye  of  the  cursory  reader,  indeed,  so  quickly, 
as  if  it  were  written  in  letters  of  blood ;  nor  may  it  occupy  so 
large  a  space  as  the  dread  alternative  it  has  averted  ;  but  it  will 
be  inscribed  in  characters  which  will  rivet,  as  with  a  charm,  the 
attention  and  admiration  of  every  thoughtful  patriot  and  every 
true  philanthropist,  and  which  will  continually  acquire  fresh  lus- 
tre with  the  advancing  progress  of  civilization  and  Christianity. 
The  light  which  flashes  from  the  sword  of  the  successful  war- 
rior may  dazzle  for  a  day,  or  even  for  an  age ;  but  a  far  more 
enduring  radiance  will  encircle  the  names  of  those  who  have 
reconciled  the  proud  and  angry  spirits  of  two  mighty  nations, 
and  have  honorably  secured  for  them  both  the  unspeakable  bless- 
ing of  Peace. 

Mr.  Webster  has  been  charged  with  great  and  glaring  incon- 
sistencies on  the  subject  of  the  currency  and  the  Constitution ; 
and  this  Exchequer  project  is  declared  to  be  in  direct  contra- 
diction to  the  doctrines  of  his  whole  previous  political  life. 
Now,  Sir,  I  am  not  going  to  argue  this  point.  I  have  no  idea 
that  I  could  argue  it  to  anybody's  satisfaction,  if  I  should  try.  I 
will  not  pretend  to  say  that  this  plan  does  not,  in  my  own  opi- 
nion, contain  provisions  which  Mr.  Webster  has  opposed  and 
condemned  in  other  connections,  and  under  other  circumstances. 
But  this  I  will  say,  that  the  great  and  leading  idea  of  almost  all 
his  speeches  against  the  Sub-Treasury  system  was,  that  it  was 
an  entire  abandonment  of  the  power  and  duty  of  the  General 
Government  to  regulate  the  currency  and  the  exchanges. 
Wherever  he  addressed  the  people,  in  Wall  street  or  in  State 
street,  at  Saratoga  or  at  Bunker  Hill,  this  was  the  burden  of  his 
argument.  And,  so  far  as  this  argument  is  concerned,  he  is  en- 
tirely consistent  in  advocating  the  Exchequer  plan.  But  if  it 
were  not  so,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  confess  that  I  have  yet  to  see  evi- 
dence that,  when  arraigned,  in  reference  to  this  project,  on  the 
mere  score  of  consistency,  Mr.  Webster  might  not  avail  him- 
self of  the  answer  of  an  Athenian  orator  on  a  similar  occasion, 
and  say,  "  I  may  have  acted  contrary  to  myself,  but  I  have  not 
acted  contrary  to  the  Republic."  The  merits  of  this  measure, 
if  it  has  any,  are  certainly  independent  of  any  man's  consistency. 
It  has  been  devised  under  circumstances  unlike  any  which  ever 

32 


374  THE  SAFE  KEEPING    OF   TIIE  PUBLIC  MONEYS. 

existed  before  in  the  history  of  this  country,  and  unlike,  as  I  heart- 
ily hope,  any  which  will  ever  exist  again.  It  has  been  brought 
forward,  as  I  believe,  in  good  faith,  and  with  an  honest  purpose 
for  the  public  welfare.  If  any  part  of  it,  or  if  the  whole  of  it, 
be  regarded  as  unwise,  inexpedient,  or  unsafe,  by  this  House  or 
by  the  country;  if  it  be  really  " the  terrible  machine"  which  the 
report  declares  it  to  be,  which  would  "  overwhelm  the  Treasury 
with  bankruptcy,  corrupt  the  government,  and  lay  a  foundation 
for  the  most  dangerous  political  favoritism  and  universal  cor- 
ruption ; "  and  if  it  be  really  "  incapable  of  any  modification 
which  would  justify  its  adoption  ; "  —  let  it  be  rejected.  These 
opinions  of  the  committee,  however,  as  I  have  before  suggested, 
appear  to  me  exceedingly  extravagant.  I  have  seen  no  occa- 
sion for  such  a  hue-and-cry  against  the  plan,  nor  for  such  re- 
proaches upon  its  author ;  and  I  have  accordingly  felt  bound  to 
say  so,  in  utter  disregard  of  any  imputations  to  which  such  a 
course  may  subject  me. 


THE 

CREDIT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  VINDICATED. 

A  SPEECH   DELIVERED   AT   FANEUIL   HALL,  AT   A   MEETING  OF   THE   WHIGS 
OF   BOSTON,  OCTOBER   12,  1843. 


It  is  a  pleasant  sight,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  see  the  Whigs  of 
Boston  once  more  assembled  in  such  good  numbers,  and  in  such 
good  spirits,  to  consult  together  for  the  renewed  vindication  of 
their  long-cherished  principles.  It  is  grateful  to  reflect,  too,  that 
there  is  so  much  in  the  circumstances  and  signs  of  the  times  to 
justify  the  animation  which  seems  to  pervade  this  meeting.  The 
tidings  which  have  come  to  us  during  the  past  week,  from  our 
friends  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  are  certainly  of  the  most 
encouraging  and  cheering  character.  They  have  come  upon  us 
with  something  of  the  suddenness  of  an  electric  shock ;  and  as 
the  spark  has  coursed  along  our  veins,  and  vibrated  upon  our 
heart-strings,  we  have  felt  a  fresh  assurance  that  the  bonds  which 
have  so  long  united  the  Whigs  of  the  Union  as  brethren,  are  not 
yet  broken.  I  trust  that  these  tidings  will  have  an  influence 
beyond  this  hour  and  beyond  these  walls.  I  trust  that  the  great 
principles  of  the  Whig  party  will  be  commended  anew  to  the 
consideration  of  every  citizen  in  the  Commonwealth  ;  that  they 
will  be  pondered  afresh  and  more  deeply  than  ever  before,  in  the 
field  and  in  the  counting-room,  over  the  plough  and  over  the 
spindle  and  at  the  fireside,  in  view  of  every  thing  that,  con- 
cerns the  business  or  comes  home  to  the  hearts  of  the  people ; 
and  that  the  second  Monday  of  November  will  find  not  only  city 
responding  to  city,  Boston  to  Baltimore,  —  but  State  answer- 
ing to  State,  Massachusetts  giving  assurance  to  Maryland  and 
to  Georgia,  that  in  the  North  and  East,  as  well  as  in  the  South 


376  THE   CREDIT   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

and  centre,  the  old  Whig  watch-fires  are  once  more  kindled  — 
the  old  Whig  spirit  once  more  roused  ! 

The  resolutions  which  have  just  been  read,  relate  almost  exclu- 
sively to  the  politics  of  Massachusetts ;  and  it  has  been  thought 
best,  by  those  who  have  been  selected  to  conduct  the  affairs  of 
the  Whig  party  during  the  present  year,  and  to  whose  peculiar 
province  it  belongs  to  draw  up  the  plan  of  our  annual  campaign, 
that  the  contest  for  which  we  are  assembled  to  prepare,  should  be 
conducted  mainly  with  reference  to  the  administration  of  our 
own  Commonwealth.  There  is  a  great  and  manifest  propriety 
in  this  course.  It  is  a  plan  of  proceeding  entirely  reasonable 
and  eminently  seasonable.  The  present  year  affords  us  a  pecu- 
liarly fit  and  favorable  opportunity  for  attending  to  the  affairs  of 
our  own  Commonwealth,  and  one  which  may  not  soon  occur 
again.  The  approaching  election  is  exclusively  a  State  election. 
In  some  few  of  the  districts,  it  is  true,  the  people  will  be  called 
on  to  make  fresh  trials  for  the  election  of  Representatives  in 
Congress,  owing  to  their  unfortunate  failures  to  effect  a  choice 
at  the  regular  period.  But  here,  certainly,  —  and  I  may  take 
occasion  to  express  my  deep  gratitude  for  any  thing  of  personal 
confidence  or  kindness  which  may  in  any  humble  degree  have 
contributed  to  the  result,  —  here  we  have  no  such  failures  to 
retrieve.  The  Whigs  of  Boston  may  sometimes  be  reproached 
for  not  making  their  majority  large  enough  to  counterbalance 
the  minorities  of  their  neighbors,  in  the  general  returns  of  the 
State,  —  a  reproach  which  I  trust  they  will  not  subject  themselves 
to  again  this  year,  —  but  they  rarely  fail  to  do  up  their  own  work 
fairly  and  fully  on  the  regular  day.  In  Boston,  therefore,  and  in 
this  part  of  the  Commonwealth  generally,  the  people  will  be  called 
on,  at  the  ensuing  election,  to  vote  exclusively  for  State  officers. 
Next  year^  as  I  need  hardly  remind  you,  we  shall  enjoy  no  such 
unmixed  opportunity  of  expressing  our  minds  as  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  our  State  affairs.  Next  year,  the  great  quadrennial 
contest  of  the  Presidency  will  be  upon  us.  I  will  not  anticipate 
its  arrival.  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof."  But 
this  I  may  safely  predict  of  it,  —  that  it  will  come  back  to  us 
under  circumstances  which  more,  even,  than  ever  before,  will 
absorb  all  our  thoughts  and  engross  our  whole  attention. 

There  will  be  no  chance  for  looking  after  local  politics,  in  the 


THE   CREDIT   OP    MASSACHUSETTS    VINDICATED.  377 

hurly-burly  of  the  next  Presidential  struggle.  Not  until  that 
"  hurly-burly 's  done,"  not  until  that  "  battle 's  lost  or  won,"  when 
it  has  once  opened,  shall  we  be  in  a  condition  to  look  to  any  issues 
less  broad  than  those  which  concern  the  whole  country.  Now, 
then,  while  we  have  opportunity,  let  us  look  at  home.  Now, 
then,  while  we  may,  let  us  remember,  that  let  what  will  happen  to 
the  Nation  at  large,  —  let  who  will  be  permitted,  either  by  any 
dispensation  of  Providence,  or  by  any  delusion  of  the  people,  to 
defeat  or  disappoint  the  just  expectations  of  the  Nation, — we 
have  here  a  community  of  our  own,  institutions  of  our  own, 
an  administration  of  our  own,  embracing  within  the  sphere  of 
its  influence  the  nearest  and  dearest  interests  of  ourselves  and 
our  children,  for  the  purity  and  preservation  of  which  we,  and 
we  alone,  are  responsible.  Now  then,  I  repeat  it,  if  there  be  any 
thing  wrong  in  the  condition  of  old  Massachusetts;  if  any 
breach  has  been  made  in  the  walls  and  fences  of  the  old  home- 
stead ;  if  any  strip  and  waste  has  been  committed  on  the  old 
family  premises;  if  any  trespassers  have  invaded  our  firesides, 
and  overthrown,  or  threatened  to  overthrow,  our  very  altars  and 
household  gods ;  now,  now  is  the  time  for  restoration  and 
redress. 

And  how  is  it  with  our  beloved  Commonwealth  ?  How  has 
it  fared  with  her  during  the  past  year,  and  how  is  it  with  her 
now?  Who  are  in  possession  of  her  high  places,  how  have  they 
come  there,  and  how  have  they  manifested  their  title  to  the  con- 
tinued support  and  confidence  of  the  people  ? 

Strange  scenes  —  strange  scenes,  certainly,  have  been  wit- 
nessed, and  strange  sounds  heard,  within  the  walls  of  the  capitol 
of  Massachusetts  during  the  last  year.  It  is  my  fortune,  —  I 
should  rather  say,  I  owe  it  to  your  favor,  —  to  have  witnessed 
these  scenes  from  a  distance ;  but  distance,  I  assure  you,  has  lent 
no  enchantment  to  the  view.  No  true  son  of  Massachusetts,  no 
one  who  has  a  true  sense  of  what  belongs  to  her  character  and  her 
honor,  could  have  read  the  proceedings  of  her  Legislature,  or  of 
her  Executive,  during  the  last  winter,  however  distant  he  may 
have  been  from  the  scene  of  action,  and  however  free  from  any 
mere  party  preferences  or  prejudices,  without  feeling  his  blood 
burning  in  his  cheek  and  tingling  to  his  fingers'  ends.  The  cir- 
32  * 


378  THE   CREDIT   OF    MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

cumstances  which  attended  the  organization  of  the  government ; 
the  utter  disregard  for  the  dignity  of  the  Senate,  manifested  by 
the  majority  in  forcing  into  the  Presidential  chair,  against  his 
will,  a  person  confessedly  incompetent  to  discharge  its  duties, 
and  who  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  post  within  a  week  after 
his  election  ;  the  systematic  attempt  to  smuggle  into  the  other 
branch  of  the  Legislature  an  irregular  and  illegal  vote,  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  a  party  majority  in  the  choice  of  a  Speaker; 
the  mingled  corruption  and  treachery  by  which  the  majority 
in  joint  ballot  was  but  too  plainly  procured  ;  the  summary  ex- 
pulsion from  office  of  such  men  as  then  occupied  the  posts  of 
Secretary  and  Treasurer,  and  the  hunt  which  was  obliged  to  be 
instituted  for  a  responsible  person  to  take  charge  of  the  public 
moneys,  reminding  us  almost  of  the  old  philosopher  with  his 
lantern,  hunting  for  an  honest  man  ;  —  these,  with  their  accom- 
panying incidents,  were  enough  to  fill  with  disgust  and  indigna- 
tion all,  all,  who  had  hearts  for  the  prosperity  and  honor  of 
the  Old  Bay  State. 

And  yet  they  formed,  after  all,  but  the  appropriate  prelude  to 
the  mingled  tragedy  and  farce  which  followed.  They  were  but 
the  fitting  overture  to  that  series  of  Legislative  and  Executive 
acts,  which  signalized  the  triumph  of  the  false  democracy  over 
the  true.  They  formed,  especially,  but  the  becoming  introduc- 
tion to  that  Executive  message  with  which  the  serious  business 
of  the  session  commenced.  Not  soon  shall  I  forget  the  emo- 
tions with  which  I  perused  the  late  message  of  Governor  Mor- 
ton, on  its  arrival  in  Washington.  Not  soon  shall  I  forget  the 
indignant  expressions  of  my  honorable  and  excellent  friend,  the 
late  member  from  Salem,  (Mr.  Saltonstall,)  who  chanced  to  be 
at  my  elbow  when  the  mail  brought  it  in  to  us  at  midnight,  as 
I  read  it  aloud  to  him.  Five  hundred  miles  away  from  home, 
associated  with  the  representatives  of  other  States,  we  had 
something  of  that  sensitiveness  on  the  subject  of  old  Massa- 
chusetts, something  of  that  jealousy  as  to  every  thing  which 
might  affect  her  reputation  and  renown,  which  travellers  in  a 
foreign  country  are  wont  to  feel  as  to  the  native  land  they  have 
left  behind  them.  And  what  was  our  humiliation  at  hearing 
from  her  own  Council  Chamber,  as  from  authority,  such  per- 


THE   CREDIT   OF    MASSACHUSETTS    VINDICATED.  379 

versions  of  her  past  history,  such  reproaches  upon  her  present 
condition,  such  an  abuse  of  her  previous  rulers,  such  insinua- 
tions as  to  her  credit,  such  imputations  upon  her  integrity,  such 
an  impeachment  of  her  honesty !  If  it  had  been  a  stranger  who 
had  said  these  things  we  could  have  borne  it.  No  —  let  me  not 
say  so  —  we  could  not  have  borne  it.  If  any  citizen  of  another 
State  had  uttered  such  a  tirade  against  old  Massachusetts,  if 
a  member  of  Congress  from  any  other  part  of  the  country  had 
indulged  in  such  reproaches  upon  her  policy  and  principles, 
we  should  have  felt,  —  every  one  of  the  Massachusetts  members 
of  Congress,  (Mr.  Parmenter,  I  am  sure,  not  excepted,)  would 
have  felt,  —  that  it  must  not  pass  unanswered  and  unrebuked. 
Our  constituents,  of  both  parties,  would  not  have  held  us  guilt- 
less, for  suffering  it  to  go  by  in  silence.  But  it  was  no  stranger; 
it  was  our  brother ;  our  fellow-citizen  ;  our  chosen  Chief  Magis- 
trate, with  the  highest  honors  of  the  Commonwealth  freshly 
cast  upon  him,  —  with  the  robes  of  office  in  their  newest  gloss 
upon  his  back.  What  a  return  for  honors  conferred!  And 
what  an  inducement,  too, —  what  a  consideration,  for  a  renewal 
of  those  honors  now  !  Why,  fellow-citizens,  the  citizen  of  Mas- 
sachusetts who  should  now  approach  Governor  Morton  to  lend 
him  his  support,  as  he  presents  himself  again  for  our  suffrages  — 
after  the  libels  he  has  uttered  on  the  character  of  the  Common- 
wealth —  must  approach  him,  I  should  imagine,  in  something 
of  the  spirit  in  which  Shakspeare's  Shylock  represents  himself 
as  approaching  the  Merchant  of  Venice  to  lend  him  moneys: — 

"  He  should  bend  low,  and  in  a  bondman's  key, 
With  'bated  breath,  and  whispering  humbleness, 
Say  this  — 

Fair  Sir,  you  spit  on  me  on  Wednesday  last, 
You  spumed  me  such  a  day ;  —  another  time 
You  called  me  dog,  and  for  these  courtesies 
I  '11  give  you  my  vote.    You  shall  be  our  Governor." 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  no  purpose  to  enter  into  any  detailed 
analysis  of  the  late  Governor's  Message,  or  of  the  Legisla- 
tive proceedings  by  which  it  was  followed.  This  work  has 
been  done,  ably,  admirably  done,  already,  by  those  who  have 
had  far  greater  opportunities  than  myself,  —  by  those  who  have 


380  THE   CREDIT  OF    MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

related  things  which  they  saw,  and  part  of  which  they  were. 
But  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  dwelling  on  one  or  two  of  the  points 
in  the  message  of  Governor  Morton,  and  in  the  conduct  of  his 
party  in  the  Legislature,  which  have  impressed  themselves  most 
deeply  on  the  mind  of  one  who  has  looked  on  at  a  distance. 

And  first,  I  desire  to  say  a  word  as  to  the  language  of 
the  Governor,  in  relation  to  our  State  credit.  Sir,  if  there  has 
been  any  thing  as  to  which  the  people  of  this  Commonwealth 
have  felt,  and  have  had  a  right  to  feel,  a  true  and  lively  satisfac- 
tion, a  just  and  generous  pride,  during  the  past  ten  years,  it  has 
been  the  credit  of  Massachusetts  at  home  and  abroad.  We 
have  seen  the  scrip  of  the  Commonwealth,  as  is  well  said  in  these 
resolutions,  first  among  the  foremost  in  the  world  ;  always  com- 
mending itself  to  the  confidence  of  capitalists ;  often  selling 
where  no  other  scrip  could  find  a  market;  often  sought  for 
when  it  was  not  to  be  found ;  and,  in  the  worst  of  times,  com- 
manding a  higher  price  than  that  of  any  other  State  in  the 
Union.  No  delay  to  pay  interest,  no  denial  of  the  obligation  to 
pay  principal,  elsewhere,  —  no  repudiation,  expressed  or  implied, 
has  sensibly  affected  its  value.  The  mildewed  ears  of  other 
States  have  not  been  able  to  blast  their  wholesome  brother  here ! 
Let  me  recount  a  little  incident,  which  is  only  one  among  a 
hundred  within  every  body's  knowledge,  to  illustrate  the  estima- 
tion in  which  Massachusetts  stock  is  held.  I  remember  being 
called  from  my  seat  by  a  distinguished  foreigner,  of  great  intel- 
ligence, last  winter,  to  converse  with  him  about  the  credit  of  the 
States  ;  and  I  remember  the  pride  I  felt  when  he  told  me,  that 
after  a  careful  examination  of  the  whole  subject,  he  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  Massachusetts  stock  was  the  best  State  stock 
in  the  world,  and  that,  although  he  had  invested  his  funds  hereto- 
fore in  the  stock  of  a  State  in  which  the  name  of  repudiation  had 
never  been  breathed,  and  where  interest  and  principal  had  always 
been  punctually  paid,  he  had  determined  to  sell  out  this  stock  at 
a  discount,  and  buy  in  Massachusetts  stock,  even  at  a  premium. 
There  was  one  other  stock,  he  did,  indeed,  say  that  he  should 
have  preferred.  It  was  not  a  State  stock,  and  the  mention  of  it 
in  no  degree  alloyed  my  satisfaction  or  diminished  my  pride.  It 
was  the  stock  of  the  good  old  city  of  Boston,  —  which,  he  said, 


THE   CREDIT   OF    MASSACHUSETTS  VINDICATED.  381 

was  the  very  best  in  the  world  ;  but  as  this  could  not  be  pro- 
cured for  love  or  money,  and  as  he  wished  to  feel  perfectly  safe 
and  easy  in  leaving  a  little  money  behind  him,  while  he  made  a 
visit  to  his  own  home,  he  was  resolved  to  obtain  the  stock  of 
Massachusetts  at  any  sacrifice  which  might  be  necessary. 

But  what  was  the  language  of  our  own  Governor  in  regard 
to  this  State  stock  of  ours  in  his  last  message  ?  "I  cannot 
refrain  from  the  expression  of  my  apprehension,  (says  he,)  that 
the  investment  of  it  (the  School  Fund)  in  the  scrip  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, may  endanger  its  ultimate  safety."  And  he  then 
proceeded  seriously  to  submit  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Legislature, 
whether  a  different  investment  of  that  fund  might  not  be  safer. 
Something  safer  than  the  bond  of  Massachusetts !  Something 
more  reliable  than  the  honor  and  faith  of  the  old  Puritan  State ! 
And  this,  too,  from  one  who  has  had  the  undeserved  distinction 
of  affixing  his  signature  to  great  numbers  of  these  bonds,  as 
Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  !  I  trust  that  his  wish  was  not 
father  to  this  thought !  I  trust  that  no  willingness,  no  desire,  no 
determination  to  have  the  old  forebodings  of  himself  and  his 
party,  as  to  these  loans  of  credit,  fulfilled,  has  led  to  such  an 
expression.  I  trust  in  Heaven,  that  this  idea  has  not  been 
advanced  in  this  message,  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  doctrine  of 
repudiation  in  the  next !  Prepare  the  way,  do  I  say !  With 
grief  and  shame  I  pronounce  it,  the  late  Message  of  Governor 
Morton  seems  to  me  not  only  to  have  prepared  the  way,  but  to 
have  advanced  the  doctrine  outright,  —  certainly  to  have  implied 
it,  with  a  distinctness  which  admits  of  no  misinterpretation  or 
mistake.  What  does  he  say  further,  in  regard  to  this  School 
Fund  of  ours  ?  Let  me  read  the  very  words,  for  fear  of  being 
thought  to  misquote  or  pervert.  "  Should  any  of  the  Corpora- 
tions (he  says)  to  whom  this  scrip  has  been  loaned,  fail  to  pay 
the  interest  or  the  principal  when  due,  the  only  security —  mark 
it,  '"the  only  security" — which  the  School  Fund  would  have, 
would  consist  in  the  will  of  the  Legislature,  to  impose  an  annual 
tax,  to  be  paid  to  the  several  towns  for  the  support  of  the  town 
schools."  Not  a  word  here  about  the  solemn  obligation  of  the 
State  to  redeem  her  scrip,  her  whole  scrip,  —  to  pay  interest 
and  principal,  both  to  the  uttermost  farthing,  whenever  and 


382  THE  CREDIT   OP   MASSACHUSETTS  VINDICATED. 

wherever  due,  without  regard  to  the  persons  by  whom  it  is  held, 
or  the  purposes  to  which  it  may  have  been  devoted !  Not  a 
syllable  of  all  this.  Nothing  of  that  manly,  honest,  high-toned 
assertion  of  the  inviolability  of  State  Faith,  which  has  been 
accustomed  to  be  heard,  and  which  always  ought  to  be  heard, 
from  the  high  places  of  Massachusetts.  But,  on  the  contrary, 
the  idea  is  deliberately  held  out,  that  if  the  Railroads  should  not 
pay,  the  scrip  would  become  worthless,  the  School  Fund  would 
be  lost  forever,  and  the  only  relief  for  the  cause  of  Education, 
would  rest  on  the  discretion  of  the  Legislature,  manifesting  itself 
by  annual  appropriations  in  its  behalf.  Gentlemen,  I  was  about 
to  say  that  this  was  repudiation  in  disguise ;  but  the  more  I 
think  of  it,  and  the  oftener  I  read  it,  the  more  it  seems  to  be 
repudiation  without  any  disguise  whatever  —  so  plain  and  so 
palpable,  that  he  who  runs  may  read,  —  so  naked  and  so  unblush- 
ing, that  he  who  reads  would  almost  be  ready  to  run  ! 

Indeed,  there  is  a  refinement  on  the  common  and  ordinary 
doctrine  of  repudiation,  in  this  message  of  Governor  Morton, 
which  has  had  no  precedent,  and  which  I  venture  to  say,  will 
have  no  parallel,  elsewhere.  What  is  the  real  gist  of  this  sug- 
gestion as  to  the  School  Fund,  when  stripped  of  its  specious 
phraseology,  and  presented  nakedly  to  the  view  ?  It  is  nothing 
less  than  this, — that  the  State  should  take  measures,  without 
delay,  to  get  rid  of  any  of  its  own  scrip,  which  it  may  happen  to 
have  on  hand,  in  contemplation  of  voluntary  bankruptcy,  in  the 
very  view,  and  almost  with  the  purpose  of  repudiation ;  —  that 
the  State  should  put  off,  as  fast  as  possible,  upon  others,  its  own 
notes  of  hand,  for  fear  they  should  become  worthless  !  What  an 
idea  is  this,  for  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  to  advance.  Why, 
the  beauties  of  modern  banking  afford  nothing  richer  than  this  I 
The  raciest  annals  of  modern  financiering,  furnish  nothing  more 
racy*  Change  the  investment  of  your  School  Fund,  says  the 
Governor,  and  sell  off  to  others  —  to  the  ignorant  or  unwary 
foreigner,  whose  friendship  to  your  country  and  its  liberties,  may 
have  given  him  a  confidence  in  its  credit  —  your  own  stock, 
which  you  are  afraid  to  keep  yourself!  What  a  recommenda- 
tion !  And  this  under  cover  of  a  most  laudable  concern  for  Educa- 
tion and  the  Public  Schools.   In  Heaven's  name  let  not  the  holy 


THE  CREDIT   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  VINDICATED.  383 

cause  of  Education  be  associated  with  such  dishonor !  Do  not 
let  it  be  heard  of,  that  our  common  schools,  the  pride  and  glory 
of  the  State,  have  been  sustained  and  saved  from  overthrow,  —  if 
indeed  their  preservation  depends  at  all  upon  the  School  Fund,  — 
by  such  an  indirection !  Let  not,  above  all  things,  our  children 
hear  it  even  whispered,  that  the  funds  by  which  they  are  edu- 
cated, were  not  only  considered  unsafe  while  invested  in  the 
solemn  obligations  of  the  State,  but  that  the  investment  was 
changed  in  order  to  shift  the  losses  of  State  bankruptcy  and 
State  repudiation  on  other  shoulders.  Rather  than  such  an  ex- 
ample of  dishonest  thrift  should  be  connected  with  the  sacred 
institutions  of  education,  let  the  School  Fund  perish,  and  I  had 
almost  said  the  schools  with  it.  I  would  not  undervalue  the 
cause  of  sound  scholarship,  nor  depreciate  the  importance  of  any 
foundation  for  disseminating  it  among  our  children ;  but  if  the 
alternative  be  whether  the  fund  shall  be  lost  forever,  or  such  an 
act  of  dishonor  be  committed,  I  cannot  hesitate  for  an  instant. 
The  education  which  should  come  from  a  fund  so  saved,  would 
come,  like  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  to  our  first  parents, 
clothed  with  a  curse  ! 

Sir,  the  character  of  our  Commonwealth  ;  its  ancient  reputa- 
tion and  renown ;  its  hitherto  unsullied  and  unsuspected  honesty  ; 
its  unimpeached  and  unimpeachable  good  faith ;  the  examples  of 
its  good  men  and  its  good  deeds ;  —  these  are  themselves  an 
education  to  our  children !  They  constitute  a  part,  and  no  in- 
considerable part,  of  that  high  moral  education,  compared  with 
which  the  best  learning  of  the  schools  is  hardly  worth  the  sweep- 
ings of  the  halls  in  which  it  is  communicated.  Let  not  the  force  of 
these  influences  and  these  examples  be  impaired.  Let  the  School 
Fund  stay  where  it  is,  and  if  there  be  any  danger — which  I  totally 
deny  —  that  repudiation  could  ever  become  the  policy  of  Massa- 
chusetts, this  very  investment  may  arrest  such  a  danger.  Our 
interest  in  education  will  come  in  aid  of  our  State  pride.  Our 
love  for  our  children  will  mingle  with  our  love  of  honor  and  our 
obligations  of  conscience,  and  will  save  us  from  plunging  the 
State  into  such  irretrievable  disgrace.  And,  let  me  add,  that 
if  the  School  Fund  be  not  safe  in  the  scrip  of  the  State,  it  is  safe 
nowhere.    If  our  love  of  honor  is  once  lost,  our  love  of  education 


384  THE   CREDIT   OF    MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

will  soon  follow.  Once  repudiate  our  honest  debts,  and,  even 
were  this  School  Fund  saved  from  the  wreck  now,  at  the  very 
next  temptation  it  would  be  diverted  from  the  purposes  of  its 
establishment.  Repudiation,  once  admitted  and  entertained,  will 
contaminate  our  whole  system,  —  will  infect  our  entire  policy.  It 
will  be  that  first  step  which  costs,  and  its  cost  will  be  our  whole 
character. 

Let  us,  then,  rebuke  the  first  suggestion  of  such  a  doctrine.  Let 
us  prove  to  Governor  Morton,  at  the  next  election,  that  he  cannot 
cast  suspicions  upon  the  good  name  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
propose  measures  which  would  more  than  justify  those  suspi- 
cions, with  impunity.  Let  the  man  who  desires  something 
safer  than  our  State  scrip,  be  taught  that  he  must  seek  some 
safer  place  than  the  Executive  Chair  for  saying  so ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  course  of  remark  of  his  Excellency,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  credit  of  the  State  and  the  safety  of  the  School  Fund, 
is,  after  all,  only  a  fair  illustration  of  the  spirit  which  pervades 
his  whole  message; — a  spirit,  which  I  cannot  characterize 
in  more  courteous  terms,  than  to  say  that  it  is  one  of  unscrupu- 
lous perversion  and  misrepresentation  for  mere  party  purposes ; 
a  spirit,  which  sticks  not  at  defaming  the  Commonwealth  itself, 
and  dishonoring  it  before  the  world,  for  the  sake  of  casting 
reproach  upon  other  parties  and  previous  administrations,  and 
of  attempting  to  magnify  the  merits  and  to  prolong  the  period 
of  his  own ;  a  spirit  which  seems  to  regard  truth,  honor,  faith, 
even  the  old  trophies  of  our  fathers'  glory,  every  thing,  as  indif- 
ferent, save  personal  or  party  supremacy,  and  which  considers 
these  as  cheaply  purchased,  by  almost  any  amount  of  impo- 
sition and  pretence. 

We  see  this  spirit  displayed  again  in  relation  to  the  annual 
expenditures  of  the  State, — in  that  flagrant  misstatement,  more 
especially,  that  the  State  had  expended  more  than  twelve  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  during  the  last  eight  years,  over  and  above 
its  receipts,  and  was  actually  in  debt  to  that  amount;  a  declara- 
tion which  has  no  other  shadow  of  truth  to  rest  upon,  than  the 
fact  that  the  Commonwealth,  during  one  of  those  eight  years, 
saw  fit  to  subscribe  for  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  stock  in  the 
Western  Railroad.     And  this  act,  which  took  place  under  the 


THE   CREDIT   OP   MASSACHUSETTS    VINDICATED.  385 

lead  of  one  of  Governor  Morton's  own  friends,  —  now,  by  some 
extraordinary  political  legerdemain,  installed  in  the  office  which 
had  been  vacated  by  the  proscription  of  the  faithful  and  patriotic 
Lincoln,  —  this  subscription,  forsooth,  is  set  down  as  an  ordinary 
expenditure,  and  is  relied  upon  as  justifying  the  reproach  upon 
the  State,  of  having  vastly  exceeded  her  income. 

Sir,  I  have  no  idea  of  following  the  Governor  through  all  these 
exaggerations  and  perversions  on  the  subject  of  our  State 
expenditures,  but  there  is  one  view  of  these  expenditures  which 
I  desire  briefly  to  present  to  you. 

How  is  it,  let  me  ask,  how  is  it,  that  the  aggregate  of  State 
outlay  and  State  liability  have  been  so  augmented  within  the 
last  eight  or  ten  years  ?  It  has  been,  as  every  body  knows,  by 
appropriations  to  the  erection  of  Insane  Hospitals,  to  the  sup- 
port of  Asylums  for  the  blind  and  the  deaf  and  dumb,  to  the 
encouragement  of  our  volunteer  militia,  to  the  agricultural,  geo- 
logical, and  territorial  surveys  of  the  State,  and  to  the  con- 
struction of  that  system  of  railroads,  which  has  made  every  man 
in  the  State  the  neighbor  of  every  other  man,  and  the  State 
itself  the  neighbor  of  every  other  State.  These  have  been  the 
objects  upon  which  the  public  liberality  has  been  so  largely 
bestowed. 

Now,  Sir,  our  opponents  are  not  to  be  permitted  to  sit  on  two 
stools,  or  to  ride  on  two  hobbies  at  the  same  time.  It  is  against 
reason,  it  is  against  nature.  They  are  not  to  be  permitted  to 
justify  and  eulogize  the  object  of  an  expenditure,  and  yet  to 
disavow  and  denounce  the  expenditure  itself.  They  must  either 
approve  both,  or  condemn  both.  They  cannot  be  permitted  to 
claim  the  credit  of  parsimony  and  liberality,  of  economy  and 
generosity,  in  the  same  breath.  They  must  either  hate  the  one 
and  love  the  other,  or  they  must  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the 
other.  It  is  as  true  of  institutions  and  of  improvements  as  of 
individuals,  "  you  take  my  life  when  you  take  the  means  I  have 
to  live."  And  they  are  to  be  allowed  no  credit  for  the  existence 
of  public  works,  on  the  strength  of  mere  vague  and  indefinite 
eulogies  of  them,  after  they  are  completed,  who  cease  not  to 
decry  the  means  by  which  alone  they  could  have  been  under- 
taken.    Let,  then,  the  friends  of  Governor  Morton  choose  which 

33 


386  THE   CREDIT   OF  MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

horn  of  the  dilemma  they  will.  Will  they  be  content  to  be  stig- 
matized as  the  enemies  of  these  noble  charities,  of  these  bene- 
ficent institutions,  of  these  magnificent  public  improvements, 
which  have  illustrated  the  policy  of  the  Commonwealth  during 
the  last  ten  years^  —  or  will  they  consent  to  take  their  share  of 
the  responsibility  for  whatever  of  liability  or  outlay  they  may 
have  cost?  One  thing  or  the  other  they  must  do.  And  for  one, 
as  a  Massachusetts  Whig,  I  care  not  a  straw  which.  I  wish  to 
divide  the  responsibility  of  this  portion  of  our  State  policy  with 
no  party  that  is  not  willing  —  nay,  that  does  not  desire  —  to  share 
it.  It  is  as  much  as  ever  that  I  am  willing  to  divide  it  with  those 
who  do.  I  adopt  the  idea  of  a  celebrated  ancient  lawgiver, 
who,  when  he  was  arraigned  for  extravagance,  declared  that  he 
would  gladly  submit  to  the  charge,  if  all  the  noble  works  to 
which  the  public  moneys  had  been  appropriated  could  be  in- 
scribed with  his  own  name,  instead  of  being  called  by  the  name 
of  the  city  over  which  he  had  presided !  Yes,  let  all  the  noble 
institutions,  and  edifices,  and  enterprises,  and  improvements, 
which  have  been  aided  by  the  appropriations  of  State  money 
or  State  credit,  be  called  by  the  name  of  the  Whig  party,  and 
be  admitted  as  exclusively  the  results  of  Whig  policy,  and  our 
opponents  may  carp  and  cavil  and  rail  at  the  cost  as  much  as 
they  please.  Why,  what  is  the  paltry  debt,  or  even  the  more 
considerable  liability  of  Massachusetts,  when  compared  with  the 
value  of  the  objects  for  which  they  have  been  incurred  and  con- 
tracted? Is  there  a  man  here,  is  there  a  man  in  Massachusetts, 
who  would  undo  all  that  has  been  done  for  the  relief  of  suffer- 
ing, for  the  promotion  of  science,  for  the  ascertainment  of  the 
real  resources  and  rightful  boundaries  of  the  State,  and  for  facili- 
tating the  intercourse  of  our  citizens  and  the  interchange  of  their 
commodities,  for  the  sake  of  wiping  off  the  little  debt  of  the 
State  ?  There  are  many  men  who  will  say  that  they  would  do 
so,  for  mere  party  effect.  But  if  the  thing  were  possible ;  if  by 
the  rubbing  of  some  Aladdin's  lamp,  our  hospitals  and  asylums 
could  be  razed  to  the  ground,  and  their  now  happy  inmates  be 
remanded  to  the  destitution  and  the  dungeons  from  which  they 
have  been  rescued ;  if  by  the  utterance  of  some  magic  phrase, 
some  "  presto  —  change,"  our  railroads  could  be  annihilated,  the 


THE  CREDIT   OF  MASSACHUSETTS  VINDICATED.  387 

rocks  and  hills  be  again  exalted  between  us  and  Albany,  the 
valleys  again  be  made  low,  the  straight  be  made  crooked  and 
the  plain  places  rough ;  is  there  a  man  in  the  Commonwealth 
who  would  take  the  responsibility  of  the  act,  in  order  to  cancel 
the  few  millions  of  State  bonds  which  have  been  issued  to  pay 
for  them  ?  Until  such  a  man  be  found,  let  us  hear  no  more  of 
these  absurd  and  hypocritical  lamentations  over  the  loans  and 
liabilities  of  Massachusetts. 

I  had  intended,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  allude  to  other  parts  of  the 
Governor's  Message,  and  to  other  features  of  the  policy  of  his 
supporters.  I  had  proposed,  especially,  to  allude  to  that  assault 
which  was  made,  at  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature,  upon  the 
independence  of  the  judiciary  by  the  unconstitutional  act  which 
was  so  rashly  adopted  for  reducing  the  salary  of  the  judges.  I 
wished,  also,  to  have  borne  my  humble  testimony  to  the  charac- 
ters and  qualifications  of  our  candidates  for  Governor  and 
Lieutenant-Governor,  —  George  N.  Briggs  and  John  Reed,  — 
men  with  whom  it  has  been  my  privilege  and  my  pride  to  be 
associated  in  the  Councils  of  the  Nation,  and  for  whom  I  enter- 
tain the  most  profound  respect,  as  well  as  the  warmest  personal 
regard.  But  there  will  be  opportunities  hereafter.  Other  gen- 
tlemen are  present  to  address  this  meeting,  and  I  hasten  to  make 
way  for  them.  Let  me  not  conclude,  however,  without  a  closing 
word  of  appeal.  It  has  been  quite  too  common,  I  am  aware, 
for  politicians  to  call  every  thing  a  crisis,  and  the  phrase  has 
almost  passed  into  a  byword.  But  critical  periods  in  the  history 
of  Commonwealths  do  nevertheless  occur,  and  it  would  be  a 
fatal  delusion,  if  we  did  not  feel  and  realize  that  such  a  period 
has  now  arrived  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts.  This  old  Com- 
monwealth of  ours  has  hitherto  occupied  a  proud  and  lofty 
position  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  has  exercised  an  influence, 
not  easily  to  be  exaggerated,  on  the  destinies  of  the  nation. 
There  has  been  a  stability  about  her  institutions,  a  steadiness 
in  the  character  of  her  people,  a  consistency  in  her  political 
course,  an  unyielding  devotion  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  law, 
which  have  given  her  a  name  and  a  praise  in  all  the  land.  Yes, 
the  old  Pine  Tree,  from  the  earliest  day  in  which  our  Fathers 
transplanted  it  to  these  shores,  and  adopted  it  as  the  emblem  of 


388  THE   CREDIT   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   VINDICATED. 

their  infant  Republic,  has  been  seen  standing  in  ever-during  ver- 
dure, —  broken  by  no  blast  of  adversity,  withered  by  no  heat  of 
prosperity,  still  striking  its  roots  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  storm, 
still  lifting  its  branches  higher  and  higher  in  the  sunshine  !  But 
an  unfilial  hand  is  now  raised  against  it.  Sir,  Massachusetts 
wTill  cease  to  be  Massachusetts,  if  the  policy  of  her  existing  ad- 
ministration shall  be  permanently  sustained.  Her  name  may  be 
left,  her  place  on  the  map  may  be  unaltered,  her  territory  may  be 
unchanged,  and  the  monuments  of  the  noble  deeds  of  her  Fathers 
may  still  stand  thick  on  her  hills  and  plains  ;  but  if  such  a  policy 
is  to  prevail  in  her  councils,  her  glory  will  be  a  merely  historical 
glory;  her  honor  will  belong  only  to  the  records  of  the  past! 
She  will  cease  to  be  that  Massachusetts  which  we  have  so 
long  loved  and  respected ;  that  Massachusetts  which  has  been 
pronounced  "the  Model  State"  by  foreign  travellers;  that  Mas- 
sachusetts, which  has  extorted  the  homage  of  an  ill-disguised 
envy,  even  from  those  few  of  her  sister  States,  from  whom  she 
has  failed  in  winning  the  tribute  of  admiration  and  affection  ! 

Let  us,  then,  redeem  her,  before  it  is  too  late.  Let  us  rescue 
her,  while  she  is  still  worthy  of  being  rescued.  Let  us  resolve 
to  place  her  once  more  in  a  position,  in  which  she  may  be  true 
to  herself,  true  to  her  own  character  and  her  own  children,  and 
true  to  the  whole  country !  Let  us  restore  her  now  to  a  con- 
dition, which  shall  not  only  give  assurance  that  her  own 
Constitution  shall  be  maintained,  her  own  credit  vindicated,  her 
own  honor  upheld,  but  that  a  majority  of  her  citizens  shall  be  in 
readiness,  when  the  great  National  line  shall  be  again  formed  in 
May  next,  to  march  with  unbroken  ranks  to  their  old  place 
under  the  old  Whig  banner,  and  to  do  battle  under  whatever 
commander  may  be  selected  to  lead  us  on  to  victory ! 


THE  RIGHT  OF  PETITION. 


A  SPEECH   DELIVERED   IN   THE  HOUSE   OF   REPRESENTATIVES    OF   THE   UNI- 
TED   STATES,  JANUARY  23,  1844. 


Mr.  Speaker,  — 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  fortune  of  this  House  to  be 
employed,  during  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  time  since 
the  present  session  commenced,  in  discussing  what  are  called 
first  principles.  For  eight  or  ten  days,  not  long  since  gone 
by,  we  were  occupied  with  the  consideration  of  that  great  writ 
of  personal  liberty,  the  Habeas  Corpus,  And,  in  the  course  of 
that  discussion,  doctrines  were  advanced,  in  some  quarters  of 
the  House,  to  my  mind  not  a  little  strange  and  startling,  and 
upon  which  I  desired  at  the  time  to  have  made  some  comments 
But,  in  common  with  many  other  gentlemen  better  entitled  to 
a  hearing,  I  attempted  in  vain  to  obtain  the  floor  for  that  pur- 
pose. We  have  now  been  engaged,  during  the  morning  hour  of 
many  days,  in  a  debate  on  a  second  great  principle  of  civil 
liberty,  —  the  Right  of  Petition.  And  upon  this  subject  opi- 
nions have  been  expressed,  and  positions  maintained,  which  are 
even  more  extraordinary  and  more  startling ;  and  from  which  I 
am  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  declare  my  utter  dissent. 

The  idea,  that  the  right  of  petition  does  not  imply  the  right 
of  having  a  petition  received !  The  doctrine,  that  the  right  of 
the  people  to  apply  to  the  government  for  redress  of  grievances 
does  not  involve  any  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  government 
to  heed,  or  even  hear,  that  application !  The  position  which  has 
been  seriously  maintained  here,  that  all  that  was  ever  intended 
by  the  right  of  petition,  was  the  right  of  individuals  or  of  assem- 
blies to  prepare  and  sign  a  paper,  setting  forth  the  grievances 
33* 


390  THE   RIGHT   OF   PETITION. 

under  which  they  are  suffering,  and  the  redress  which  they  seek ; 
and  that  it  was  no  part  of  that  intention  to  secure  to  that  paper 
any  consideration  or  entertainment  whatever  from  those  to  whom 
it  is  addressed !  Why,  Sir,  these  doctrines  seem  to  me  about  as 
reasonable  as  it  would  be  to  contend,  that  the  privilege  of  the 
writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  implies  no  obligation  on  the  part  of  the 
officer  to  whom  it  is  directed  to  regard  or  obey  the  writ,  and  no 
duty  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  execute  or  enforce  it ;  but 
that  it  is  only  designed  to  secure  to  an  imprisoned  citizen  the 
satisfaction  of  having  the  writ  itself,  duly  signed  and  attested,  to 
amuse  himself  with  in  his  solitary  confinement,  —  to  meditate 
upon  by  day,  or  to.  put  under  his  pillow  to  dream  upon  by  night ! 
They  seem  to  me  about  as  reasonable  as  it  would  be  to  maintain, 
that  the  freedom  of  the  press  extends  only  to  the  freedom  of  the 
mechanical  enginery  of  the  press ;  that  it  was  only  intended  to 
secure  the  rights  of  individual  printers  to  compose,  set  up,  and 
strike  off,  such  matter  as  might  be  agreeable  to  them  ;  but  that 
it  does  not  reach  to  the  privilege  of  publishing  or  circulating 
that  matter  after  it  is  struck  off!  In  a  word,  Mr.  Speaker,  if 
the  right  of  petition  is  really  nothing  more  than  it  has  been 
represented  to  be  by  some  of  the  honorable  members  who  have 
preceded  me  in  this  debate,  it  is,  in  my  judgment,  as  poor  a  pre- 
tence, as  miserable  a  mockery,  as  empty  and  unmeaning  and 
worthless  an  abstraction,  as  was  ever  dignified  by  a  swelling 
name  or  a  high-sounding  title ;  and  the  sooner  it  is  expunged 
from  the  roll  of  civil  liberty,  the  sooner  it  ceases  to  hold  out  to 
the  ear  a  promise  only  to  be  broken  to  the  hope,  the  sooner  will 
the  people  understand  what  rights  they  really  do  possess. 

But,  Sir,  I  desire  to  proceed  with  this  subject  a  little  more 
methodically,  and  to  notice  with  something  more  of  precision 
and  exactness  the  arguments  which  have  been  adduced  in  favor 
of  these  doctrines. 

The  question  before  the  House  is,  whether  the  rule,  which  has 
obtained  a  most  odious  notoriety,  in  many  quarters  of  the  coun- 
try, under  the  name  of  the  twenty-first  rule,  and  which  has  lost 
nothing  of  its  offensiveness  by  recently  assuming  the  alias  of  the 
twenty-third  rule,  shall  remain  as  one  of  the  permanent  rules 
and  orders  of  the  present  Congress.     This  is  the  question  plainly 


THE  RIGHT   OF  PETITION.  391 

presented  in  the  instructions  which  have  been  moved  by  the 
honorable  member  from  Georgia  (Mr.  Black;)  and  this  is  the 
question  no  less  plainly  involved  in  the  simple  motion  to  recom- 
mit the  report.  And  what  is  this  rule  ?  It  is  a  rule  providing 
that  no  petitions,  resolutions,  memorials,  or  other  papers,  on  cer- 
tain enumerated  subjects,  shall  be  received  by  this  House,  or 
entertained  in  any  way  whatever.  Now,  Sir,  I  care  not  what 
those  enumerated  subjects  are.  I  hold  it  entirely  unimportant 
to  this  argument  to  state  them.  "Whatever  they  may  be,  the 
principle  of  the  rule  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  same.  If  this 
House  may  declare  to-day  that  it  will  receive  no  petitions  on 
one  class  of  subjects,  it  may  to-morrow  declare  that  it  will  re- 
ceive no  petitions  on  another  class  of  subjects;  and,  on  the  third 
day,  it  may  refuse  to  receive  any  petitions  at  all.  The  real 
inquiry  is,  have  we  a  right  to  prescribe  to  those  who  have  sent  us 
here  on  what  particular  subjects  their  prayers  shall  be  heard  in 
these  halls  ?  Is  it  within  our  prerogative  to  say  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States  —  "  Gentlemen,  you  may  assemble  together 
in  what  numbers  you  please,  to  consult  upon  what  you  may 
choose  to  consider  your  grievances ;  you  may  sign  your  peti- 
tions individually  or  collectively ;  you  may  adopt  resolutions  in 
your  primary  meetings,  or  in  your  legislative  assemblies  ;  but  if 
those  petitions  or  resolutions  contain  any  allusion  to  this,  that, 
or  the  other  topic,  we  will  not  receive  them,  or  entertain  them 
in  any  way  whatever  ?  " 

Sir,  I  utterly  deny  the  existence  of  any  such  right  on  our  part. 
I  hold  it  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  relations  we  sustain  to  our 
constituents.  I  hold  it  to  be  unwarranted  by  any  thing  either 
in  the  reason  or  the  history  of  parliamentary  proceedings.  I 
hold  it  to  be  in  direct  conflict  with  the  spirit  and  intent  of  ex- 
press provisions  of  the  Constitution.  And  I  hold  it,  also,  to  be 
subversive  of  original,  inherent,  and  inalienable  rights  of  the 
people. 

The  honorable  member  from  Tennessee,  (Mr.  A.  V.  Brown,) 
in  justifying  this  rule,  a  few  mornings  ago,  drew  an  analogy 
from  the  relations  of  parent  and  child ;  and,  in  the  application 
of  this  analogy,  this  House  was  made  to  play  the  part  of  the 
parent,  and  the  people  were  left  to  sustain  the  character  of  the 


392  THE   RIGHT   OP   PETITION. 

child !     It  was  a  good  illustration,  Sir,  of  the  sort  of  reasoning  by 
which  this  rule  must  be  defended,  if  it  is  to  be  defended  at  all. 
But  this  House  does  not  stand  in  loco  parentis  to  the  people  of 
the    United    States.      We   are   not   their   parents,  masters,  or 
guardians.     We  are  sent  here  to  ascertain  their  wishes  ;  to  carry 
out  their  will ;  to  do  their  work.     And  for  us  to  undertake  to 
limit  their  liberty  to  address  us,  or  abridge  their  privilege  of 
being  heard  here,  on  any  subjects  on  which  they  may  choose  to  be 
heard,  is  to  reverse  entirely  our  relative  positions.    It  is  the  repre- 
sentative instructing  the  constituent ;  the  agent  prescribing  terms 
to  his  principal ;  the  servant  imposing  conditions  on  the  master! 
I  shall  be  told  that  individual  petitioners  are  not  the  people ; 
and  that  the  rights  of  the  signers  of  petitions,  few  or  many,  are 
not  to  be  confounded  with  the  rights  of  the  people  at  large. 
There  would  be  some  fitness  and  some  force  in  this  suggestion, 
if  we  were  considering  the  reception  of  a  single  petition,  or  of 
any  ascertained  number  of  petitions.     But  where  is  the  limit  to 
this  rule  ?     Where  is  the  limit  to  the  principle  of  this  rule  ? 
Why,   Sir,  this  rule  excludes,  practically  and  daily,  thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  petitioners.      It  denies  a  hear- 
ing, practically  and  daily,  to  whole  States  —  sovereign  States 
—  speaking  through  the  resolutions  of  their  Legislatures.     The 
Journals,    I   think,  will  show  that  the  resolutions  of  four  or 
five  States  have  been  thrust  back  into  the  faces  of  their  repre- 
sentatives on  this  floor,  in  a  single  hour  of  a  single  morning. 
And  if  as  many  States  as  were  arrayed  here  the  other  day  on 
the  subject  of   General  Jackson's  fine, — seventeen,  I  think, — 
could  come  to  a  common  opinion  on  any  point  connected  with 
any  one  of  the  subjects  enumerated  in  this  rule,  —  nay,  if  all  the 
States  in  the  Union,  or  all  the  people  of  all  the  States,  could 
come,  as  they  ought  to  come,  and  as  I  believe  that  one  day  or 
other  they  will  come,  to  the  conclusion,  that  whatever  may  be  done 
with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the 
slave  trade  here  shall  be  no  more  tolerated,  but  that  this  metro- 
polis of  the  American  Republic  shall  be  purged  from  the  pollu- 
tion of  an  inhuman  and  abominable  traffic,  —  this  rule  is  broad 
enough,  and  general  enough,  to  deny  a  hearing  to  them  all!     In 
principle,  then,  this  rale  goes  the  full  length  of  asserting  the 


THE   RIGHT   OF   PETITION.  393 

right  of  this  House,  to  say  to  the  people,  to  the  whole  people  of 
the  Union  —  "  Come  one,  come  all,  we  will  not  hear  you." 

But,  says  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Rhett,) 
have  we  not  a  plenary  power,  under  the  Constitution,  "  to  deter- 
mine our  own  rules  of  proceeding  ?  "  Yes,  Sir,  we  have  that 
power,  and  there  is  no  appeal  from  our  determination  as  to  those 
rules.  But  power  is  one  thing,  and  right  is  another.  We  have 
the  power  to  do  many  things  in  this  House  which  we  have  yet 
no  manner  of  right  to  do.  We  are  the  final  judges  of  the  elec- 
tions and  returns  of  our  own  members.  And  if  a  majority  in 
this  House,  in  its  wilfulness  or  its  wantonness,  should  see  fit  to 
give  the  seat  in  a  contested  election  to  a  candidate  clearly  in  a 
minority,  or  to  admit  to  a  right  of  membership  on  this  floor 
persons  under  twenty-five  years  of  age,  or  who  have  resided  less 
than  seven  years  in  the  United  States,  or  persons  who  do  not 
possess  any  other  of  the  constitutional  or  legal  qualifications  of 
members,  —  and  something  of  this  sort  has  been  done,  as  I  think, 
at  this  very  session,  —  there  is  no  power  elsewhere  to  revise  or 
reverse  our  decision.  We  have  the  power,  also,  to  adopt  a  rule 
of  proceeding  by  which  the  yeas  and  nays  shall  not  be  recorded 
on  a  call  of  one  fifth  of  the  members  present,  or  shall  not  be 
recorded  at  all ;  and,  indeed,  a  majority  of  this  House  almost 
went  this  length  at  the  outset  of  the  session,  in  excluding  from 
the  records  a  full  and  intelligible  statement  of  a  question  on 
which  the  yeas  and  nays  were  demanded  and  taken.  We  have  the 
power,  too,  to  suppress  or  expunge  from  our  Journals  any  pro- 
ceedings which  we  may  not  fancy  to  have  the  people  find  recorded 
there ;  and  this  proceeding,  again,  is  not  entirely  unknown  to  this 
Capitol,  or  even  to  this  House  during  the  present  session.  But 
who  can  assert  that  we  have  any  right  to  resort  to  such  mea- 
sures, in  defiance  of  express  provisions  of  the  Constitution? 
Sir,  it  is  plain  that  this  power  to  determine  the  rules  of  our  own 
proceeding  must  be  held  in  subordination  to  other  provisions  of 
the  Constitution,  and  must  be  exercised  also  with  a  due  regard 
to  the  rights,  the  reserved  or  inherent  rights,  of  the  people.  Our 
power  over  our  own  rules  of  proceeding  is,  indeed,  an  irrespon- 
sible power.  But  this  consideration  should  only  make  us  the 
more  anxious  to  ascertain  what  is  its  rightful  and  constitutional 


394  THE   RIGHT   OF  PETITION. 

limit,  and  the  more  careful  to  keep  ourselves  strictly  within  that 
limit. 

It  is  contended,  however,  by  the  advocates  of  this  rule,  that  it 
is  not  inconsistent  with  any  provision  in  the  Constitution,  nor 
with  any  right  of  the  people.  The  first  article  of  the  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution,  it  is  said,  provides  only  that  "  Con- 
gress shall  make  no  law  abridging  the  right  of  the  people  to 
petition  the  government  for  a  redress  of  grievances;"  and  this 
rule  is  not  a  law.  Sir,  this  is  sticking  to  the  bark  of  the  Con- 
stitution with  a  witness  to  it!  Can  it  be  seriously  pretended 
that  it  is  consistent  with  the  spirit  and  intent  of  this  clause,  that 
one  branch  of  Congress  should  effect,  by  a  mere  rule  of  proceed- 
ing, what  both  branches  are  prohibited  from  effecting  by  solemn 
statute  ?  If  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  and  the 
President  combined,  can  pass  no  law  abridging  the  right  of  the 
people  to  petition  the  Government,  is  it  not,  a  fortiori,  incompe- 
tent for  this  House  alone  to  abridge  that  right?  But  I  deny  the 
propriety  of  this  literal  interpretation  of  the  word  law  in  the  ar- 
ticle in  question.  The  first  article  of  amendment,  as  it  originally 
passed  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1789,  did  not  contain 
that  word.  Its  phraseology  was,  —  H  the  right  of  the  people  to 
apply  to  the  Government  for  redress  of  grievances  shall  not  be 
infringed."  This  is  the  real  gist  of  the  provision.  The  Senate, 
in  incorporating  some  additional  matter  into  the  same  article, 
found  it  necessary  to  change  the  construction  of  the  sentence. 
But  it  was  a  change  of  construction  only,  and  there  is  not  the 
slightest  ground  for  the  idea,  that  any  change  of  the  sense  or 
substance  was  intended. 

Why,  Sir,  this  article  of  amendment,  with  many  others,  was 
adopted,  as  is  well  known,  on  the  recommendation  of  a  number 
of  the  State  conventions,  by  which  the  Constitution  was  origin- 
ally ratified.  And  in  what  terms  did  those  State  conventions 
recommend  it?  In  what  terms  did  your  own  State  of  Virginia 
propose  its  adoption  ?  "  Every  freeman  has  a  right  to  petition, 
or  apply  to  the  Legislature  for  the  redress  of  grievances."  This 
was  the  language  of  Virginia  in  1789 ;  and  it  was  well  said  of  it 
by  Judge  Tucker,  in  his  appendix  to  Blackstone,  that  "it  was 
the  language  of  a  free  people  asserting  their  rights,"  while  the 


THE  RIGHT   OP  PETITION.  395 

language  of  the  Constitution,  he  adds,  "  savors  of  that  style  of 
condescension  in  which  favors  are  supposed  to  be  granted." 

Bat  we  are  told  by  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr. 
Rhett,)  and  again  by  the  gentleman  from  Alabama,  (Mr.  Belser,) 
that  this  article  was  adopted  in  contemplation  of  a  particular 
mode  of  abridging  the  right  of  petition ;  that  it  had  reference  to 
certain  old  English  Riot  Acts,  which  prohibited  the  people  from 
assembling  in  tumultuous  masses  to  petition  the  Government. 
Admit  all  that  the  gentlemen  have  said  on  this  point.  Admit 
that  the  language  of  this  article  was  derived  from  the  English 
Bill  of  Rights,  and  was  originally  aimed  at  some  particular 
restraint  upon  the  right  in  question.  What  then  ?  Is  there  any 
thing  in  the  article  which  confines  its  application,  now  and  at  all 
times  to  come,  to  the  particular  mode  of  abridgment  which  first 
gave  occasion  to  it  ?  Sir,  the  phraseology  of  the  article  is  com- 
prehensive and  general.  It  declares  that  the  right  of  petition 
shall  not  be  abridged  by  Congress;  not  that  it  shall  not  be 
abridged  in  one  way,  or  in  another  way,  but  that  it  shall  not  be 
abridged  at  all.  Gentlemen  might  as  well  contend  that  the 
general  statute  of  murder  was  only  designed  to  prevent  and 
punish  those  kinds  of  homicide  which  were  in  vogue  when  the 
statute  was  passed,  as  to  contend  that  this  article  of  the  Consti- 
tution was  only  intended  to  prohibit  those  modes  of  abridging 
the  right  of  petition  which  were  contemplated  at  the  time  of  its 
adoption.  Upon  this  principle,  if  any  ingenious  villain  could 
only  discover  some  new  mode  of  putting  an  end  to  human  life, 
it  would  be  "killing  —  no  murder!"  Such  a  principle  would 
make  a  farce  of  all  legislation. 

But  the  honorable  member  from  Alabama  (Mr.  Belser)  has 
discovered  sundry  instances  in  which  the  British  House  of  Com- 
mons have  refused  to  receive  petitions,  and  have  even  passed 
rules  for  refusing  to  receive  them.  And  upon  this  discovery  he 
has  founded  what  he  seemed  to  consider  a  most  triumphant  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  rule  of  this  House. 
The  argument,  if  I  understand  it,  is  this :  that  the  refusal  to 
receive  petitions  at  discretion,  was  a  well-known  practice  of  the 
British  Parliament  before  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution ;  that 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution  must  have  understood  and  con- 


396  THE   RIGHT   OF  PETITION. 

templated  that  practice ;  and  that,  therefore,  in  default  of  any 
express  allusion  to  it,  there  is  no  reason  for  imagining  that  it 
was  intended  to  be  reached  or  remedied  by  the  article  of  amend- 
ment in  question. 

Now,  sir,  I  disagree  to  this  argument  altogether.  I  deny  the 
correctness,  both  of  the  premises  and  of  the  conclusion.  I  main- 
tain, in  precise  opposition  to  it,  that,  in  the  first  place,  the  right 
to  present  petitions  to  the  Government,  including  the  right  to 
have  these  petitions  received,  was  an  old,  original,  inherent  right 
of  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  acknowledged  and  allowed  from 
a  time  whereof  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not  to  the  con- 
trary. I  maintain,  in  the  second  place,  that  the  framers  of  our 
Constitution  understood  and  appreciated  this  inherent  right.  I 
maintain,  in  the  third  place,  that  the  refusal  to  receive  petitions 
in  certain  cases,  in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  was  an 
exception  to  the  general  principles  and  general  practice  of  that 
body,  arising  out  of  circumstances  peculiar  to  those  cases,  and 
furnishing  no  justification  for  the  rule  which  is  under  considera- 
tion here.  And  I  maintain,  in  the  fourth  place,  that  there  is 
abundant  reason  for  the  assurance,  that  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution would  have  been  the  last  persons  in  the  world  to  sanction 
such  refusals,  or  to  consider  them  as  in  any  degree  furnishing 
precedents  for  us  to  follow.  I  am  aware,  Sir,  that  it  is  not  often 
easy  to  prove  the  affirmative  of  propositions  of  this  kind.  But 
if  the  House  will  bear  with  me  a  few  moments,  I  think  I  can 
show  them,  at  least,  that  I  do  not  speak  without  book. 

And  here,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  had  a  whole  morning  before  me, 
instead  of  the  rapidly  flying  remnant  of  a  little  hour,  I  might 
bring  to  the  remembrance  of  gentlemen  not  a  few  passages  of 
English  history  of  a  most  interesting  and  instructive  character. 
I  might  go  back  to  those  great  conflicts  for  civil  liberty  in  the 
Old  World,  two  centuries  ago,  by  which  our  fathers  were  exer- 
cised and  instructed  for  its  establishment  in  the  New.  I  might 
refer  to  days,  on  which  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  citi- 
zens were  seen  going  up  to  Parliament,  en  masse,  to  present 
their  petitions  for  redress ;  days,  when  the  constituents  of  the 
immortal  John  Hampden  were  seen  riding  up  from  Buckingham- 
shire, each  one  with  a  copy  of  a  famous  protest  which  they  had 


THE  RIGHT   OF  PETITION.  397 

adopted  in  his  hatband,  to  petition  against  ship-money,  and  to 
demand  the  release  from  imprisonment  of  their  gallant  and  glo- 
rious Representative;  days,  when  fifteen  thousand  women,  headed 
by  the  wife  of  an  honest  brewer,  were  seen  wending  their  way 
with  a  petition  to  the  very  doors  of  the  House  of  Commons;  and 
when  those  doors  were  thrown  open  to  receive  them !  And  what 
was  the  moral  of  those  scenes?  Sir,  in  those  days  the  champions 
of  the  popular  cause  relied  greatly  on  the  exercise  of  this  right 
of  petition  to  strengthen  them  in  their  struggles  against  the  en- 
croachments and  exactions  of  the  Crown.  Petitions  to  the 
Parliament  and  petitions  to  the  King  were  then  among  the  most 
important  instruments  of  the  popular  movement.  There  was 
even  a  time  when  the  friends  of  freedom  assumed  the  party 
name  of  Petitioners,  and  when  the  friends  of  prerogative  and 
power  were  known  by  the  name  of  Abhorrers  —  abhorrers  of  peti- 
tions! and  these  names  of  Petitioners  and  Abhorrers  were  as 
common  and  as  general  as  Whig  and  Tory  afterwards  were, 
and  designated  respectively  the  same  party  divisions.  And  there 
is  one  little  anecdote  of  those  days,  which  I  cannot  forbear  recit- 
ing with  greater  exactness.  It  is  the  anecdote  of  a  man,  whose 
real  name  is  not  recorded  on  the  page  of  history,  but  who  gave 
a  name  to  himself  which  will  not  soon  be  forgotten ;  a  man 
who  seems  to  have  foreshadowed  something  of  the  indomi- 
table spirit  on  the  subject  of  the  right  of  petition,  which  has 
been  so  often  manifested  on  this  floor  by  my  honored  and  vene- 
rable colleague  (Mr.  Adams  ;)  a  man  who  went  in  person  into 
the  very  presence  of  King  Charles  I.,  and  presented  to  him  a 
petition,  complaining  of  some  act  of  oppression  and  demanding 
redress.  "  How  dare  you,"  said  the  King,  "  present  me  such  a 
petition?"  "  May  it  please  your  Majesty,"  said  the  man,  "my 
name  is  Dare."  He  was  rewarded  for  his  boldness,  not  as  my 
venerable  colleague  was  on  a  well-remembered  occasion,  by  a 
resolution  of  censure  or  impeachment,  (telum  imbelle,  sine  ictu  /) 
but  by  a  heavy  fine  and  a  long-continued  imprisonment.  If  I 
remember  right,  Sir,  the  first  child  born  in  the  Jamestown  colony 
was  christened  "  Virginia  Dare,"  and  perhaps  the  name  was  in 
honor  of  this  stout  and  sturdy  old  upholder  of  the  right  of  peti- 
tion !  This  supposition,  however,  would  involve  a  slight  ana- 
34 


398  THE  RIGHT   OF  PETITION. 

chronism,  I  fear,  and  must  therefore  be  abandoned.  I  fear 
still  more  that  most  of  the  Dare  family  of  Virginia  of  the 
present  day  would  be  disposed  to  renounce  and  disown  such  a 
namesake. 

But  these  historical  reminiscences,  pertinent  as  they  are,  do 
not  come  near  enough  to  the  point,  to  answer  the  purpose  of  my 
argument ;  and  I  proceed  to  cite  a  case  which  will  more  clearly 
sustain  the  exact  positions  I  have  laid  down. 

In  the  year  1668,  one  Mr.  Thomas  Skinner  presented  a  peti- 
tion to  the  British  House  of  Lords,  complaining  of  certain 
oppressive  acts  of  the  East  India  Company.  These  acts  were 
properly  cognizable,  it  would  seem,  by  the  ordinary  courts  of 
law.  But  the  Lords,  notwithstanding,  determined  to  assume 
jurisdiction,  and  decide  upon  them  for  themselves.  The  East 
India  Company  thereupon  presented  a  petition  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  complaining  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  denying 
their  right  to  proceed  in  the  premises.  The  Lords  immediately 
took  umbrage  at  this  petition,  as  libellous  and  scandalous,  as  a 
breach  of  their  privilege  and  an  encroachment  upon  their  prero- 
gative, and  proceeded  to  punish  Sir  Samuel  Bernardiston  and 
other  members  of  the  company  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  A 
long  and  angry  dispute  forthwith  arose  between  the  two  branches 
of  Parliament  on  this  particular  point :  —  how  far  petitions  which 
were  presented  in  the  House  of  Commons  could  be  taken  notice 
of  in  the  House  of  Lords  or  elsewhere  ;  and,  in  the  course  of  this 
dispute,  the  right  of  petition  generally  underwent  a  strict  and 
thorough  investigation.  Elaborate  reports  were  made  on  both 
sides,  and  sundry  resolutions  were  adopted.  I  find  no  detailed 
record  of  the  reports,  but  among  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
Commons  were  the  following  : 

■  That  it  is  an  inherent  right  of  every  commoner  of  England  to  prepare  and  present 
petitions  to  the  House  of  Commons,  in  case  of  grievances,  and  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons to  receive  the  same." 

"  It  hath  been  always,  time  out  of  mind,  the  constant  and  uncontroverted  usage  and 
custom  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  have  petitions  presented  to  them  from  com- 
moners, in  case  of  grievance,  public  or  private ;  in  evidence  whereof,  it  is  one  of  the 
first  works  that  is  done  by  the  House  of  Commons,  to  appoint  a  Grand  Committee  to 
receive  petitions  and  informations  of  grievances." 

"  In  case  men  should  be  punishable  in  other  courts  for  preparing  and  presenting 
petitions  for  redress  of  grievances  to  the  House  of  Commons,  it  may  discourage  and 


THE  RIGHT   OF  PETITION.  399 

deter  His  Majesty's  subjects  from  seeking  redress  of  their  grievances,  and  by  that  means 
frustrate  the  main  and  principal  end  for  which  Parliaments  were  ordained." 

Sir,  what  fuller  evidence  could  be  given,  what  stronger  testi- 
mony adduced,  of  the  importance  which  was  attached  in  those 
early  days  to  this  inherent  right  of  petition,  or  of  the  inviolable 
sanctity  which  belonged  to  it  ?  What  significance  there  is  in 
the  fact  here  stated,  that  "  it  is  one  of  the  first  works  that  is 
done  by  the  House  of  Commons,  to  appoint  a  grand  committee 
to  receive  petitions  and  informations  of  grievances!"  What  an 
emphasis  in  the  idea  that  "  it  may  discourage  and  deter  His 
Majesty's  subjects  from  seeking  redress  of  their  grievances,  and 
by  that  means  frustrate  the  main  and  principal  end  for  which 
Parliaments  were  ordained!"  I  imagine  that  no  gentleman 
will  desire  further  evidence  as  to  the  first  proposition  which  I 
undertook  to  establish. 

But  where  is  the  evidence  that  our  fathers  regarded  this  right 
of  petition  in  the  same  light  ?  Why,  Sir,  it  so  happens  that  in 
the  Congress  of  1789,  by  which  the  amendments  to  the  Consti- 
tution were  agreed  upon,  this  first  article  of  amendment,  which 
is  in  controversy  in  this  debate,  was  the  subject  of  some  discus- 
sion. The  adoption  of  it  was  opposed  by  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  that  Congress.  But  on  what  grounds  was  it  opposed  ? 
Was  it  on  the  idea  which  has  been  held  out  in  this  debate,  that 
it  would  be  unbecoming  in  a  free  and  sovereign  people  to  pre- 
sent themselves  in  the  attitude  of  petitioners  to  this  House? 
Was  it  on  the  ground  that  the  right  of  petition  was  not  an 
American  right,  as  was  suggested  by  a  gentleman  from  Penn- 
sylvania, I  think,  during  the  last  Congress  ?  No.  Our  fathers 
of  that  day  were  fresh  from  the  great  conflicts  and  controversies 
of  the  Revolution,  and  they  understood  what  American  rights 
were,  too  well  to  broach  such  an  idea  as  that.  It  was  opposed 
on  the  ground  that  the  right  of  petition  already  existed,  and 
needed  no  new  assertion.  It  was  said  that  it  was  "  a  self-evi- 
dent, inalienable  right,  which  the  people  possessed."  It  was 
said  that  "  it  would  never  be  called  in  question."  While,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  was  contended  by  the  advocates  of  the  amend- 
ment, that,  although  it  was  "  an  inherent,  existing  right,"  it 
would  be  well,  from  its  very  value,  to  give  it  the  additional  force 
and  solemnity  of  a  constitutional  sanction. 


400  TIIE  RIGHT    OF  PETITION. 

"  The  committee  who  framed  this  report  (said  Mr.  Benson)  proceeded  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  these  rights  belonged  to  the  people.  They  conceived  them  to  be  inherent, 
and  all  that  they  meant  to  provide  against  was  their  being  infringed  by  the  govern- 
ment." 

Need  I  add  any  thing  more,  Sir,  on  the  second  proposition 
which  I  undertook  to  maintain  ? 

Let  me  hasten,  then,  to  the  principle  of  reception,  and  to  those 
instances  of  refusal  to  receive,  which  have  been  cited  by  the 
honorable  member  from  Alabama. 

And  first  let  me  bring  to  the  notice  of  the  House  a  fact  of  no 
little  significance  upon  this  point  of  my  argument,  which  I  find 
in  the  history  of  the  East  India  Company  case,  already  referred 
to.  Among  the  other  resolutions  reported  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  that  occasion,  was  one  in  these  words :  — 

"  That  it  is  the  undoubted  right  and  privilege  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  judge 
and  determine  touching  the  nature  and  matter  of  such  petitions,  how  far  they  are  fit  or 
unfit  to  be  received." 

I  can  imagine,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  triumphant  tone  in  which 
this  resolution  would  have  been  introduced  to  the  notice  of  the 
House,  had  it  fallen  under  the  eye  of  any  one  of  the  advocates 
of  the  rule  under  debate.  I  confess  that,  at  first,  I  was  not  a 
little  perplexed  by  it  myself.  True,  it  was  open  to  the  remark, 
that  it  was  reported  in  the  spirit  of  a  protest  against  the  assump- 
tion of  the  House  of  Lords ;  and  the  other  resolutions,  by  which 
it  was  preceded  and  followed,  gave  ample  reason  for  believing, 
that  it  was  only  designed  to  deny  the  right  of  any  body  but 
themselves,  to  judge  as  to  petitions  presented  to  the  Commons, 
how  far  they  were  fit  or  unfit  to  be  received.  Still,  the  language 
of  the  resolution,  as  I  have  read  it,  is  certainly  not  quite  con- 
sistent with  the  doctrines  I  have  undertaken  to  establish ;  and  I 
plainly  perceive  the  satisfaction  with  which  it  has  been  heard  in 
some  quarters  of  the  House.  But  what  will  gentlemen  say 
when  they  learn  that  before  this  resolution  was  adopted,  the 
word  "  received  "  was  stricken  out,  upon  formal  motion,  and  the 
word  "  retained  "  inserted  in  its  place !  This,  Sir,  is  the  fact. 
Here  is  the  record  of  it.*  And  no  better  proof  could  be  fur- 
nished than  is  found  in  this  deliberate  change  of  phraseology, 

*  See  note  on  page  411. 


THE  RIGHT   OP  PETITION.  401 

that  those  who  made  it  were  unwilling,  after  asserting  so  em- 
phatically the  inherent  right  of  every  commoner  of  England  to 
present  petitions,  to  abridge  and  even  annihilate  that  right  in 
the  next  breath, "by  arrogating  to  themselves  an  unlimited  right 
of  judgment,  how  far  these  petitions  were  fit  or  unfit  to  be  re- 
ceived. They  claimed  only  the  right  to  judge  how  far  they 
were  fit  to  be  retained ;  and  to  retain,  I  need  not  say,  ex  vi  ter- 
mini, implies  reception. 

But  how  is  it  with  the  examples  which  have  been  cited  of  a 
direct  refusal  to  receive  in  later  days,  and  with  the  standing 
rules  of  the  House  of  Commons  under  which  these  examples 
have  occurred  ? 

It  is  true,  Sir,  that  two  rules  of  this  character  were  adopted  by 
that  body  more  than  a  century  ago.  One  of  them  to  the  effect, 
"that  they  would  receive  no  petitions  against  a  bill,  actually 
pending,  for  imposing  taxes  or  duties."  The  other,  "  that  they 
would  receive  no  petitions  for  grants  or  appropriations  of  money 
relating  to  public  service  not  recommended  by  the  Crown." 
Now,  these  are  the  only  rules  of  the  kind  which  have  ever  been 
known  to  the  parliamentary  proceedings  of  England ;  and  all 
the  cases  in  which  petitions,  respectful  in  their  terms,  have  been 
refused  a  reception,  are  found  to  be  ranged  under  the  authority 
of  these  two  rules.  And  how  am  I  to  substantiate  my  position, 
that  these  rules  are  exceptions  to  the  general  principles  and 
general  practice  of  Parliament,  and  furnish  no  justification  of  the 
rule  of  this  House  ?  I  shall  summon  to  my  aid,  for  this  pur- 
pose, the  great  authority  upon  all  questions  of  parliamentary 
proceeding,  Mr.  Hatsell ;  from  whose  well-known  work  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson compiled  his  Manual,  and  to  whom  the  highest  acknow- 
ledgments are  paid  in  the  preface  to  that  Manual.  Let  Mr. 
Hatsell  explain  these  rules,  and  the  reasons  of  them,  in  his  own 
words,  and  then  let  us  hear  what  he  has  to  say  in  addition  :  — 

"  We  see  from  the  foregoing  instances,  particularly  from  the  precedents  which  are 
cited,  and  read  on  the  10th  of  April,  1733,  that  very  soon  after  the  Kevolution,  the 
House  found  it  necessary  to  establish  a  rule,  ;;  that  they  would  not  receive  any  petition 
against  a  bill,  then  depending,  for  imposing  a  tax  or  duty."  The  principle  upon  which 
this  rule  was  adopted  appears  to  be  this,  —  that  a  tax  generally  extending  in  its  effect 
over  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  and  more  or  less  affecting  every  individual,  and  in  its 
nature  necessarily  and  intentionally  imposing  a  burden  upon  the  people,  it  can  answer 
34* 


402  THE  RIGHT  OF  PETITION. 

no  end  or  purpose  whatever  for  any  set  of  petitioners  to  state  these  consequences  as  a 
grievance  to  the  House.  The  House  of  Commons,  before  they  come  to  a  resolution 
which  imposes  a  tax,  cannot  but  know  that  it  may  very  sensibly  affect  the  commerce 
or  manufacture  upon  which  the  duty  is  laid ;  but  they  cannot  permit  the  inconvenience 
that  may  possibly  be  brought  upon  a  particular  branch  of  trade  to  weigh  with  them, 
when  put  in  the  balance  with  those  advantages  which  are  intended  to  result  to  the  whole, 
and  which  the  public  necessities  of  the  State  demand  from  them.  For  these  reasons 
it  has  been  thought  better,  and  more  candid  to  the  persons  petitioning,  at  once  to  refuse 
receiving  their  petition,  rather  than  by  receiving  it  to  give  countenance  to  the  applica- 
tion, and  to  mislead  the  petitioners  into  an  idea,  that  in  consequence  of  their  petition 
the  House  of  Commons  would  desist  from  the  tax  proposed,  and  impose  another,  which, 
though  it  might  be  less  felt  by  that  branch  of  trade,  might  be  more  oppressive  to  some 
other  branch. 

"Upon  an  accurate  examination  of  the  numerous  precedents  cited  on  the  10th  of 
April,  1733,  (in  favor  of  the  doctrine  which  was  then  laid  down  by  Mr.  Sandys,  and 
those  who  supported  the  petition  of  the  city  of  London)  out  of  seventy-nine  cases 
which  were  then  produced  and  read,  it  will  be  found  there  are  but  three  which  apply 
to  this  question.  The  first  of  these  is  the  petition  against  a  bill  for  imposing  a  duty  of 
ten  per  cent,  ad  valorem  upon  the  woolen  manufacture  in  the  year  1696-7.  The  reso- 
lution of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  upon  this  point  brought  such  a  cloud  of 
petitions  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  —  not  only  from  those  who  were  immediately 
concerned  in  the  woolen  trade,  but  from  others  who  thought  they  might  be  ultimately 
affected  by  it  —  that  it  was  thought  advisable  not  even  to  present  the  bill.  And  in  the 
very  next  session,  in  April  and  June,  1 698,  the  House,  having  felt  the  inconveniency 
resulting  from  admitting  these  petitions,  peremptorily  refused  to  receive  the  petitions 
which  were  then  offered  against  the  taxes  at  that  time  depending." 

In  the  following  note  to  this  passage,  the  rule  is  still  further 
explained :  — 

"  What  Mr.  Winnington  afterwards  said  in  the  debate  upon  the  petition  against  the 
bill  relating  to  the  trade  of  the  sugar  colonies,  proved  true  upon  this  occasion.  '  If  we 
were  to  receive  all  petitions  against  bills  that  are  brought  in  for  the  la)'ing  on  of  any 
new  duties,  there  would  be  such  multitudes  of  them  against  every  such  bill,  that  the 
nation  might  be  undone  for  want  of  an  immediate  supply  for  the  public  use.  whilst  we 
are  sitting  to  hear  frivolous  petitions  against  bills  brought  in  for  granting  that  supply.' 
Commons  Debates,  vol.  vii.  p.  310.  This  reasoning  does  not  apply  to  the  receiving 
petitions  which  desire  the  repeal  or  alteration  of  taxes  imposed  in  any  former  session ; 
no  public  service  is  delayed  by  receiving  and  considering  such  petitions ;  nor  can  the 
time  of  the  House  be  employed  more  properly  than  in  endeavoring  to  lighten  the  bur- 
dens which  have  been  necessarily  imposed  upon  the  people,  by  introducing  such  regu- 
lations, in  the  manner  of  collecting  the  taxes,  as  experience  shall  point  out ;  or  even 
by  repealing  taxes,  in  instances  where  no  regulation  can  make  them  fit  to  be  continued." 

And  now  let  us  hear  Mr.  Hatsell's  account  of  the  second  of 
these  rules :  — 

"  The  great  number  of  petitions  that  were  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons,  at 
the  commencement  of  the  session  which  began  in  October,  1 705,  from  persons  either 


THE  RIGHT   OF   PETITION.  403 

claiming  an  arrear  of  pay  as  officers,  or  making  some  other  demand  upon  the  public, 
made  it  necessary  for  the  House  to  put  some  restriction  upon  these  applications ;  which, 
their  being  often  promoted  by  members  who  were  friends  to  the  parties,  and  carrying 
with  them  the  appearance  of  justice  or  of  charity,  induced  the  rest  of  the  House  to 
wish  well  to,  or  at  most  to  be  indifferent  to  their  success ;  and  by  this  means  large  sums 
were  granted  to  private  persons,  improvidently,  and  sometimes  without  sufficient 
grounds.  Very  early,  therefore,  in  the  next  session,  on  the  11th  of  December,  1706, 
before  any  petitions  of  this  sort  could  be  again  offered,  the  House  came  to  a  resolution 
'  that  they  would  receive  no  petition  for  any  sum  of  money  relating  to  public  service, 
but  what  is  recommended  from  the  Crown.'  This  resolution  not  being  at  that  time  made 
a  standing  order,  had  no  effect  beyond  the  session  in  which  it  was  passed,  so  that  soon 
after  the  same  practice  returned  again ;  and  (the  same  mischiefs  resulting  from  it)  the 
House,  upon  the  11th  of  June,  1713,  ordered  the  resolution  of  the  11th  of  December 
to  be  read,  and  declared  it  to  be  a  standing  order  of  the  House.  From  this  time, 
whenever  any  petition  which  desires  relief  by  public  money  is  offered,  or  any  motion 
is  made  to  this  purpose,  before  the  Speaker  puts  the  question  for  bringing  up  the  peti- 
tion, it  has  been  the  practice,  in  conformity  to  this  order,  that  the  recommendation  of 
the  Crown  should  be  signified  by  some  member  authorized  so  to  do ;  and  if  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  or  person  usually  authorized  by  the  Crown,  declines  to  signify 
this  recommendation,  the  House  cannot  properly  receive  the  petition.  It  has  some- 
times happened  that  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  has,  from  motives  of  humanity, 
and  in  order  not  to  preclude  the  House  from  taking  a  petition  under  their  consideration, 
given  the  recommendation  of  the  Crown,  in  cases  of  which,  even  at  the  time,  he  ac- 
knowledged his  disapprobation.  This  conduct,  from  whatever  motives  it  may  proceed, 
is  not  to  be  approved  of.  It  destroys  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  the  order,  and  reduces 
it  to  a  mere  form.  The  resolution  of  the  11th  of  December  has  no  other  intention 
than  to  transfer  the  responsibility  of  receiving  or  refusing  the  petition  from  the  House 
to  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown.  Unless,  therefore,  the  Ministers  will  do  their  duty,  by 
examining  into  the  nature  of  the  claim,  and  the  propriety  of  granting  any  relief;  and 
if  they  find  the  application  unfounded,  will  have  the  courage  to  inform  the  House  of 
the  result  of  their  opinion — it  would  be  better  that  the  standing  order  should  be 
repealed,  and  the  House  should  be  left  to  act  in  these,  as  in  other  circumstances,  with- 
out restraint  or  control." 

It  will  be  perceived,  Sir,  from  these  passages,  that  neither  of 
these  rules  of  the  British  Parliament  go  the  length  of  the  rule 
of  this  House.  Neither  of  them  provides  that  petitions  of  a 
certain  class  shall  not  be  received  at  any  time,  or  under  any 
circumstances,  or  be  entertained  in  any  way  whatever.  The 
first  declares  only  that  petitions  against  a  tax  bill  shall  not  be 
received  while  that  bill  is  actually  pending;*  and  this,  on  the 
ground  that  the  nation  might  be  undone  for  want  of  an  imme- 
diate supply  for  the  public  service,  while  Parliament  was  occu- 
pied in  hearing  petitions  against  some  particular  mode  of  raising 

*  This  rule  has  been  discontinued  by  the  House  of  Commons  within  a  few  years 
past. 


404  THE   RIGHT   OF   PETITION. 

that  supply.  And  it  is  expressly  admitted  that  petitions  for  the 
repeal  or  alteration  of  these  same  taxes  may  subsequently  be 
received.  The  second  of  these  rules  stops  equally  short  of  an 
entire  exclusion  of  a  certain  class  of  petitions.  Its  whole  inten- 
tion and  operation  is  to  throw  upon  the  ministry  the  responsi- 
bility of  all  appropriations  of  public  money.  It  substantially 
refers  all  the  petitions  to  which  it  relates  to  the  advisers  of  the 
Crown,  (themselves  members  of  Parliament,)  and  makes  them 
a  committee  to  receive  and  consider  them.  And  it  expressly 
provides  that,  with  their  indorsement,  these  very  petitions  shall 
be  received  and  considered  by  the  House.  What  sort  of  analogy 
is  there  between  rules  like  these  and  a  rule  which  declares  that 
petitions  on  certain  enumerated  topics  shall  not  be  received  at 
any  time,  or  under  any  circumstances,  or  be  entertained  in  any 
way  whatever  ? 

But  what  does  Mr.  Hatsell  say  further  on  the  subject  of  these 
rules  ?  "  The  House,"  he  says,  in  commenting  on  one  of  them, 
"  ought  to  be  particularly  cautious  not  to  be  over  rigid  in  extend- 
ing this  rule  beyond  what  the  practice  of  their  ancestors  in 
former  times  can  justify  them  in.  To  receive,  and  hear,  and 
consider  the  petitions  of  their  fellow-subjects,  when  presented 
decently,  and  containing  no  matter  intentionally  offensive  to  the 
House,  is  a  duty  incumbent  upon  them,  antecedent  to  all  rules 
and  orders  that  may  have  been  instituted  for  their  own  conven- 
ience. Justice  and  the  laws  of  their  country  demand  it  from  them." 

Here,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  laid  down,  in  the  clearest  and  noblest 
phraseology,  —  in  words  which,  after  the  principles  that  have  so 
often  been  advanced,  and  the  practice  which  has  so  long  pre- 
vailed here,  ought  to  be  emblazoned  in  letters  of  gold  upon  every 
column  in  this  hall,  and  to  be  suspended  on  a  scroll  of  silver  from 
the  very  beak  of  the  eagle  above  your  head, — the  true  parlia- 
mentary and  constitutional  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  petitions. 

But,  before  enlarging  upon  this  idea,  I  must  say  a  few  words 
in  defence  of  the  fourth  proposition  which  I  promised  to  prove, 
namely,  —  that  there  is  abundant  reason  for  believing  that  the 
framers  of  our  Constitution  would  have  been  the  last  persons  to 
acquiesce  in  the  exceptions  to  this  doctrine  which  are  contained 
in  the  two  special  rules  which  have  just  been  cited.     Why,  Sir, 


THE   RIGHT   OF   PETITION".  405 

is  it  forgotten  that  our  fathers  had  some  experience  of  their  own 
on  this  subject  of  the  reception  of  petitions  ?  Is  it  forgotten  that 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  itself,  after  reciting  the  various 
oppressions  to  which  the  American  Colonies  had  been  subjected, 
goes  on  to  state,  that  "  in  every  stage  of  these  oppressions,  we 
have  petitioned  for  redress  in  the  most  humble  terms ;  our  re- 
peated petitions  have  been  answered  by  repeated  injury  ?  "  Is 
it  forgotten  that  Patrick  Henry,  of  Virginia,  in  that  celebrated 
speech,  which  is  at  the  tongue's  end  of  every  schoolboy  in  the 
Union,  and  in  which  he  comes  to  the  stern  and  startling  conclu- 
sion, "we  must  fight,"  presents  it  as  the  very  climax  of  his 
description  of  the  unbearable  grievances  of  that  day,  "  we  have 
petitioned,  we  have  remonstrated,  we  have  supplicated :  our 
petitions  have  been  slighted,  our  remonstrances  disregarded,  and 
we  have  been  spurned  with  contempt  from  the  foot  of  the  throne  ?  " 
It  is  an  historical  fact  that  the  petitions  of  our  fathers  were  refused 
a  reception  in  the  British  Parliament.  And  on  what  ground 
were  they  refused?  Upon  what  principle  were  they  denied  a 
hearing,  or  any  entertainment  whatever?  Sir,  it  was  in  con- 
formity with  these  very  precedents  which  have  been  cited  here 
so  triumphantly !  It  was  under  these  very  rules  which  are 
appealed  to  so  confidently  in  justification  of  our  rule  !  Here  is 
the  record  of  the  fact :  — 

"On  the  15th  of  February,  1765,  a  petition  of  Mr.  Montague,  agent  for  Virginia, 
and  a  petition  from  Connecticut,  and  another  from  the  inhabitants  of  Carolina,  against 
the  bill  then  depending,  for  imposing  a  stamp  duty  in  America,  being  offered,  upon  the 
question  for  bringing  them  up,  it  passed  in  the  negative." 

And  now  will  any  gentleman  undertake  to  maintain  that  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  intended  to  give  their  assent  to 
principles,  under  which  their  own  petitions  against  the  Stamp 
Act  were  refused  a  reception  ?  Will  any  gentleman  rely  on  these 
precedents,  while  the  words  of  Patrick  Henry  and  the  language 
of  the  Declaration  are  still  fresh  in  his  memory  ?  No,  Sir,  I  am 
sure  I  need  not  urge  this  point  further. 

Let  me  recur,  then,  for  a  moment,  to  the  admirable  exposition 
of  Mr.  Hatsell :  "  To  receive,  and  hear,  and  consider  the  peti- 
tions of  their  fellow-subjects,  when  presented  decently,  and 
containing  no  matter  intentionally  offensive  to  the  House,  is  a 


406  THE  RIGHT   OF  PETITION. 

duty  incumbent  upon  them,  antecedent  to  all  rules  and  orders 
that  may  have  been  instituted  for  their  own  convenience.  Justice 
and  the  laws  of  our  country  demand  it  of  them."  This  sen- 
tence, I  repeat,  contains,  in  the  noblest  terms,  the  true  consti- 
tutional and  parliamentary  principle.  It  embraces  the  whole 
rule  and  the  only  rule ;  the  whole  exception  and  the  only  excep- 
tion to  the  rule;  —  the  rule  being  that  petitions  shall  be  received, 
heard,  and  considered ;  and  the  exception  relating  exclusively  to 
such  as  are  not  decently  presented,  or  such  as  contain  matter 
intentionally  offensive  to  the  House. 

[Mr.  Winthrop  was  here  interrupted  by  the  expiration  of  the 
morning  hour,  and  the  subject  was  laid  over  until  the  following 
day.] 

January  24, 1844. 

The  orders  of  the  day  having  been  called  for  by  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Winthrop  pro- 
ceeded with  his  remarks : 

When  I  was  interrupted  yesterday,  I  was  proceeding  to  make 
some  comments  on  the  golden  rule  which  has  been  laid  down 
on  the  subject  of  petitions  by  Mr.  Hatsell,  who,  by  all  acknow- 
ledgment, is  the  highest  authority  on  the  subject  of  parliamentary 
principles  and  parliamentary  precedents ;  and  who  has  been  styled 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  "  the  preeminent  authority"  on  all  such  matters. 
It  will  be  observed  that  this  rule  contains  no  sanction  for  the 
doctrine  which  has  so  often  been  advanced  here,  that  petitions 
are  not  to  be  received,  because  there  may  seem  to  be  no  author- 
ity to  grant  the  prayer  of  them.  And  where,  let  me  ask,  where 
would  such  a  doctrine  lead  us  in  these  days  and  in  this  country  ? 
Where  would  it  lead  us  in  this  House,  and  at  this  very  moment  ? 
Why,  sir,  there  is  an  undoubted  majority  of  this  body,  who  hold 
that  Congress  have  no  constitutional  authority  to  establish  a 
national  bank ;  no  constitutional  authority  to  carry  on  a  system 
of  internal  improvements ;  no  constitutional  authority  to  distri- 
bute among  the  States  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands.  I  am 
by  no  means  sure  that  there  is  a  majority  here  who  would  dare 
to  assert,  in  positive  terms,  the  power  of  Congress  to  protect 
American  labor.  We  all  know  that,  in  the  changes  of  parties 
and  of  party  opinions  in  this  country,  this  Constitution  of  ours 
is  one  thing  to-day  and   another  thing  to-morrow;   a  strait- 


THE  RIGHT  OP  PETITION.  407 

jacket  —  as  an  honorable  member  from  Virginia  has  termed  it  — 
to  one  set  of  men,  and  a  charter  wide  withal  as  the  wind  to 
another  set  of  men.  Some  of  us  maintain  that  the  power  of 
Congress  over  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  is  as  clear 
and  as  unqualified  as  its  power  to  regulate  commerce  or  to  sup- 
port a  navy.  Others  hold,  on  the  contrary,  that  an  exclusive 
jurisdiction  in  all  cases  whatsoever  does  not  extend  to  the  case 
of  slavery.  In  the  mean  time,  some  are  of  opinion  that  there  is 
a  power  in  this  Government  to  annex  Texas  to  the  Union ;  while 
others,  (and  myself  among  the  number,)  maintain,  that  such  an 
annexation  would  be  a  plain  and  palpable  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  an  utter  annihilation  of  what  little  there  is  left,  on 
our  side  at  least,  of  the  old,  original  compromises,  on  which  that 
Constitution  was  adopted.  Where,  I  repeat,  would  the  doctrine 
end,  that  petitions  are  not  to  be  received,  if  they  ask  for  any 
thing  which  an  existing  majority  here  may  deem  it  unconstitu- 
tional to  grant  ?  It  is  plain  that  the  power  to  grant  the  prayer 
of  a  petition  is  a  question  to  be  considered,  and  the  petition 
must  be  received  and  heard  in  order  that  this  question  may  be 
considered.  It  is  always,  let  me  add,  in  the  power  of  Congress 
to  propose  amendments  to  the  Constitution.  Perhaps  the  con- 
sideration of  a  petition  may  lead  to  such  propositions.  Perhaps 
this  may  be  the  very  design  and  object  of  the  petitioners.  This 
idea  alone  is  an  ample  answer  to  the  suggestion,  that  a  supposed 
or  even  a  real  want  of  power  to  grant  them,  is  ground  enough 
for  a  summary  refusal  to  receive  petitions. 

But  this  golden  rule  of  Mr.  Hatsell's,  it  will  be  perceived,  does 
not  stop  short  at  the  reception  of  petitions.  It  declares  it  to  be 
a  duty  incumbent  on  us,  antecedent  to  all  rules  and  orders  for 
our  own  convenience,  to  hear  and  consider  them.  And,  for  my- 
self, I  do  not  desire  to  have  the  rule  of  this  House  changed  at 
all,  if  it  be  not  so  changed  as  to  meet  and  embrace  this  whole 
principle.  As  to  receiving  petitions  for  the  purpose  of  laying 
them  instantly  on  the  table,  it  is  a  mere  evasion  of  the  principle, 
and  a  mere  mockery  of  the  parties.  The  original  excitement  on 
this  subject  sprung  up  under  such  a  rule  as  that  would  be ;  and 
a  return  to  it  would  do  nothing,  nothing  whatever,  to  allay  that 
excitement.    In  this  one  point,  therefore,  I  agree  with  the  honor- 


408  THE   RIGHT    OF    PETITION. 

able  member  from  Alabama;  let  us  have  the  present  rule  or 
none.  I  would  only  reverse  the  order  of  the  alternatives,  and 
say,  let  us  have  no  rule,  or  let  this  rule  stand  as  it  is. 

But,  says  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Rhett,) 
where  does  this  duty  to  consider  a  petition  terminate  ?  How 
much  consideration  do  you  claim  ?  If  you  demand  to  have 
your  petitions  received,  and  heard,  and  considered,  why  not  to 
have  them  referred,  why  not  to  have  them  reported  on,  why  not 
to  have  them  granted  ?  Now,  sir,  I  readily  admit  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  lay  down,  in  advance,  the  precise  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  right  of  petition  and  the  right  of  legislation ;  to  say 
exactly  where  the  one  ends  and  the  other  begins ;  or  to  fix  the 
precise  measure  of  consideration  which  will  fulfil  the  one,  with- 
out infringing  on  the  other.  But  this  difficulty  does  not  prevent 
our  confounding  the  plainest  and  most  obvious  distinctions.  It 
was  well  said  by  Mr.  Burke,  in  one  of  his  speeches  or  essays, 
that  "  though  no  man  can  draw  a  stroke  between  the  confines 
of  night  and  day,  yet  darkness  and  light  are,  upon  the  whole, 
tolerably  distinguishable."  So,  here,  though  it  may  puzzle  us 
to  put  down  in  black  and  white  the  exact  boundary  line  between 
the  right  of  the  petitioner  and  the  right  of  the  legislator,  yet  the 
consideration  of  a  prayer,  and  the  granting  of  a  prayer,  are, 
"upon  the  whole,  tolerably  distinguishable."  Indeed,  there  is 
no  degree,  no  gradation,  no  middle  term,  between  the  two  ideas. 
But  why,  why  all  this  metaphysical  subtlety  as  to  a  certain  class 
of  petitions  ?  You  do  not  refuse  to  receive  other  petitions,  lest 
you  should  be  ensnared  into  some  unavoidable  obligation  to 
grant  them.  Heaven  knows  that  there  are  adverse  reports  enough 
made  and  adopted  in  this  House,  in  reference  to  petitions  which 
we  uniformly  receive  and  consider.  Petitions  for  pensions;  peti- 
tions for  the  allowance  of  the  most  just  claims ;  petitions  for  the 
payment  of  the  most  undeniable  debts ;  why,  Sir,  we  make  no 
bones  of  despatching  a  hundred  of  them  in  a  morning,  on  a 
private  bill  day.  Whence,  then,  all  this  anxiety  and  alarm,  lest 
the  reception  of  the  petitions  enumerated  in  the  rule  under  de- 
bate should  precipitate  us  upon  some  irresistible  necessity  to 
grant  their  prayer  ? 

Mr.  Speaker,  we  ask  for  these  petitions  only  that  you  will 


THE   RIGHT    OF   PETITION.  409 

treat  them  as  you  treat  other  petitions.  We  set  up  for  them  no 
absurd  or  extravagant  pretensions.  We  claim  for  them  no  exclu- 
sive or  engrossing  attention.  We  desire  only  that  you  will 
adopt  no  proscriptive  and  passionate  course  in  regard  to  them. 
We  demand  only  that  you  will  allow  them  to  go  through  the 
same  orderly  round  of  reception,  reference,  and  report,  with  all 
other  petitions.  When  they  have  gone  through  that  round,  they 
will  be  just  as  much  under  your  own  control  as  they  were  be- 
fore they  entered  on  it. 

I  heartily  hope,  Sir,  that  this  course  is  now  about  to  be  adopt- 
ed. I  hope  it  as  an  advocate  of  the  right  of  petition.  I  hope  it 
as  a  Northern  man  with  Northern  principles,  if  you  please  to 
term  me  so.  'But  I  hope  it  not  less  as  an  American  citizen  with 
American  principles ;  as  a  friend  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union  ;  as  one  who  is  as  little  disposed  to  interfere  with  any 
rights  of  other  States,  as  to  surrender  any  rights  of  his  own 
State ;  as  one  who,  though  he  may  see  provisions  of  the  Con- 
stitution which  are  odious  in  principle  and  unjust  in  practice  — 
provisions  which  he  would  gladly  have  had  omitted  at  the  out- 
set, and  gladly  see  altered  now,  if  such  an  alteration  were  prac- 
ticable,—  is  yet  willing  to  stand  by  our  Constitution  as  it  is, 
our  Union  as  it  is,  our  Territory  as  it  is !  I  do  honestly  believe 
that  the  course  of  this  House  in  relation  to  these  petitions  has 
done  more  than  all  other  causes  combined  to  bring  the  Consti- 
tution into  disregard  and  the  Union  into  danger.  Other  causes 
have  indeed  cooperated  with  this  cause.  Your  arbitrary  and 
oppressive  State  laws  for  imprisoning  our  free  colored  seamen 
in  the  Southern  ports;  your  abhorrent  proposals  to  annex  Texas 
to  the  Union,  in  violation  of  the  compromises  of  the  Constitu- 
tion ;  yes,  Sir,  of  those  very  compromises  on  which  Adams  and 
Hancock  met  Jefferson  and  Madison,  (to  use  language  which 
was  employed  in  casting  reproach  upon  the  resolutions  of  Massa- 
chusetts which  were  recently  presented  here;)  these  laws  and 
these  proposals  have  unquestionably  cooperated  of  late  with  the 
denial  of  the  right  of  petition,  in  exciting  in  some  quarters  a 
spirit  of  discontent  with  our  existing  system.  But  this  rule  of 
the  House  has  been  the  original  spring  of  the  whole  feeling. 
And  to  what  advantage  on  the  part  of  those  by  whom  it  was 
35 


410  TIIE   RIGHT   OP  PETITION. 

devised  ?  Have  Southern  institutions  been  any  safer  since  its 
establishment?  Have  the  enemies  to  those  institutions  been 
rendered  any  less  ardent  or  less  active  by  it  ?  Has  agitation  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  in  this  Hall  been  repressed  or  allayed  by 
it?  Have  these  petitions  and  resolutions  been  diminished  in 
number  under  its  operation  and  influence?  No,  Sir,  the  very 
reverse,  the  precise  opposite  of  all  this,  has  been  the  result.  The 
attempt  of  this  House  to  suppress  and  silence  all  utterance  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  in  this  Hall,  has  terminated  as  did  the 
attempt  of  one  of  the  Kings  of  ancient  Judah  to  suppress  the 
warnings  of  the  prophet  of  God.  The  prophet,  we  are  told, 
took  another  roll,  and  wrote  on  it  all  the  words  which  the  King 
had  burned  in  the  fire,  and  "there  were  added  besides  unto 
them  many  like  words ! "  And  this  always  has  been,  and  always 
will  be,  the  brief  history  of  every  effort  to  silence  free  inquiry 
and  stifle  free  discussion.  I  thank  Heaven  that  it  is  so.  It  is 
this  inherent  and  inextinguishable  elasticity  of  opinion,  of  con- 
science, of  inquiry,  which,  like  the  great  agent  of  modern  art, 
gains  only  new  force,  fresh  vigor,  redoubled  powers  of  progress 
and  propulsion,  by  every  degree  of  compression  and  restraint — 
it  is  this,  to  which  the  world  owes  all  the  liberty  it  has  yet 
acquired,  and  to  which  it  will  owe  all  that  is  yet  in  store  for  it. 
Well  did  John  Milton  exclaim,  in  his  noble  defence  of  unli- 
censed printing,  "  Give  me  the  liberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to 
argue  freely,  above  all  liberties;"  for,  in  securing  that,  we  secure 
the  all-sufficient  instrument  for  achieving  all  other  liberties. 


NOTE. 


The  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  case  of  Skinner  and  the 
East  India  Company,  as  they  stood  upon  the  Journals  before  they  were  ex- 
punged by  the  order  of  the  King,  are  inserted,  as  follows,  in  the  appendix  to 
the  third  volume  of  Hatsell's  Precedents,  (London  edition,  1818.) 

Die  Sabbati,  4°  Decembris,  1669. 

The  House  then,  according  to  former  order,  resumed  the  debate  of  the  matter 
concerning  trials  and  privileges,  in  Parliament. 

The  House  of  Commons  being  informed  that  Sir  Samuel  Bernardiston,  a 
commoner  of  England,  has  been  called  before  the  House  of  Lords,  and  hath 
had  a  judgment  passed  upon  him,  and  a  fine  imposed,  and  a  record  made  thereof 
in  the  Exchequer,  mentioning  the  fine  to  be  paid : 

Resolved,  &c,  That  a  conference  be  desired  of  the  Lords  upon  the  matter 
aforesaid,  and  other  proceedings  relating  thereunto ;  and,  also,  upon  the  pro- 
ceedings concerning  Thomas  Skinner  and  the  East  India  Company. 

Resolved,  &c,  That  a  Committee  be  appointed  to  prepare  and  draw  up  rea- 
sons, to  be  insisted  upon  at  the  conference  to  be  had  with  the  Lords  touching 
the  matter  aforesaid,  namely:  Mr.  Solicitor-General,  Mr.  Sergeant  Maynard, 
&c. ;  and  the  special  care  of  this  matter  is  recommended  to  Mr.  Solicitor- Gene- 
ral, Sir  Robert  Howard,  and  Sir  Thomas  Lee. 

Die  Mortis,  7°  Decembris,  1669. 

Ordered,  That  the  report  of  Sir  Robert  Howard,  from  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  reasons  to  be  used  at  the  conference  with  the  Lords,  be  heard 
this  day,  next  after  the  report  from  the  Committee  of  Elections. 

Sir  Robert  Howard  reports  from  the  committee  appointed  to  prepare  and 
bring  in  reasons  to  be  insisted  upon  at  the  conference  to  be  had  with  the  Lords, 
in  the  matter  relating  to  the  East  India  Company  and  Skinner  and  Sir  Samuel 
Bernardiston,  that  the  committee  had  met  according  to  the  commands  of  the 
House,  and  had  taken  deliberate  consideration  of  the  whole  matter ;  but  found 
they  were  disabled  to  prepare  reasons  without  a  groundwork  of  some  particular 
heads  agreed  by  the  House,  to  the  justification  whereof  the  reasons  might  be 
applied ;  and  that  the  committee  had  prepared  some  heads,  drawn  up  into  five 


412  NOTE. 

Bereiml  resolves,  which  he  read  in  his  place,  and  tendered  to  the  House  for  their 
approbation  ;  and  the  same  being  again  read,  are  as  followeth,  namely : 

1.  That  it  is  an  inherent  right  of  every  commoner  of  England,  to  prepare 
and  present  petitions  to  the  House  of  Commons,  in  case  of  grievance,  and  the 
House  of  Commons  to  receive  the  same. 

2.  That  it  is  the  undoubted  right  and  privilege  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 
judge  and  determine,  touching  the  nature  and  matter  of  such  petitions,  how  far 
they  are  fit  or  unfit  to  be  received. 

3.  That  no  court  whatsoever  hath  power  to  judge  or  censure  any  petition  pre- 
pared for  or  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  received  by  them,  unless 
transmitted  from  thence,  or  the  matter  complained  of  by  them. 

4.  Whereas  a  petition  by  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Merchants  trading 
to  East  India  was  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  by  Sir  Samuel  Bernard- 
iston  and  others,  complaining  of  grievances  therein  ;  which  the  Lords  have  cen- 
sured under  the  notion  of  a  scandalous  paper  or  libel ;  that  the  said  censure  and 
proceedings  of  the  Lords  against  the  said  Sir  Samuel  Bernardiston  are  contrary 
to,  and  in  subversion  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
liberties  of  the  Commons  of  England. 

5.  That  the  continuance  upon  record  of  the  judgment  given  by  the  Lords, 
and  complained  of  by  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  last  session  of  this  Parlia- 
ment, in  the  case  of  Thomas  Skinner  and  the  East  India  Company,  is  prejudi- 
cial to  the  rights  of  the  Commoners  of  England. 

Ordered,  That  the  report  delivered  in  by  Sir  Robert  Howard  be  taken  into 
consideration,  the  first  business  to-morrow  morning. 

Die  Mercurii,  8°  Decerribris,  1669. 

The  House  then  resumed  the  consideration  of  the  report  of  Sir  Robert  How- 
ard, of  the  heads  and  proposals  brought  in  from  the  Committee  appointed  to 
draw  up  reasons  to  be  insisted  on  at  the  conference  to  be  had  with  the  Lords  in 
the  matter  concerning  the  East  India  Company  and  Skinner  and  Sir  Samuel 
Bernardiston. 

The  first  head  was  twice  read,  and,  with  the  addition  of  the  word  "  of,"  upon 
the  question,  agreed  to. 

The  second  head  was  read  twice  ;  and,  with  the  alteration  of  the  word  "  re- 
tain "  for  "  receive,"  upon  the  question,  agreed. 

The  third  proposition  was  twice  read,  and  some  amendments  made  thereto. 

The  question  being  put,  to  agree  to  this  proposition  — 

The  House  divided. 

The  noes  went  out. 

Tellers : 


Mr.Morice,    |  For  the  ycas>  109. 

Mr.  Steward,  > 

Sir  J.  Talbot,      j  For  thc  nocs>  73. 

Colonel  Reames,  > 

And  so  it  was  resolved  in  the  affirmative. 


NOTE.  413 

The  fourth  proposition  was  twice  read  ;  and  the  words  "  under  the  notion  of" 
omitted,  and  the  word  "  as  "  inserted  in  the  stead  of  it ;  and  the  proposition  thus 
amended,  upon  the  question,  agreed. 

The  fifth  proposition  was  read  twice,  and,  upon  the  question,  agreed, 

1.  That  it  is  an  inherent  right  of  every  Commoner  of  England,  to  prepare 
and  present  petitions  to  the  House  of  Commons,  in  case  of  grievance,  and  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  receive  the  same. 

2.  That  it  is  the  undoubted  right  and  privilege  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 
judge  and  determine,  touching  the  nature  and  matter  of  such  petitions,  how  far 
they  are  fit  or  unfit  to  be  retained. 

3.  That  no  court  whatsoever  hath  power  to  judge  or  censure  any  petition  pre- 
pared for,  or  presented  to  and  received  by,  the  House  of  Commons,  unless 
transmitted  from  thence,  or  the  matter  is  complained  of  by  them. 

4.  That  whereas  a  petition,  by  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Merchants 
trading  to  the  East  Indies,  was  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  by  Sir 
Samuel  Bernardiston  and  others,  complaining  of  grievance  therein,  which  the 
Lords  have  censured  as  a  scandalous  paper  or  libel ;  the  said  censure  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Lords  against  the  said  Sir  Samuel  Bernardiston  are  contrary  to, 
and  in  subversion  of,  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
liberties  of  the  Commons  of  England. 

5.  That  the  continuance  upon  record  of  the  judgment  given  by  the  Lords, 
and  complained  of  by  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  last  session  of  this  Parlia- 
ment, in  the  case  of  Thomas  Skinner  and  the  East  India  Company,  is  prejudi- 
cial to  the  rights  of  the  Commons  of  England. 

Resolved,  That  the  committee  formally  appointed  to  draw  up  reasons  to  be 
used  at  the  conference  with  the  Lords,  be  revived,  and  do  sit  this  afternoon,  and 
prepare  reasons  and  arguments  to  justify  the  propositions  agreed  to,  and  prepare 
and  propose  what  is  fit  to  be  offered  or  desired  of  the  Lords ;  and  that  these 
members  following  be  added  to  said  committee,  namely:  Sir  Walter  Gouge, 
Mr.  Seymour,  &c. 

Die  Veneris,  10°  Decembris,  1669. 

Sir  Robert  Howard  reports  from  the  Committee  to  which  it  was  referred,  to 
prepare  and  draw  up  reasons  to  be  used  at  the  conference  with  the  Lords,  in 
the  matter  of  the  East  India  Company  and  Skinner  and  Sir  Samuel  Bernardis- 
ton, to  justify  the  resolves  of  this  House  ;  and  also  two  propositions  thereupon  to 
be  made  to  the  Lords,  which  he  read,  and  after  delivered  the  same  in  at  the 
Clerk's  table  ;  and  the  same  being  twice  read,  and  with  some  amendment,  upon 
the  question,  agreed,  are  as  followeth : 

To  the  first,  second,  and  third,  depending  on  one  another : 
1.  It  hath  been  always,  time  out  of  mind,  the  constant  and  uncontroverted 
usage  and  custom  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  have  petitions  presented  to  them 
from  Commoners,  in  case  of  grievance,  public  or  private :  in  evidence  whereof, 
it  is  one  of  the  first  works  that  is  done  by  the  House  of  Commons  to  appoint  a 
Grand  Committee  to  receive  petitions  and  informations  of  grievances. 
35* 


414  NOTE. 

2.  That  in  no  age  that  we  can  find,  ever  any  person,  who  presented  any 
^riovanec,  by  way  of  petition,  to  the  House  of  Commons,  which  was  received 
by  them,  was  ever  censured  by  the  Lords  without  complaint  of  the  Commons. 

3.  That  no  suitors  for  justice,  in  any  inferior  court  whatsoever,  in  law  or 
equity,  exhibiting  their  complaint  for  any  matters  proper  to  be  proceeded  upon 
in  that  court,  are  therefore  punishable  criminally,  though  untrue,  or  suable  by 
way  of  action  in  any  other  court  wheresoever ;  but  are  only  subject  to  a  moder- 
ate fine  or  amercement  by  that  court ;  unless  in  some  cases  specially  provided 
for  by  act  of  Parliament,  as  appeals,  or  the  like. 

4.  In  case  men  should  be  punishable  in  other  courts  for  preparing  and  pre- 
senting petitions  for  redress  of  grievances  to  the  House  of  Commons,  it  may 
discourage  and  deter  His  Majesty's  subjects  from  seeking  redress  of  their  griev- 
ances, and  by  that  means  frustrate  the  main  and  principal  end  for  which  Parlia- 
ments were  ordained. 

To  the  fourth  proposition : 

1.  That  no  petition,  nor  any  other  matter  depending  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, can  be  taken  notice  of  by  the  Lords  without  breach  of  privilege,  unless 
communicated  by  the  House  of  Commons. 

2.  Upon  conclusion  of  the  four  first  propositions,  it  is  further  to  be  alleged 
that  the  House  of  Peers  (as  well  as  all  other  courts)  are,  in  all  their  judicial 
proceedings,  to  be  guided  and  limited  by  law  ;  but  if  they  should  give  a  wrong 
sentence,  contrary  to  law,  and  the  party  grieved  might  not  seek  redress  thereof 
in  full  Parliament,  and  to  that  end  repair  to  the  House  of  Commons,  who  are 
part  of  the  legislative  power,  that  either  they  may  interpose  with  their  Lord- 
ships for  the  reversal  of  such  sentence,  or  prepare  a  bill  for  that  purpose,  and 
for  the  preventing  the  like  grievance  for  the  time  to  come  —  the  consequence 
thereof  would  plainly  be,  both  that  their  Lordship's  judicature  would  be  bound- 
less, and  above  law,  and  that  the  party  grieved  should  be  without  remedy. 

As  to  the  fifth  proposition :  The  Committee  refer  to  the  former  reasons 
offered  against  the  judgment  of  the  Lords  against  the  East  India  Company,  in 
the  last  session  of  Parliament. 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION 


AND 


THE   TREATY   OF   WASHINGTON 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNI- 
TED STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF  THE 
UNION,  MARCH  18,  1844. 


I  have  no  purpose,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  attempting  a  detailed 
reply  to  the  honorable  gentleman  who  has  just  taken  his  seat. 
I  was  greatly  in  hopes  that  another  member  of  this  House,  and 
I  will  add,  another  member  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation, 
who  has  so  often  instructed  and  delighted  us  on  these  questions 
of  foreign  controversy,  (Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams,)  would  have  taken  the 
floor  for  this  purpose.  I  would  gladly  yield  it  to  him,  or,  indeed, 
to  any  one  else  who  is  disposed  for  it,  feeling,  as  I  deeply  do, 
the  want  of  greater  preparation  and  longer  reflection  for  doing 
justice  to  the  occasion.  I  am  unwilling,  however,  that  the  speech 
which  has  just  been  delivered  should  pass  off  without  some 
notice.  I  fear,  too,  that  if  I  yield  to  the  kind  suggestion  of  a 
friend  near  me,  and  ask  a  postponement  of  the  debate,  I  may 
lose  an  opportunity  altogether.  Recent  proceedings  in  this  House 
afford  me  very  little  encouragement  to  try  such  an  experiment. 
On  more  than  one  occasion,  questions  of  the  highest  interest 
and  importance  seem  to  have  been  brought  up  unexpectedly,  as 
this  has  been,  for  the  purpose  of  allowing  some  member  of  the 
majority  of  the  House  to  deliver  an  elaborate  exposition  of  his 
views,  and  then  to  have  been  shuffled  off  again  by  the  previous 
question,  or  by  a  motion  to  lay  on  the  table,  before  any  member 


416      THE   OREGON   QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY  OF   WASHINGTON. 

of  the  minority  could  open  his  lips  in  reply.     I  proceed,  therefore, 
to  make  the  best  of  the  opportunity  which  is  now  secured  to  me. 
And,  in  the  first  place,  let  me  say  a  word  in  regard  to  the 
sectional  character  which  has  been  given  to  this  subject.     It  has 
been  often  said  that  the  question  about  Oregon  is  a  Western 
question,  and  a  disposition  has  been  manifested  to  charge  hostil- 
ity to  "Western  interests  and  Western  rights  upon  all  who  are 
not  ready  to  draw  the  sword,  without  further  delay,  in  defence 
of  this   Territory.      I  deny  this  position  altogether.      It  is  a 
national  question.     It  is  a  question  for  the  whole  country.     The 
North  have  as  much  interest  in  it  as  the  West,  and  as  much 
right  to  be  heard  upon  it ;  indeed,  there  are  some  views  in  which 
it  is  more  a  Northern  than  a  Western  question.     I  cannot  forget 
that  the  American  claim  to  Oregon,  so  far  as  it  rests  upon  dis- 
covery, dates   back   to    Massachusetts   adventure   and  Boston 
enterprise.     It  was  a  Boston  ship  which  gave  its  name  to  the 
Columbia  River.      It  was   Captain    Robert    Gray,  of   Boston, 
who  first  discovered  that  river.     It  was  the  Hancock  and  the 
Adams  of  Massachusetts  —  the  proscribed  patriots  of  the  Revo- 
lution—  whose  names  were  inscribed  on  those  remote  capes. 
And  if  we  turn  from  the  early  history  of  Oregon  to  its  present 
importance,  and  to  the  immediate  interests  which  are  involved 
in  its  possession,  the  North  will  be  found  no  less  prominently 
concerned  in  the  question.      The  great  present  value  of  this 
Territory  has  relation  to  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean.     The  whale  fishery  of  this  country  requires  safe 
stations  and  harbors  on  the  northwest  coast.     And  by  what  part 
of  the  nation  is  this  fishery  carried  on  ?     Why,  Sir,  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  owns  nine  tenths  of  all  the  whale  ships  of  the 
United  States.    The  single  town  of  New  Bedford,  —  the  residence 
of  my  honorable  friend,  Mr.  Grinnell,  —  sends  out  92,000,  out  of 
a  little  more  than  130,000  tons  of  the  American  shipping  em- 
ployed in  this  business;    and  three  other  towns  in  the  same 
district  employ  31,170  tons  of  the  remainder.     So  far,  then,  as 
the  whaling  interest  is  to  be  regarded,  the  Oregon  question  is 
emphatically  a  Massachusetts  question.     I  feel  bound  to  add, 
however,  that  the  whole  coast  of  Oregon  can  hardly  furnish  one 
really  good  harbor.    South  of  the  forty-ninth  degree  of  latitude, — 


THE   OREGON   QUESTION  AND   THE   TREATY   OF  WASHINGTON.      417 

a  boundary  which  we  have  once  offered  to  compromise  upon, — 
there  is  not  one  which  a  ship  can  get  safely  into,  or  safely  out  of, 
during  three  quarters  of  the  year.  The  harbor  of  San  Francisco, 
in  Northern  California,  would  be  worth  the  whole  Territory  of 
Oregon  to  the  whaling  fleet  of  the  nation. 

A  mere  Western  interest!  Sir,  I  doubt  whether  the  West 
has  a  particle  of  real  interest  in  the  possession  of  Oregon.  It 
may  have  an  interest,  a  momentary,  seeming,  delusive  interest 
in  a  war  for  Oregon.  Doubtless,  the  Western  States  might  reap 
a  rich  harvest  of  spoils  in  the  prosecution  of  such  a  war.  Doubt- 
less, there  would  be  fat  contracts  of  all  sorts  growing  out  of  such 
a  contest,  which  would  enure  to  their  peculiar  advantage.  Doubt- 
less, the  characteristic  spirit  of  the  western  people  —  that  spirit 
of  restless  adventure,  and  roving  enterprise,  and  daring  conflict, 
which  the  honorable  gentleman  has  just  eulogized  —  would  find 
ample  room  and  verge  enough  for  its  indulgence,  even  to  satiety, 
in  such  a  campaign.  WThether  that  spirit,  indomitable  as  it  is 
in  any  ordinary  encounter,  would  not  be  found  stumbling  upon 
the  dark  mountains,  or  fainting  in  the  dreary  valleys,  or  quenched 
beneath  the  perpetual  snows  which  Nature  has  opposed  to  the 
passage  to  this  disputed  territory,  remains  to  be  seen.  A  march 
to  Oregon,  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  would  take  the  courage  out 
of  not  a  few  who  now  believe  themselves  incapable  of  fatigue 
or  fear.  But  suppose  the  war  were  over,  successfully  over,  and 
Oregon  ours,  what  interest,  let  me  ask,  what  real,  substantial, 
permanent  interest  would  the  West  have  in  its  possession  ?  Are 
our  western  brethren  straitened  for  elbow  room,  or  likely  to  be  so 
for  a  thousand  years  ?  Have  they  not  too  much  land  for  their 
own  advantage  already  ?  I  verily  believe  that  if  land  were  only 
half  as  abundant  and  half  as  cheap  as  it  is,  the  prosperity  of  the 
West  would  be  doubled.  As  an  Eastern  representative  I  would 
never  submit  a  proposition  to  raise  the  price  of  the  public  lands ; 
such  a  proposition  would  be  misconstrued  and  perverted.  But 
if  I  were  a  Western  man,  I  would  ask  nothing  sooner,  I  would 
desire  nothing  more  earnestly  of  this  Government,  than  to 
double  the  price  of  these  lands.  It  would  put  money  into  the 
pocket  of  every  Western  farmer,  and  into  the  coffers  of  every 
Western  State.     Sale  for  the  purpose  of  settlement  would  not 


418      THE   OREGON   QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY   OF   WASHINGTON. 

be  checked ;  speculation  only  would  be  restrained.  The  average 
income  of  the  nation  would  be  as  great  as  now ;  the  ultimate 
receipts  far  greater;  and  all  parties  would  be  benefited  in  the 
end.  The  West  has  no  interest,  the  country  has  no  interest,  in 
extending  our  territorial  possessions.  This  Union  of  ours  must 
have  limits ;  and  it  was  well  said  by  Mr.  Senator  Benton,  in 
1825,  that  westward,  "  the  ridge  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  may 
be  named,  without  offence,  as  presenting  a  convenient,  natural, 
and  everlasting  boundary.  Along  the  back  of  this  ridge  the 
western  limit  of  this  Republic  should  be  drawn,  and  the  statue 
of  the  fabled  God,  Terminus,  should  be  raised  upon  its  highest 
peak,  never  to  be  thrown  down." 

The  Oregon  question,  however,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  now  pre- 
sented to  us,  is  not  a  question  of  interest,  but  of  right;  not  a 
question  as  to  the  ultimate  reach  of  our  federal  Union,  but  as  to 
the  existing  extent  of  our  territorial  title.  Upon  this  point  I 
shall  say  little.  An  argument  to  this  House  in  favor  of  our  title 
to  Oregon  would  be  words  thrown  away.  If  any  man  can 
convince  the  British  Government  that  the  Territory  is  ours,  his 
labor  will  be  well  employed,  and  the  sooner  he  sets  about  it  the 
better.  But  we  are  convinced  already.  For  myself,  certainly,  I 
believe  that  we  have  a  good  title  to  the  whole  twelve  degrees  of 
latitude.  I  believe  it,  not  merely  because  it  is  the  part  of  patriot- 
ism to  believe  one's  own  country  in  the  right,  but  because  I  am 
unable  to  resist  the  conclusions  to  that  effect,  to  which  an  exa- 
mination of  the  evidence  and  the  authorities  have  brought  me. 
In  saying  this,  however,  I  would  by  no  means  be  understood  to 
concur  in  the  idea  which  has  been  recently  advanced  in  some 
quarters,  that  our  title  is  of  such  a  character  that  we  are  author- 
ized to  decline  all  negotiation  on  the  subject.  Why,  Sir,  with 
what  face  can  we  take  such  a  stand,  with  the  history  of  this 
question  before  us  and  before  the  world  ?  Nothing  to  negotiate 
about!  Has  not  every  administration  of  our  government,  since 
we  had  a  government  to  be  administered,  treated  this  as  an  open 
question  ?  Have  we  not  at  one  time  expressly  offered  to  aban- 
don all  pretension  to  five  twelfths  of  the  Territory,  and  to  allow 
our  boundary  line  to  follow  the  forty-ninth  degree  of  latitude? 
Have  we  not  united  in  a  convention  of  joint  occupancy  for  thirty 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OP  WASHINGTON.   419 

years,  in  order  to  keep  it  an  open  question  ?  "What  pretence 
have  we  for  planting  ourselves  on  our  presumed  rights  at  this 
late  day,  and  for  shutting  our  ears  to  all  overtures  of  negotiation, 
and  all  assertion  or  argument  of  the  rights  of  others  ?  None ; 
none  whatever.  Such  a  course  would  subject  us  to  the  just 
reproach  and  scorn  of  the  civilized  world. 

But  the  question  before  the  committee  relates  simply  to  the 
termination  of  the  convention  of  joint  occupancy.  This  con- 
vention originated  in  the  year  1818,  and  was  limited  to  the  term  of 
ten  years.  In  1827,  it  was  extended  indefinitely,  subject,  however, 
to  the  right  of  either  party  to  annul  and  abrogate  the  same,  on  giv- 
ing twelve  months'  notice  to  the  other  party.  And  now  the  ques- 
tion is  not  whether  this  joint  occupation  of  Oregon  shall  be  con- 
tinued forever.  Nobody  imagines  that  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  are  about  to  hold  this  Territory  in  common  much  longer. 
Neither  country  desires  it ;  neither  country  would  consent  to  it. 
The  simple  question  is,  whether  the  United  States  shall  take  the 
responsibility  of  giving  the  notice  to-day ;  whether,  after  having 
agreed  to  this  joint  occupancy  for  nearly  thirty  years,  we  shall 
take  occasion  of  this  precise  moment  in  the  history  of  the  two 
countries  to  insist  on  bringing  it  to  a  close  ?  I  am  opposed, 
wholly  opposed,  to  such  a  course.  I  agree  with  the  report  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  (a  committee,  be  it  remem- 
bered, composed  of  six  members  of  the  Van  Buren  party,  and 
of  three  only  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Clay,)  that  it  is  entirely  inex- 
pedient to  act  at  all  on  the  subject  at  this  time ;  and  I  sincerely 
wish  that  the  chairman  of  that  committee  (Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll) 
had  saved  me  the  trouble  of  advocating  his  own  report,  and  had 
given  us  an  argument  in  favor  of  its  adoption,  instead  of  making 
the  any  thing  but  reasonable  or  pacific  speech,  which  he  has 
just  concluded. 

Sir,  I  regard  the  proposition  to  give  the  required  notice  to  the 
British  Government  at  this  precise  moment;,  as  eminently  ill- 
timed,  both  in  regard  to  our  relations  with  Great  Britain  and  to 
our  own  domestic  condition.  We  are  just  at  the  close  of  an 
administration.  We  are  on  the  eve  of  another  election  of  Pre- 
sident. How  this  election  may  terminate  may  be  a  matter  of 
doubt  in  some  quarters.    I  have  no  doubt.     But,  however  it  may 


420      THE   OREGON   QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON. 

terminate,  it  is  no  more  than  fair  to  those  who  are  to  be  success- 
ful, to  leave  to  them  the  initiation  of  a  policy,  which  they  are  to 
be  responsible  for  carrying  on  and  completing.  A  twelve  months 
notice  !  Why,  to  what  point  of  time  in  our  political  affairs  will 
the  expiration  of  that  notice  bring  us?  To  the  very  first  month 
of  a  new  administration;  an  administration  which  will  hardly 
have  taken  the  oaths  of  office ;  which  will  hardly  have  selected 
and  installed  its  advisers  and  agents;  and  which  (unless  you 
are  going  to  compel  the  calling  of  another  extra  session,  only  to 
deride  and  denounce  it  afterwards,)  will  have  no  Congress  at  the 
Capitol  to  act  in  any  way  upon  its  measures!  This  termination 
of  joint  occupation  is  to  be  followed  by  something,  I  suppose. 
It  must  be  followed,  it  is  intended  to  be  followed,  by  some  act 
of  separate  occupation.  If  negotiation,  in  the  mean  time,  shall 
have  failed,  as  it  certainly  will  fail  if  this  notice  be  given,  some- 
thing else  than  negotiation,  a  strife  or  a  struggle  of  some  sort, 
must  ensue.  It  may,  or  may  not,  amount  to  an  immediate  war 
with  England.  But  whatever  form  it  may  assume,  it  will  involve 
responsibility,  it  will  require  preparation,  it  will  demand  matured 
and  vigorous  counsels.  And  how  is  a  new  administration,  with 
its  cabinet,  perhaps,  not  yet  arranged,  and  without  a  Congress 
to  sustain  it,  to  meet  such  an  exigency  as  it  ought  to  be  met? 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  was  —  I  will  not  say  the  policy  and  design 
of  the  Van  Buren  administration  —  but,  certainly,  the  result  of 
their  course  on  going  out  of  office  three  years  ago,  to  precipitate 
their  successors,  while  yet  without  that  matured  organization 
which  is  essential  to  any  effective  action,  upon  a  condition  of 
foreign  affairs  of  the  most  delicate  and  dangerous  character. 
Few  persons,  I  imagine,  know,  and  few  persons,  perhaps,  ever 
will  know,  how  critical  were  the  relations  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  at  the  precise  instant  of  General  Harrison's 
accession  to  the  Presidency.  My  honored  and  venerable  col- 
league (Mr.  Adams)  seemed  to  understand  them,  when  he 
charged  it  openly  upon  the  Van  Buren  party,  a  session  or  two 
ago,  that  they  had  fired  the  ship  when  they  found  they  could  no 
longer  hold  it!  I  trust  that  there  is  no  design,  no  disposition,  no 
willingness,  to  bring  about  the  same  state  of  things  again.  It 
ought  to  be  the  patriotic  aim  of  us  all,  that  whoever  the  next 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON.   421 

President  may  be,  he  may  have  a  smooth  sea  and  a  fair  wind  to 
start  with ;  and  that  he  may  not  be  driven  upon  storms  and 
breakers  before  his  hand  has  fairly  grappled  upon  the  helm,  and 
before  his  crew  have  got  on  their  sea  legs ! 

Sir,  if  there  was  any  thing  too  pacific,  any  thing  too  compro- 
mising, any  thing  too  yielding  in  the  course  of  President  Tyler, 
or  his  Secretary  of  State,  in  conducting  the  recent  negotiations 
with  Great  Britain  —  all  which  I  utterly  deny  —  no  small  share 
of  the  blame  would  rest  upon  the  party  which  threw  upon  a 
new  administration,  in  the  first  hour  of  its  existence,  so  perilous 
a  responsibility ;  the  party  which  brought  the  country  to  the 
very  brink  of  war,  and  there  left  it,  without  preparation  of  any 
sort,  either  of  money  or  munitions ;  with  its  navy  dismantled, 
its  fortifications  dilapidated,  and  its  Treasury  many  millions 
worse  than  empty ! 

But  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  has  made  a 
charge  in  relation  to  the  treaty  of  Washington,  of  a  somewhat 
different  character.  He  has  told  us  that  the  British  ministry 
have  succeeded  in  depriving  this  country  of  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  our  territory  on  the  northeast,  with  a  perfect  knowledge 
that  they  had  no  right  to  it.  He  has  told  us  that  the  Prime 
Minister  of  England  has  declared  in  Parliament  that  he  had 
proof,  in  the  handwriting  of  a  late  English  monarch,  that  the 
British  claim  was  without  foundation ;  and  he  has  alluded  to 
what  he  calls  a  corresponding  acknowledgment  of  a  distin- 
guished member  of  the  House  of  Lords !  Mr.  Chairman,  this 
attempt  to  destroy  the  confidence  of  the  American  Congress 
and  of  the  American  people  in  the  good  faith  and  common 
honesty  of  the  British  Government,  at  the  very  moment  when 
we  are  about  to  enter  upon  new  and  critical  negotiations  with 
them,  can  hardly,  in  my  judgment,  be  too  strongly  condemned. 
The  charge  is  entirely  unwarranted.  The  speeches  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Brougham  justify  no  such  impeachment 
of  British  integrity.  What  were  the  circumstances  under  which 
the  remarks  were  made  to  which  the  honorable  member  had 
reference  ?  It  is  well  known  that  a  charge  of  bad  faith  had 
been  brought  against  our  negotiator,  Mr.  Webster,  for  having 
36 


422   THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON. 

concealed  from  Lord  Ashburton  all  knowledge  of  a  map  which 
had  been  discovered  by  Mr.  Sparks  in  Paris,  and  which  there 
was  the  strongest  reason  for  believing  to  be  Dr.  Franklin's  map. 
This  map  had  a  broad  red  line  upon  it  in  close  conformity  to 
the  British  claim,  and  was  considered  as  being  somewhat  of  an 
extinguisher  of  the  American  view  of  the  question,  so  far  as  the 
authority  of  maps  was  concerned.  Yet  it  was  carefully  con- 
cealed from  the  British  government  and  the  British  negotiator. 
For  this  proceeding  Mr.  Webster  was  arraigned  both  at  home 
and  abroad.  Lord  Palmerston,  who,  as  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs  for  many  years,  had  failed  in  all  attempts  to  settle  the 
boundary  question,  and  who  was,  perhaps,  a  little  envious  of 
the  reputation  which  his  successor,  Lord  Aberdeen,  had  acquired 
through  the  negotiations  of  Lord  Ashburton,  publicly  arraigned 
Mr.  Webster  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  made  substantially 
the  same  charge  against  him,  which  the  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Foreign  Affairs  in  this  House  has  now  made  against 
the  ministry  of  England.  And  it  was  in  answer  to  this  attack 
upon  Mr.  Webster,  it  was  in  defence  of  our  Secretary  of  State, 
—  not,  perhaps,  without  some  view  of  vindicating  themselves 
from  the  imputation  of  having  been  overreached  in  the  negotia- 
tion, —  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Brougham  brought  for- 
ward the  fact  to  which  the  honorable  gentleman  has  alluded. 
They  stated  that  the  British  government  as  well  as  the  Ameri- 
can government,  had  concealed  maps  which  made  against  their 
own  claim ;  that  Lord  Palmerston  himself  had  been  guilty  of 
the  same  suppression  ;  that,  beside  other  maps  of  less  signifi- 
cance, which  had  been  kept  out  of  sight  by  the  ministry  of  Eng- 
land, there  was  one  which  could  be  traced  back  to  the  posses- 
sion of  George  the  Third,  the  monarch  in  whose  time  the  separa- 
tion of  the  two  countries  had  taken  place,  and  upon  which  there 
was  a  red  line  in  precise  conformity  with  the  American  claim. 
But  what  was  their  course  of  remark  upon  the  subject  ?  Did 
they,  as  the  gentleman  would  imply,  admit  that  these  maps,  on 
either  side,  would  have  been  considered  as  conclusive  evidence 
of  the  intention  of  the  treaty  of  1783  ?  No  such  thing ;  they 
ridiculed  such  an  idea.  Sir  Robert  Peel  commenced  his  remarks 
on  this  subject  by  saying,  — 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OP  WASHINGTON.   423 

"  The  noble  lord  has  spoken  at  great  length  of  a  map  recently  discovered.  He  seems 
to  think  that  that  map,  so  discovered,  affords  conclusive  evidence  of  the  justice  of  the 
British  claims.  Now,  Sir,  in  the  first  place,  let  me  observe  to  the  noble  lord,  that  con- 
temporary maps  may  be  —  where  the  words  of  the  treaty  referred  to  by  them  are  in 
themselves  doubtful  —  they  may  be  evidence  of  the  intentions  of  those  who  framed 
them,  but  the  treaty  must  be  executed  according  to  the  words  contained  in  it.  Even 
if  the  map  were  sustained  by  the  parties,  it  could  not  contravene  the  words  of  the 
treaty." 

And  Lord  Brougham  followed  out  the  same  idea  in  his  speech 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  he  said : 

"  But  the  map  does  not  tally  with  the  description  given.  Suppose  you  had  an 
account,  in  writing,  that  the  Thames,  as  is  the  fact,  forms  the  boundary  of  the  counties 
of  Surrey  and  Middlesex  ;  and  suppose  you  found  a  map,  or  chart,  or  plan  connected 
with  that  description,  on  which  a  red  line  through  Piccadilly  was  drawn  as  a  boundary 
—  I  should  not  take  it ;  I  should  go  down  to  the  river ;  because  the  red  line  is  only  to 
be  regarded  if  the  words  do  not  speak  for  themselves,  or  the  language  is  ambiguous. 
And  the  same  is  the  case  here,  more  or  less." 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  only  after  these  explicit  denials  of 
the  idea,  that  maps,  under  whatever  circumstances  they  may 
have  been  found,  are  to  be  taken  as  conclusive  evidence  as  to 
the  justice  of  claims  resting  on  the  descriptions  of  a  treaty,  that 
Lord  Brougham  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  proceed  to  disclose  the 
fact  of  the  discovery  of  the  map  of  George  the  Third ;  and  that, 
only  in  the  way  of  set-off  to  the  map  which  is  supposed  to  have 
belonged  to  Dr.  Franklin.  They  do,  indeed,  speak  somewhat 
largely  and  roundly  as  to  the  effect  which  the  production  of  this 
map  of  George  the  Third  might  have  had  on  the  settlement  of 
the  boundary  question,  in  case  maps  were  to  be  taken  as  con- 
clusive evidence.  But  having  expressly  denied  that  they  were 
to  be  so  taken, — having  rejected  and  ridiculed  the  idea  of  the 
red  lines  of  a  map  being  allowed  to  control  the  black  letters  of 
a  treaty  description,  —  their  language,  however  round,  admits  of 
no  such  construction  as  has  been  given  to  it  by  the  honorable 
gentleman  who  has  just  taken  his  seat. 

Sir,  there  is  no  evidence  whatever,  in  my  judgment,  of  bad 
faith  on  the  part  of  the  British  government  in  these  speeches  of 
the  Prime  Minister  and  Lord  Brougham.  I  do  not  profess  to 
be  deeply  versed  in  the  science  of  political  morals  or  interna- 
tional obligation  ;  but  I  should  say  that  the  principles  of  com- 


424      THE   OREGON   QUESTION  AND   TIIE   TREATY   OF   WASHINGTON. 

mon  honesty  and  common  sense  would  lead  to  this  conclusion. 
If  a  government,  after  having  set  up  a  claim  of  any  sort,  should 
find  in  its  own  possession  conclusive  evidence,  evidence  conclu- 
sive upon  its  own  conscience,  that  the  claim  was  unfounded,  it 
would  be  bound,  in  all  honor  and  in  all  justice,  to  disclose  the  evi- 
dence and  abandon  the  claim.  But  if  the  evidence  fall  short  of  de- 
monstration,—  if  reasonable  and  conscientious  doubts  still  rest 
upon  the  question,  —  if  there  be  ground  enough  left  for  maintain- 
ing the  claim  at  all,  —  it  would  be  the  height  of  absurdity  in  such 
a  government,  and  a  piece  of  most  gratuitous  generosity  to  their 
opponent,  to  make  such  a  disclosure.  Why,  Sir,  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case  we  are  considering  furnish  the  best  possible 
illustration  that  the  position  I  have  taken  is  the  only  sound  or 
safe  one.  Here  were  maps  in  the  secret  possession  of  each 
government  at  the  same  moment,  which  were  believed  by  each 
respectively  to  present  formidable  testimony  against  its  own  claim, 
and  the  production  of  either  of  which,  singly,  might  have  seriously 
affected  the  final  settlement  of  the  disputed  boundary.  Now, 
suppose  Mr.  Webster  had  disclosed  to  Lord  Ashburton  the  map 
which  was  then  believed  to  have  belonged  to  Dr.  Franklin,  and 
the  consequence  h&,d  been  a  much  larger  relinquishment  of  terri- 
tory, on  our  part,  than  has  actually  taken  place: — Or,  suppose 
Sir  Robert  Peel  had  sent  over  to  Mr.  Webster  the  map  of 
George  the  Third,  and  had  consented,  upon  the  strength  of  it, 
to  a  line  less  favorable  to  his  own  country.  What  would  the 
government  which  obtained  the  advantage  under  such  circum- 
stances have  thought  of  the  diplomacy  and  statesmanship  of 
its  antagonist?  And  even  if  both  governments  had  shown 
their  hands,  and  exhibited  their  maps  simultaneously,  what 
would  have  been  produced  but  a  mutual  laugh  at  each  other, 
and  a  laugh  of  all  the  world  at  both !  And  the  laugh,  certainly, 
would  not  have  been  diminished,  if  it  had  afterwards  proved  that 
the  recently  discovered  map  of  Mr.  Jay,  the  only  map  which  we 
now  know  certainly  to  have  been  in  the  possession  of  the  nego- 
tiators of  1783,  was  materially  different  from  both  the  other  two. 
Well,  Sir,  did  Mr.  Webster  say  for  himself,  on  this  subject,  that 
"  he  confessed  he  did  not  think  it  a  very  urgent  duty,  on  his  part, 
to  go  to  Lord  Ashburton  and  tell  him  that  he  had  found  a  bit  of 


THE   OREGON   QUESTION   AND    THE    TREATY   OF   WASHINGTON.      425 

doubtful  evidence  in  Paris,  out  of  which  he  might,  perhaps, 
make  something  to  the  prejudice  of  our  claims,  and  from  which 
he  could  set  up  higher  claims  for  himself,  or  obscure  the  whole 
matter  still  further."  And  no  less  well,  in  my  judgment,  did 
Lord  Brougham  "  deny  that  a  negotiator,  in  carrying  on  a  con- 
troversy, as  representing  his  own  country  with  a  foreign  country, 
is  bound  to  disclose  to  the  other  party  whatever  he  may  know 
that  tells  against  his  own  country  and  for  the  opposite  party ; 
any  more  than  an  advocate  is  bound  to  tell  the  court  all  that 
he  deems  to  make  against  his  own  client  and  for  his  adversary." 
A  just  nation,  like  a  just  man,  will  never  set  up  a  claim  which 
it  knows  to  have  no  foundation  ;  but  both  nations  and  individu- 
als may  withhold  from  an  opposite  party,  (except  where  they  are 
under  question  upon  oath,)  any  evidence  which  would  weaken 
a  claim  which  they  believe  to  be  well  founded,  without  subject- 
ing themselves  to  any  rightful  impeachment  of  their  honor  or 
good  faith. 

I  repeat,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  this  attempt  to  destroy  the  con- 
fidence of  the  American  people  in  the  fairness  of  the  British 
government,  and  to  produce  the  impression  that  they  have  dis- 
honestly deprived  us  of  a  portion  of  our  territory,  and  are  now 
openly  chuckling  over  the  success  of  an  avowed  fraud,  cannot, 
be  too  strongly  reprobated.  The  direct  tendency  of  such  a 
course  is  to  create  an  exasperated  popular  feeling  towards  Great 
Britain,  which  will  forbid  the  settlement  of  any  future  dispute 
with  that  power,  except  by  the  sword;  which  will  henceforth 
acknowledge  the  validity  of  no  red  lines,  but  those  which  shall 
have  been  run  with  blood ;  and  which  will  lead  inevitably,  and 
at  no  distant  day,  to  war  for  Oregon.  I  trust  that  this  is  not  the 
design  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

But  the  honorable  gentleman  has  not  been  content  with  charg- 
ing fraud  upon  the  British  Government  in  relation  to  the  late 
treaty.  He  has  told  us  that  this  treaty  was  accomplished  and 
consummated  against  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  the  people  of 
Maine.  Sir,  I  should  like  to  know  where  the  honorable  gentle- 
man has  found  the  evidence  of  this  unanimous  sentiment  of  the 
people  of  Maine  against  the  treaty  of  Washington.  The  Com- 
missioners of  Maine  were  on  the  spot  during  the  whole  period 
36* 


426      THE   OREGON   QUESTION  AND   THE   TREATY   OF  WASHINGTON. 

of  its  negotiation.  They  prepared,  it  is  true,  a  somewhat  ela- 
borate argument  against  relinquishing  any  part  of  their  territo- 
rial claim.  But  what  did  they  do  afterwards  ?  How  did  they 
conclude  that  argument  ?  They  gave  their  formal  and  unani- 
mous assent  to  the  arrangement  which  Mr.  Webster  and  Lord 
Ashburton  had  agreed  on.  They  signed  the  treaty.  What  pre- 
tence, then,  is  there  for  the  assertion,  that  Maine  was  dismem- 
bered against  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  her  people  ? 

Mr.  Ingersoll  (Mr.  W.  yielding  the  floor  for  explanation)  re- 
marked, that  he  was  sorry  this  matter  was  gone  into,  but  the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  provoked  him  to  say  (he  did  not 
mean  any  thing  offensive)  that  he  (Mr.  I.)  had  in  his  place,  from 
day  to  day,  been  informed  by  a  gentleman  from  Maine,  no 
longer  a  member  of  this  House,  that  all  that  had  been  brought 
about  by  tricks,  practised  on  the  Maine  Commissioners,  such  as 
were  attempted  to  be  practised  upon  Senators  at  the  other  end 
of  the  Capitol. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  And  neither  do  I  mean  any  thing  offen- 
sive ;  but  I  must  be  permitted  to  say,  that  I  believe  Mr. 
Webster  to  be  quite  as  incapable  of  tricks,  as  the  honorable 
gentleman  himself,  and  that  I  demand  some  better  evidence  of 
the  fact  than  the  private  whispers  which  the  gentleman  has 
retailed.  Why  has  not  the  person  who  gave  this  information 
made  it  public  before  this  time,  upon  his  own  responsibility  ? 
If  the  Maine  Commissioners  were  tricked  into  an  assent  to  the 
treaty,  why  have  they  not  found  it  out  themselves,  and  disclosed 
the  circumstances  ?  Sir,  I  deny  the  whole  allegation.  This 
effort  to  array  an  opposition  against  the  treaty  of  Washington, 
in  reference  to  the  Maine  boundary,  is  all  an  afterthought.  At 
the  time  it  was  negotiated,  it  met  with  a  very  general,  if  not  an 
unanimous,  assent  in  both  the  States  which  were  interested  in 
the  question;  in  Maine  no  less  than  in  Massachusetts.  And 
even  to  this  day,  all  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  get  up 
a  public  sentiment  against  the  treaty,  have  signally  failed.  That 
treaty  was  ratified  by  a  vote  of  five  sixths  of  the  Senate  ;  and 
I  have  not  the  slightest  belief  that  some  of  the  Senators  who 
voted  against  it,  (if  any  of  them,)  would  have  dared  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  defeating  it,  if  their  votes  would   have  pro- 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON.   427 

duced  such  a  result.  There  is  no  way  of  securing  an  impunity 
in  regard  to  any  public  measure,  more  easy  and  obvious,  than 
to  vote  against  it  when  you  are  certain  that  your  vote  will  not 
prevent  its  adoption.  If  the  measure  turns  out  to  be  acceptable 
to  the  country,  nobody  will  care  who  voted  against  it;  while,  if 
it  proves  to  be  unpopular  in  any  quarter,  you  are  at  full  liberty 
to  unite  in  denouncing  it.  This  is  a  political  trick,  (to  borrow 
the  gentleman's  term,)  which  is  often  played  by  aspiring  politi- 
cians. Whether  it  will  account  for  any  part  of  the  opposition 
to  the  treaty  of  Washington,  others  can  judge  as  well  as  myself. 
Whether  it  will  or  not,  however,  is  of  very  little  importance. 
The  treaty  has  commended  itself  so  entirely  to  the  approbation 
of  the  American  people,  that  the  liberty  of  finding  fault  with  it 
has  proved  utterly  worthless.  The  negotiators  are  out  with  all 
the  honors,  and  there  is  no  chance  for  tricks  to  tell.  In  the 
whole  records  of  diplomacy,  American  or  European,  there  can 
not  be  found  a  negotiation  which  has  been  hailed  with  more 
undivided  satisfaction  by  those  who  were  interested  in  its 
results,  than  this  has  been  by  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Its  influence  will  not  soon  be  lost  on  the  civilized  world.  It 
will  stand  on  the  pages  of  history,  as  a  noble  example  of  what 
may  be  accomplished  by  the  honest  arts  of  Peace,  and  will  im- 
press with  the  force  of  conviction  on  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
the  lesson  which  they  have  been  so  long  in  learning,  that  war  is 
not  the  only  resort,  or  the  best  resort,  for  settling  international 
disputes,  but  that  true  honor  may  be  maintained,  real  interest 
secured,  just  pride  preserved,  without  the  sacrifice  of  a  single 
life,  or  the  libation  of  one  drop  of  blood ! 

The  honorable  gentleman  has  alluded  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  and 
has  expressed  his  gratification  that  he  has  accepted  the  appoint- 
ment of  Secretary  of  State.  Has  he  forgotten  that  one  of  the 
ablest  speeches  made  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in 
support  of  the  late  treaty,  was  made  by  this  distinguished  states- 
man of  South  Carolina  ?  Has  he  forgotten,  too,  that  the  crown- 
ing glory  of  that  treaty,  in  Mr.  Calhoun's  estimation,  was  that 
it  would  establish  "  a  permanent  amity  and  peace "  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  ?  fr<  A  kind  Providence 
(said  Mr.  Calhoun)  has  cast  our  lot  on  a  portion  of  the  globe 


428      THE   OREGON   QUESTION  AND   THE   TREATY   OF  WASHINGTON. 

sufficiently  vast  to  satisfy  the  most  grasping  ambition,  and 
abounding  in  resources  beyond  all  others,  which  only  require  to 
be  fully  developed  to  make  us  the  greatest  and  most  prosperous 
people  on  earth."  "  Peace,"  said  he,  M  is  indeed  our  policy. 
Peace  is  the  first  of  our  wants."  Why,  Sir,  if  the  honorable 
gentleman  will  turn  to  the  speech  of  this  political  friend  and 
brother  democrat  of  his,  he  will  find  it  as  copious  in  its  eulogies 
on  the  blessings  of  peace,  as  any  of  the  more  recent  speeches  in 
the  Senate,  which  he  has  ridiculed  under  the  title  of  sermons. 
I  honor  Mr.  Calhoun  for  such  expressions.  Let  him  carry  into 
the  negotiations  upon  the  Oregon  question,  the  same  spirit  which 
he  manifested  in  relation  to  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  let  him 
"  seek  peace  and  ensue  it,"  in  his  management  of  our  foreign 
affairs,  and  he  will  have  earned  a  title  to  the  regard  of  all  good 
men  and  true  patriots.  I  rejoice  to  believe  that  he  will  do  so. 
On  the  subject  of  Oregon,  indeed,  he  is  already  committed  to  a 
pacific  policy.  The  honorable  gentleman  is  quite  mistaken  in 
his  idea  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  argument  against  the  bill  for  the  armed 
occupation  of  Oregon  last  winter.  There  was  nothing  what- 
ever in  that  argument  to  give  the  impression  that  Mr.  Calhoun 
was  in  favor  of  giving  this  notice  now  or  at  any  early  day.  On 
the  contrary,  the  whole  strain  and  stress  of  the  argument  was  in 
favor  of  abstaining  altogether  from  any  action  upon  the  subject. 
"  There  is  often,"  said  Mr.  Calhoun,  "  in  the  affairs  of  govern- 
ment, more  efficiency  and  wisdom  in  non-action  than  in  action. 
All  we  want,  to  effect  our  object  in  this  case,  is  a  wise  and  mas- 
terly inactivity."  "  Our  population,"  said  he,  "  will  soon  —  far 
sooner  than  anticipated  —  reach  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  be 
ready  to  pour  into  the  Oregon  Territory,  when  it  will  come  into 
our  possession  without  resistance  or  struggle ;  or,  if  there  should 
be  resistance,  it  would  be  feeble  and  ineffectual.  We  would  then 
be  as  much  stronger  there,  comparatively,  than  Great  Britain, 
as  she  is  now  stronger  than  we  are ;  and  it  would  then  be  as  idle 
in  her  to  attempt  to  assert  or  maintain  her  exclusive  claim  to  the 
Territory  against  us,  as  it  would  now  be  in  us  to  attempt  it 
against  her.  Let  us  be  wise,  and  abide  our  time,  and  it  will 
accomplish  all  that  wie  desire,  with  far  more  certainty,  and  with 
infinitely  less  sacrifice,  than  we  can  without  it." 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TKEATY  OF  WASHINGTON.   429 

I  have  no  idea,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  it  will  be  in  our  power, 
under  present  circumstances,  to  avail  ourselves  of  this  good 
advice  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  or  that  he  will  find  himself  able,  in  his 
new  capacity,  to  leave  this  question  to  the  operation  of  time. 
The  ill-advised  and  most  unseasonable  debates  on  this  subject, 
which  have  taken  place  in  both  branches  of  Congress  during  the 
last  two  years,  have  not  only  created  an  impatience,  in  some 
quarters  of  the  country,  which  will  brook  no  further  delay  ;  but 
have  so  roused  the  attention  of  the  British  Government  to  our 
policy,  as  to  forbid  the  idea,  that  they  would  acquiesce  in  any 
further  postponement  of  the  question.  A  new  minister  from 
England  has,  indeed,  arrived,  who  is  well  understood  to  be  spe- 
cially charged  with  the  negotiation  of  it.  And  it  is  now  to  be 
decided,  so  far  as  this  House  is  concerned,  in  what  spirit  that 
negotiation  shall  be  conducted.  Shall  it  be  entered  on,  by  this 
government,  in  that  spirit  of  menace  and  defiance  which  has 
characterized  the  whole  speech  of  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania;  or  in  that  spirit  of  courtesy  and  magnanimity 
which  becomes  a  civilized  and  Christian,  as  well  as  a  brave  and 
powerful  nation  ? 

Sir,  I  have  already  declared  my  opinion  that  the  required 
notice  for  the  termination  of  the  joint  occupation  of  Oregon 
ought  not  to  be  given  at  this  moment,  in  view  of  our  own  do- 
mestic condition.  But  a  hundred-fold  more  ill-advised  does  such 
a  proceeding  strike  me,  in  view  of  our  immediate  relations  to  the 
British  Government.  In  my  judgment,  it  would  be  an  act  of 
rudeness,  of  indecency,  of  offence,  as  unworthy  as  it  would  be 
wanton.  "What  possible  pretence  of  expediency  or  necessity  is 
there  for  such  a  course  ?  Here  is  an  ambassador  on  the  ground, 
ready  at  any  instant  to  go  into  negotiations  with  us  on  the  sub- 
ject. But  for  the  deplorable  catastrophe  which  has  recently 
deprived  the  President  of  two  members  of  his  cabinet,  those 
negotiations  would  have  already  been  entered  on.  And  is  this  a 
moment,  —  when  we  have  seen  no  disadvantage  and  no  disgrace 
in  this  joint  occupation  during  a  term  of  thirty  years,  when  all 
Presidents  and  all  parties  have  acquiesced  in  its  continuance 
throughout  that  long  period,  —  is  this  a  moment  for  insisting  on 
its  being  brought  to  a  close  ?    Is  this  a  respectful  or  even  a  respect- 


430   THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON. 

able  mode  of  meeting  the  overtures  of  the  British  Government  for 
a  settlement  of  the  Oregon  question  ?  Will  it  give  us  an  increased 
hope  of  effecting  such  a  settlement  amicably,  honorably,  satis- 
factorily, to  tell  the  British  minister,  "  Sir,  we  will  allow  a  year 
for  this  business.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  we  shall  cry  havoc, 
and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war  ?  "  The  honorable  gentleman  has 
alluded  to  the  code  of  honor,  and  to  the  manner  of  settling  diffi- 
culties among  gentlemen.  There  are  those  present,  doubtless, 
who  understand  the  nice  points  of  that  code.  What  would  be 
thought  by  them,  if,  while  negotiations  of  this  sort  were  pending, 
one  of  the  parties  should  undertake  to  limit  the  time  within 
which  there  must  be  a  settlement  or  a  fight  ?  Undoubtedly,  Mr. 
Chairman,  we  have  a  right  to  give  such  a  notice  to  Great  Britain, 
but,  in  my  judgment,  the  exercise  of  that  right  at  this  moment 
would  not  only  tend  to  protract,  embarrass,  and  ultimately  defeat 
the  negotiations  which  are  now  about  to  be  opened,  but  would 
impair  the  honor  of  this  nation  in  the  estimation  of  the  civilized 
world.  We.  should  be  reproached  and  rebuked  for  it  by  the 
general  sense  of  Europe.  And  is  the  American  character  abroad 
at  so  high  a  mark  at  this  moment,  that  we  can  afford  to  trifle 
with  it?  True,  Sir,  many  of  the  censures  which  have  recently 
been  cast  on  this  Republic  are  unreasonable.  Perhaps  I  might 
agree  with  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  that  the 
attacks  which  have  been  made  upon  the  character  and  honesty 
of  his  own  Commonwealth,  and  which  seem  to  have  so  sharp- 
ened the  edge  of  his  acrimony  against  England,  are  a  good  deal 
overcharged.  At  any  rate,  I  feel  as  strongly  as  any  one  the 
injustice  of  involving  the  whole  nation  in  the  repudiation  of 
two  or  three  of  the  separate  States ;  and  the  same  discrimina- 
tion between  the  acts  of  individual  States  and  the  acts  of  the 
United  States  may,  I  am  aware,  be  pleaded  in  explanation  of 
other  circumstances  which  have  brought  reproach  from  some 
quarters  upon  our  national  good  name.  But  the  fact  is  not  less 
true,  nor  less  lamentable,  that  our  character  as  a  nation,  in  one 
way  or  another,  justly  or  unjustly,  has  been  not  a  little  lowered, 
of  late  years,  in  the  regard  of  foreign  nations.  Now,  Sir,  for 
whatever  we  do  in  relation  to  this  question  of  Oregon,  we  can 
set  up  no  divided  responsibility.     The  Nation,  as  a  Nation,  must 


THE   OREGON   QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY    OF   WASHINGTON.      431 

do  whatever  is  done ;  and  the  Nation,  as  a  Nation,  must  be  held 
answerable.  Let  us,  then,  forbear  from  pursuing  any  course, 
from  taking  any  step,  from  expressing  any  purpose,  which  may 
give  color  to  a  new  stain  upon  our  national  character.  Let  us 
desist  from  all  action  and  all  discussion  of  this  subject  until  Mr. 
Pakenham  has,  at  least,  opened  his  budget,  and  until  our  own 
Government,  too,  is  in  a  condition  to  pursue  with  vigor  and  effect 
whatever  policy  we  may  ultimately  be  compelled  to  adopt. 

Bat  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  finds  nothing 
to  regret  in  the  state  of  opinion  abroad  as  to  the  American 
character ;  he  even  rejoices  at  the  violent  and  vituperative  tone 
of  the  British  press  in  relation  to  his  own  State.  And  why  ? 
Because  he  thinks  it  may  have  a  tendency  to  counteract  the 
idolatrous  disposition  which  exists  in  some  parts  of  this  country 
towards  Great  Britain !  Mr.  Chairman,  I  know  of  nothing  more 
worthy  of  condemnation  in  the  political  history  of  the'  present 
day,  than  the  systematic  effort  of  the  self-styled  Democratic 
party  of  this  country  to  stir  up  a  prejudice  against  England 
upon  every  occasion,  and  to  create  an  impression  that  every  man 
who  does  not  fall  in  with  their  principles  and  their  policy  is  in 
some  sort  of  British  interest,  or  under  some  kind  of  British  in- 
fluence. There  are  some  of  the  leaders  of  this  party,  with 
whom  hatred  to  England  would  seem  to  be  the  only  standard 
of  American  patriotism,  and  with  whom  it  seems  to  be  enough 
to  determine  their  course  upon  all  questions  either  of  right  or  of 
expediency,  to  know  what  will  be  most  offensive  to  the  British 
power.  War,  war  with  England,  is  the  ever-burning  passion  of 
their  soul ;  and  any  one  wTho  pursues  a  policy  or  advocates  a 
measure  which  may  postpone  or  avert  the  consummation  which 
they  so  devoutly  desire,  becomes  the  chosen  object  of  their  in- 
sinuations and  reproaches.  For  myself,  Sir,  I  hold  in  utter  con- 
tempt all  such  insinuations.  If  it  be  a  fit  subject  for  reproach, 
to  entertain  the  most  anxious  and  ardent  desire  for  the  peace  of 
this  country,  its  peace  with  England,  its  peace  with  all  the  world, 
I  submit  myself  willingly  to  the  fullest  measure  of  that  reproach. 
"War  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  for  Oregon ! 
Sir,  there  is  something  in  this  idea  too  monstrous  to  be  enter- 
tained for  a  moment.     The  two  greatest  nations  on  the  globe, 


432   THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON. 

with  more  territorial  possessions  than  they  know  what  to  do  with 
already,  and  bound  together  by  so  many  ties  of  kindred,  and 
language,  and  commercial  interest,  going  to  war  for  a  piece  of 
barren  earth!  Why,  it  would  put  back  the  cause  of  civilization 
a  whole  century,  and  would  be  enough  not  merely  to  call  down 
the  rebuke  of  men,  but  the  curse  of  God.  I  do  not  yield  to  the 
honorable  gentleman  in  a  just  concern  for  the  national  honor. 
I  am  ready  to  maintain  that  honor,  whenever  it  is  really  at  stake, 
against  Great  Britain  as  readily  as  against  any  other  nation. 
Indeed,  if  war  is  to  come  upon  us,  I  am  quite  willing  that  it 
should  be  war  with  a  first-rate  power  —  with  a  foeman  worthy 
of  our  steel. 

"  Oh !  the  blood  more  stirs, 
To  rouse  a  lion,  than  to  start  a  hare." 

If  the  young  Queen  of  England  were  the  veritable  Victoria 
whom  the  ancient  poets  have  sometimes  described  as  descending 
from  the  right  hand  of  Jupiter  to  crown  the  banner  of  predestined 
Triumph,  I  would  still  not  shrink  from  the  attempt  to  vindicate 
the  rights  of  my  country  on  every  proper  occasion.  To  her 
forces,  however,  as  well  as  to  ours,  may  come  the  "  cita  mors" 
as  well  as  the  "  Victoria  Iceta."  We  have  nothing  to  fear  from 
a  protracted  war  with  any  nation,  though  our  want  of  prepara- 
tion might  give  us  the  worst  of  it  in  the  first  encounter.  We 
are  all  and  always  ready  for  war,  when  there  is  no  other  alterna- 
tive for  maintaining  our  country's  honor.  We  are  all  and  always 
ready  for  any  war  into  which  a  Christian  man,  in  a  civilized  land, 
and  in  this  age  of  the  world,  can  have  the  face  to  enter.  But  I 
thank  God  that  there  are  very  few  such  cases.  War  and  honor 
are  fast  getting  to  have  less  and  less  to  do  with  each  other.  The 
highest  honor  of  any  country  is  to  preserve  peace,  even  under 
provocations  which  might  justify  war.  The  deepest  disgrace  to 
any  country  is  to  plunge  into  war  under  circumstances  which 
leave  the  honorable  alternative  of  peace.  I  heartily  hope  and 
trust,  Sir,  that  in  deference  to  the  sense  of  the  civilized  world, 
in  deference  to  that  spirit  of  Christianity  which  is  now  spreading 
its  benign  and  healing  influences  over  both  hemispheres  with 
such  signal  rapidity,  we  shall  explore  the  whole  field  of  diplo- 
macy, and  exhaust  every  art  of  negotiation,  before  we  give  loose 


THE  OREGON   QUESTION  AND   THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON.      4o3 

to  that  passion  for  conflict  which  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  seems  to  regard  as  so  grand  and  glorious  an  ele- 
ment of  the  American  character. 

But  Great  Britain  is  so  grasping,  so  aggressive,  so  insidious 
and  insolent,  so  overreaching  and  overbearing!  Does  not  her 
banner  flout  us  at  every  turn  ?  Does  not  her  drum-beat  disturb 
our  dreams  by  night,  and  almost  drown  our  voices  by  day  ?  Is 
she  not  hemming  us  in  on  every  side ;  compassing  us  about  in 
a  daily  diminishing  circle ;  and  are  not  our  outer  walls  already 
tottering  at  the  sound  of  her  trumpets  ?  Nay,  have  not  her  bland- 
ishments succeeded  even  where,  as  yet,  her  arms  have  failed? 
Has  she  not  scaled  our  very  ramparts  and  penetrated  to  our  very 
citadel  in  a  shower  of  corrupting  gold?  What  but  British  gold 
carried  the  last  Presidential  election  against  the  people  ?  What 
but  British  gold  is  about  to  carry  the  next?  What  were  the 
twelve  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  voters  who  deposed 
Mr.  Van  Buren  from  the  chief  magistracy  in  1840,  and  who  are 
rallying  again,  with  renewed  energy,  to  the  old  watchwords, 
against  his  restoration,  but  so  many  British  Whigs?  Is  there 
a  Whig,  in  all  the  land,  who  dares  deny,  that  when  he  voted  for 
General  Harrison,  he  had  a  British  heart  in  his  bosom,  and  a 
British  sovereign  in  his  pocket  ?  —  Mr.  Chairman,  let  me  call  to 
the  remembrance  of  the  committee  a  story  which  was  introduced 
by  the  celebrated  George  Canning  into  one  of  his  speeches  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  which  has  thus  the  highest  sanction  as 
being  not  beneath  the  dignity  of  parliamentary  debate.  It  is  the 
story  of  a  painter,  who  had  made  himself  somewhat  eminent  in 
the  professional  sphere  in  which  he  moved,  but  who  had  directed 
his  art  altogether  to  one  favorite  subject.  This  subject  was  a 
red  lion,  which  he  had  learned  to  depict  in  great  perfection.  One 
of  his  earliest  patrons  was  the  keeper  of  a  public  house,  who 
wished  something  appropriate  painted  on  his  sign-board.  The 
painter,  of  course,  executed  his  red  lion.  A  gentleman  in  the 
vicinity,  who  had  a  new  mansion-house  which  he  wished  to  have 
ornamented,  was  the  next  employer  of  the  artist,  and,  in  order 
to  afford  him  full  scope  for  his  genius,  gave  him  his  own  choice 
of  a  subject  for  the  principal  panel  in  his  dining-room.  The 
artist  took  time  to  deliberate,  and  then  said,  with  the  utmost 

37 


434      THE  OREGON   QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY   OF   WASHINGTON. 

gravity,  "  don't  you  think  that  a  handsome  red  lion  would  have 
a  fine  effect  in  this  situation  ?  "  The  gentleman,  as  you  may 
imagine,  did  not  feel  quite  satisfied  with  the  selection,  but  resolved 
to  let  the  painter  follow  his  own  fancy  in  this  instance,  trusting  to 
have  a  design  of  more  elegance  and  distinction  in  his  drawing- 
room  or  library,  to  which  he  next  conducted  him.  "  Here,"  said 
he,  u  I  must  have  something  striking;  the  space  is  small,  and  the 
device  must  be  proportionably  delicate."  The  painter  paused  ; 
appeared  to  dive  down  to  the  very  bottom  of  his  invention  and 
thence  to  ascend  again  to  its  highest  heaven  for  an  idea,  and  then 
said,  "  what  do  you  think  of  a  small  red  lion  ?  " 

Well  now,  Sir,  the  course  of  a  certain  class  of  politicians  in 
this  country  seems  to  me  to  have  a  most  marvellous  analogy  to 
that  of  the  painter  in  this  story.  This  cry  of  British  Whigs, 
this  clamor  about  British  gold,  this  never-ending  alarum  about 
British  aggression  and  British  encroachment,  this  introduction  of 
the  red  lion  on  every  occasion,  seems  to  be  the  one  great  reli- 
ance of  the  political  artists  of  a  certain  school.  There  is  always 
a  lion  in  the  path  of  the  self-styled  Democratic  party  of  the 
United  States ;  a  British  lion,  red  with  the  blood  of  cruelty  and 
oppression,  which  it  is  their  peculiar  mission  to  slay,  but  which 
the  Whigs  are  leagued  together  to  defend.  Whatever  principle, 
whatever  project,  may  be  under  discussion  in  this  House,  or 
before  the  people,  the  red  lion  is  sure  to  be  on  the  ground.  Red 
lion  here,  red  lion  there,  red  lion  everywhere !  Why,  Sir,  even 
on  the  question  of  refunding  to  General  Jackson  the  fine  which 
was  imposed  on  him  for  setting  at  defiance  the  civil  authorities 
of  the  land,  and  imprisoning  the  judge  who  dared  to  confront 
him  with  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  it  was  thought  "  that  a  small 
red  lion  might  have  a  fine  effect  in  that  situation."  And  a  very 
small  one  it  certainly  was.  It  was  suggested  that  the  judge  was 
an  Englishman  by  birth.  He  was  known  to  have  come  over  to 
America  in  early  youth.  His  residence  here  could  be  traced 
back  to  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  year  of  his  age ;  but  there  was 
reason  to  apprehend,  though  even  that  was  not  altogether  certain, 
that  he  was  born  in  England  ;  and,  therefore,  all  those  who  were 
unwilling  to  annul  his  judicial  decree,  and  to  admit  that  he  was 
rightfully  insulted  and  imprisoned,  were  little  better  than  so  many 


THE  OREGON  QUESTION  AND  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON.   435 

British  Whigs.  Was  not  that,  Sir,  a  very  little  red  lion  indeed? 
This  Oregon  question,  however,  presents  a  larger  panel,  and  here, 
of  course,  a  flaming  lion  is  shown  up  in  its  full  dimensions. 
The  Texas  question  affords  a  larger  field  still,  with  far  more 
room  for  the  fancy  to  expatiate  in ;  and  although  the  canvas  is 
but  just  unrolled,  the  teeming  invention  of  these  unrivalled  artists 
has  already  done  its  work,  with  something  of  that  celerity  which 
Milton  has  so  glowingly  attributed  to  Creative  Power : 

"  Now  half  appeared 
The  tawny  lion,  pawing  to  get  free 
His  hinder  parts,  then  springs,  as  broke  from  bonds, 
And  rampant  shakes  his  brinded  mane ! " 

Mr.  Chairman,  is  it  possible  that  the  honorable  gentleman 
from  Pennsylvania  and  his  political  friends  can  be  mad  enough 
to  believe  that  the  people  of  this  country  can  be  wrought  upon 
by  such  conceits?  Let  me  assure  them  that  they  do  injustice 
to  the  intelligence  of  the  people.  "'Tis  the  eye  of  childhood 
that  fears  a  painted  devil."  The  manly  sense  of  this  nation  will 
scorn  such  appeals  to  fear  and  folly.  Conscious  of  their  own 
integrity,  and  resolved  on  the  vindication  of  their  own  rights, 
the  people  will  neither  be  frightened  from  their  propriety,  nor 
diverted  from  their  purpose,  by  such  devices.  They  proved  this 
in  1840 ;  they  will  make  assurance  doubly  sure  in  1844. 

A  word  or  two  about  Texas,  and  I  have  done.  The  honorable 
gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  among  other  most  inconclusive 
reasons  for  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  which  has  been  con- 
demned as  inexpedient  by  the  committee  over  which  he  presides, 
has  told  us,  that "  he  holds  it  to  be  incompetent  for  the  mere  treaty- 
making  power  to  part  with  any  portion  of  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  or  to  settle  a  boundary  question,  without  the 
consent  and  cooperation  of  the  House  of  Representatives." 
And  he  has  appealed  to  the  Massachusetts  delegation,  and  called 
upon  myself  in  particular,  "  as  one  who  has  loudly  expressed  an 
apprehension  of  the  stealthy  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union 
by  a  clandestine  treaty,"  to  unite  with  him  on  this  analogous 
question  of  Oregon,  and  insist  on  the  right  of  Representative 
action  on  the  subject.     Sir,  I  shall  enter  into  no  argument  as 


436      THE   OREGON   QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY   OP   WASHINGTON. 

to  the  extent  of  the  treaty-making  power  of  this  Government 
in  regard  to  the  particular  measures  which  the  gentleman  has 
specified  in  his  proposition.  Even  if  I  assented  to  the  full  import 
of  that  proposition,  which  I  certainly  do  not,  it  would  form  no 
ground  for  that  union  with  him  on  the  pending  question,  to  which 
he  invites  me.  Even  if  it  were  the  admitted  prerogative  of  this 
House  to  give  advice  or  prescribe  action  to  the  Executive  on  the 
subjects  he  has  named,  it  would  be  no  reason  for  our  giving  bad 
advice,  or  prescribing  injudicious  or  unwarrantable  action.  But 
"  the  analogous  questions  "  of  Oregon  and  Texas  !  Sir,  I  deny 
that  there  is  any  analogy  whatever  between  those  questions. 
The  Texas  question  is  not  in  any  sense  a  question  of  parting 
with  territory  or  settling  a  boundary  line.  It  is  not  even  a 
question  of  annexing  territory.  It  is  a  question  of  amalgamat- 
ing a  foreign  sovereignty  with  our  own  sovereignty ;  of  annexing 
a  foreign  State  to  our  own  State.  It  is  such  a  question  as  would 
be  presented  by  a  proposition  to  reannex  the  United  States  to 
Great  Britain,  or  to  amalgamate  Great  Britain  with  the  United 
States.  This,  the  gentleman  must  remember,  was  the  distinc- 
tion taken  by  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  Mr.  Forsyth  in  1837.  They 
maintained,  that  "  the  question  of  the  annexation  of  a  foreign 
independent  State  to  the  United  States  had  never  before  been 
presented  to  this  Government."  They  maintained,  that  the  cir- 
cumstance of  Louisiana  and  Florida  being  colonial  possessions 
of  France  and  Spain,  rendered  the  purchase  of  those  Territories 
materially  different  from  the  proposed  annexation  of  Texas. 
"  Whether  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  they  added, 
"contemplated  the  annexation  of  such  a  State,  and,  if  so,  in  what 
manner  that  object  is  to  be  effected,  are  questions,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  President,  which  it  would  be  inexpedient,  under  present 
circumstances,  to  agitate." 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  go  much  farther  than  the  honorable 
gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  on  this  subject.  I  not  only  deny 
the  competency  of  the  treaty-making  power  of  this  Government 
to  negotiate  any  such  amalgamation  as  this,  without  the  coope- 
ration of  the  House  of  Representatives  ;  but  I  deny  that  our  co- 
operation can  confer  or  supply  that  competency.  Certainly, 
certainly,  the  Constitution  did  not  contemplate  the  annexation 


THE   OREGON  QUESTION   AND   THE   TREATY   OF  WASHINGTON.      437 

of  such  a  State.  Provoco  ad  populum  !  The  people,  in  their 
own  right,  are  alone  competent  to  pronounce  the  doom,  which  is 
to  bind  up  the  fortunes  of  this  Republic  in  the  same  bundle  of 
life  or  death  with  those  of  any  foreign  power ;  and  I  hope  and 
believe  that  they  will  disown  and  renounce  any  Executive  or  any 
Legislative  act,  which  shall  infringe  upon  this  —  their  own  su- 
preme prerogative.  I  trust  that  they  will  not  be  deluded  by  any 
false  alarm,  by  any  red  lion  representation,  that  Texas  is  about 
to  be  .made  a  colonial  possession  of  Great  Britain.  The  British 
Government  have  no  such  purpose.  Our  own  Government 
know  this.  And  if  Texas  be  foisted  into  the  Union  upon  any 
such  pretence,  it  will  be  an  act  as  fraudulent  in  its  inception,  as 
it  will,  under  any  circumstances,  be  pernicious  in  its  result. 


37  * 


W7ERSIT 


THE  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNI- 
TED STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF  THE 
UNION,  JANUARY  6,  1845. 


I  have  very  little  hope,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  saying  any  thing 
new  on  the  question  before  us,  or  of  giving  any  new  interest  or 
force  to  the  views  which  have  already  been  presented,  both  to 
Congress  and  the  Country,  by  the  master  minds  of  the  nation. 
Certainly,  I  have  not  risen  to  attempt  any  formal  response  to 
the  challenge  which  was  tendered  me  a  few  days  since  by  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  (Mr.  C.J.  Inger- 
soll.)  That  gentleman  was  pleased  to  call  on  me  emphatically 
for  an  argument.  He  was  particular  in  warning  me  against 
declamation.  He  would  be  contented  with  nothing  short  of  an 
argument.  Now,  Sir,  I  must  be  allowed  to  say  that  such  a  call, 
and  such  a  caution,  would  have  come  with  something  of  a  better 
grace  from  the  honorable  member,  if  he  had  given  me  the  exam- 
ple as  well  as  the  precept.  If  he  had  "  reck'd  his  own  rede," 
and  had  given  to  the  House  something  better  than  a  desultory 
string  of  bald  assertions  and  balder  assumptions,  he  might  have 
thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  whom  he  pleased.  But  I  must 
protest  that  it  was  a  little  ungracious  in  the  honorable  member, 
to  urge  upon  me  the  steep  and  thorny  way  of  arguing  a  nega- 
tive, after  sauntering  along  the  primrose  path  of  dalliance  him- 
self, with  the  burden  of  the  affirmative  fairly  upon  his  own 
shoulders. 

The  honorable  member  from  Alabama,  (Mr.  Payne,)  who 
spoke  last,  was  somewhat  in  the  same  vein.  "  He  would  not 
entertain  the  House  with  a  mere  Fourth  of  July  oration."  He, 
too,  wanted  nothing  but  an  argument.     Now,  with  all  deference 


THE   ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS.  439 

to  the  better  judgment  of  the  honorable  member,  I  must  be 
allowed  to  express  a  doubt,  whether  a  good  Fourth  of  July- 
oration  would  not  be  one  of  the  best  arguments  that  could  be 
framed  for  this  precise  occasion.  When  men  seem  ready  to 
forget  their  own  country,  and  to  run  after  foreign  alliances ;  to 
disregard  the  feelings  of  their  fellow-citizens,  and  expend  their 
sympathies  upon  aliens ;  and  to  look  more  to  the  security  of 
slavery  than  of  freedom ;  it  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Chairman,  that 
some  remembrance  of  the  Fourth  of  July ;  that  some  recalling 
and  recounting  of  the  early  days,  and  the  early  deeds  of  our 
Revolution ;  that  some  reminiscences  of  the  period  when  Vir- 
ginia, and  South  Carolina,  and  Massachusetts,  were  bound 
together  by  mutual  league,  by  united  thoughts  and  counsels,  by- 
equal  hope  and  hazard  in  the  glorious  enterprise  of  Independ- 
ence ;  that  some  recurrence  to  the  opinions,  as  well  as  to  the 
acts,  of  our  patriot  fathers ;  their  opinions  about  freedom,  and 
about  what  constituted  ".an  extension  of  the  area  of  freedom ;" 
their  opinions,  too,  about  slavery,  in  those  days,  when  one  of  the 
greatest  complaints  against  Great  Britain  was,  not  that  she  con- 
sidered slavery  an  evil,  and,  having  abolished  it  at  great  cost  in 
her  own  colonies,  had  expressed  a  wish,  —  no  further  harm,  — 
a  wish  that  it  might  be  abolished  throughout  the  world,  —  but 
that  she  regarded  it  as  the  source  of  a  profitable  traffic;  that 
she  would  not  suffer  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  to  abolish  it ; 
and  had  even  reprimanded  a  Governor  of  South  Carolina  for 
assenting  to  an  act  for  that  purpose ;  —  it  seems  to  me,  I  say, 
that  some  such  Fourth  of  July  oration  as  this,  would  be  an 
argument  every  way  suitable  and  seasonable. 

At  any  rate,  the  stricter  argument  of  this  case  belongs  right- 
fully to  those  in  favor  of  the  annexation.  It  belongs  to  those 
who  seek  to  accomplish  this  momentous  change  in  our  national 
condition  and  our  national  identity.  It  belongs  to  those  who 
are  dissatisfied  with  their  existing  country,  and  who  are  ready 
to  peril  its  peace,  its  honor,  and  its  union,  in  order  to  obtain 
another  and  an  ampler  theatre  for  their  transcendent  patriotism. 
It  is  for  them  to  argue  this  question.  It  is  for  them  to  make  a 
case.  It  is  for  them,  to  show  the  consummate  policy  of  the 
measure.  It  is  for  them,  above  all,  to  prove  their  constitutional 
power  to  accomplish  it. 


440  THE   ANNEXATION   OP  TEXAS. 

As  for  us,  Mr.  Chairman,  who  seek  no  change,  who  are  con- 
tent with  our  country  as  it  is,  who  look  to  its  augmentation 
by  internal  development  and  not  by  external  acquisition,  whose 
only  policy  it  is  to  improve,  build  up,  illustrate,  and  defend  the 
land  and  the  liberties  we  now  enjoy, — we  might  well  be  excused 
from  arguments  of  any  sort  on  such  a  subject.  It  would  be 
enough  for  us  to  sit  quietly  in  our  seats,  and,  when  called  on  to 
give  our  voices  upon  these  resolutions,  to  say  of  our  country,  as 
the  barons  of  old  England  said  of  their  laws,  when  threatened 
with  usurpation  :  Nolumus,  nolumus  mutari  I 

Sir,  I  desire  to  press  this  point  upon  the  consideration  and 
upon  the  consciences  of  gentlemen  around  me ;  and  more  espe- 
cially of  those  who,  being  associated  politically  with  the  friends  of 
annexation,  are  understood  to  entertain  doubts  as  to  the  consti- 
tutionality of  the  scheme  proposed.  We  have  a  Constitution. 
We  have  sworn  to  support  it.  It  is  a  Constitution  of  limited 
powers  —  of  specific  grants  of  power.  It  declares  in  its  own 
terms  that  "  the  enumeration  of  certain  rights  shall  not  be  con- 
strued to  deny  or  disparage  others  retained  by  the  people."  It 
declares  further,  that  "  the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people."  It  is 
thus  the  duty  of  every  man  who  gives  his  support  to  a  measure 
of  legislation,  to  be  convinced  in  his  own  mind  that  the  measure 
is  positively  constitutional.  It  is  not  for  him  to  call  for  argu- 
ments from  others  to  prove  it  unconstitutional.  It  is  not  for  him 
to  find  justification  for  his  vote  in  the  feebleness  or  in  the  silence 
of  those  who  deny  his  power,  but  in  the  force  and  the  convin- 
cing proof  of  those  who  maintain  it.  Still  less  is  it  for  him  to 
adopt  the  extraordinary  doctrine  advanced  by  an  honorable 
member  from  Alabama,  (Mr.  Belser,)  who  has  told  us  that,  in 
case  of  constitutional  difficulty  on  this  question,  he  should  follow 
.the  maxim  of  Hoyle :  "  Where  you  are  in  doubt,  take  the  trick ! " 
Northern  gentlemen  have  often  been  charged  with  latitudina- 
rianism  in  their  interpretation  of  the  Constitution.  They  pro- 
fess to  be  always  in  favor  of  a  liberal  construction  of  it.  But 
they  have  never  yet  carried  their  liberality  to  such  a  pitch  as 
this.     It  may  be  the  attribute  of  a  good  judge  to  amplify  his 


THE    ANNEXATION   OP   TEXAS.  441 

jurisdiction ;  but  we  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  an  honest  republi- 
can legislator,  under  a  limited  Government  like  ours,  to  exercise 
no  doubtful  powers  ;  and  to  believe  nothing  constitutional  with- 
out a  reason,  a  substantial  reason,  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him. 

I  am  not  at  all  surprised,  however,  at  the  disposition  which 
has  been  manifested  in  some  quarters  to  shift  the  burden  of 
proof,  and  to  call  for  arguments  from  others,  instead  of  attempt- 
ing to  make  a  case  for  themselves.  Unquestionably  the  friends 
of  Texas  in  this  House  have  a  heavy  task  on  their  hands.  Un- 
able to  agree  upon  any  plan  among  themselves  ;  having  exhaust- 
ed every  art  for  reconciling  their  discordant  opinions ;  the  ultima 
ratio  of  a  letter  from  the  Hermitage,  even,  having  been  resorted 
to  in  vain ;  the  old  Roman  cement  having  altogether  lost  its 
cohesive  quality  upon  this  occasion ;  their  only  hope  seems  now 
to  be,  that,  by  throwing  all  their  individual  schemes  before  the 
Committee,  the  blows  of  their  enemies  may  prove  more  efficient 
than  the  love-pats  of  their  friends,  and  may  knock  some  one  of 
them  into  a  shape,  or  impress  upon  some  one  of  them  a  color, 
which  will  secure  for  it  the  support  of  a  majority.  I  have  reason 
to  think  that  the  members  from  Massachusetts,  and  of  the  North- 
ern States  generally,  are  relied  upon  to  perform  a  principal  part 
in  this  moulding  and  coloring  process.  It  seems  to  be  hoped 
that  the  anti-slavery  feeling  which  we  are  supposed  to  represent, 
will  exhibit  itself  to  such  an  excess,  will  be  betrayed  into  such 
an  intemperate  outbreak  upon  this  question,  as  to  embarrass  the 
position  of  some  of  our  Whig  friends  from  the  South,  and  either 
to  compel  them  to  vote  for  annexation  now,  or  to  stimulate  the 
States  which  they  represent  to  send  back  to  the  next  Congress 
those  who  will. 

Such,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  forlorn  hope  of  the  friends  of 
Texas  at  this  moment.  I  trust  they  will  be  disappointed  in  it. 
They  have  already  elected  a  President  under  some  such  influ- 
ence. But  I  rejoice  to  believe  that  they  will  fail  in  annexing 
Texas  by  it,  at  this  session  at  least.  I  certainly,  for  one,  shall 
minister  to  no  such  mischief.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  I  shall  oppose  the  annexation  of  Texas,  now  and  always, 
upon  the  ground  that  it  involves  an  extension  of  domestic 
slavery.     No  considerations  of  National  aggrandizement;    no 


442  THE  ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS. 

allurements  of  Northern  interest  and  advantage;  were  they  even 
as  real,  as  in  this  case  they  are  specious  and  delusive;  will 
ever  win  my  assent  to  such  an  enlargement  of  the  slave-holding 
territory  of  my  country.  Nor  shall  I  hesitate  to  speak  of  slavery 
in  connection  with  this  question,  if  my  time  be  not  exhausted 
before  I  reach  that  topic  in  the  order  of  my  remarks.  I  shall  do 
so  firmly  and  fearlessly,  as  I  have  always  done  in  this  House 
and  elsewhere ;  but  I  shall  do  so  in  a  spirit  of  entire  deference 
to  the  Constitution,  which  I  have  sworn  to  support,  and  which 
it  is  my  special  purpose  in  these  remarks  to  maintain  and  vindi- 
cate. I  shall  speak  of  slavery,  too,  with  the  most  unqualified 
admission,  which  no  Northern  statesman  has  ever  withheld,  that 
over  slavery,  as  it  now  exists  within  any  of  the  existing  States 
of  the  Union,  this  government  has  no  manner  of  control. 

No,  Sir,  this  question  is  not  to  be  settled  in  this  manner,  or 
in  any  manner,  I  trust,  at  the  present  session.  As  often,  indeed, 
as  I  reflect  on  its  magnitude,  I  find  it  difficult  to  realize  that  it 
is  really  and  in  good  faith  before  us  for  decision.  Certainly, 
Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  reconcile,  with  any 
views  which  I  entertain  of  the  nature  of  our  government  and 
the  character  of  our  Constitution,  the  idea  that  such  a  question 
as  this  can  be  decided  finally  and  forever,  here  and  now,  by  this 
Congress,  in  this  way,  under  these  circumstances.  An  irrevoca- 
ble incorporation  into  our  Union  of  a  vast  foreign  nation ;  the 
naturalization,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  of  I  know  not  how  many 
thousand  Mexicans,  and  of  all  the  other  aliens  who  may  have 
resided  six  months  in  Texas ;  the  admission  of  five-and-twenty 
thousand  slaves  into  our  country,  in  defiance  of  that  compro- 
mise of  the  Constitution  and  laws  under  which  no  slaves  were 
to  be  admitted  after  the  year  1808 ;  the  annexation  of  a  terri- 
tory large  enough  to  alter  all  the  relations  and  destroy  all  the 
balances  of  our  existing  system,  of  a  capacity  not  merely  for 
adding  new  stars  to  our  Constellation,  but  for  disturbing  the 
courses,  and  even  changing  the  orbits,  of  those  which  are  now 
revolving  in  harmony  together  —  for  turning  them  upon  a  new 
centre  and  towards  another  sun  ;  that  such  a  measure  should 
be  initiated,  carried  on,  and  consummated  as  this  has  been,  and 
is  now  proposed  to  be,  is,  in  my  judgment,  monstrous,  mon- 
strous beyond  all  expression. 


THE  ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS.  443 

What,  Sir,  is  the  brief  history  of  this  measure  ?  Secretly 
and  stealthily  concocted  originally  by  a  President  not  of  the 
people's  choice,  by  an  accidental  occupant  of  the  Executive 
chair ;  devised  by  him  for  his  own  ambitious  ends,  and  upon 
his  own  individual  responsibility  ;  —  let  me  rather  say  irrespon- 
sibility, (for  the  history  of  the  last  twelve  or  fifteen  years  has 
proved  that  our  Republican  President  is  the  most  irresponsible 
officer  known  to  the  civilized  world,  and  may  do  with  impunity 
what  would  cost  many  a  king  his  crown,  neck  and  all,)  —  re- 
jected emphatically  by  the  Senate,  to  whom,"  as  a  legitimate 
branch  of  the  treaty-making  power,  it  was  submitted ;  it  has 
now  been  introduced  into  this  House,  after  a  single  hour's  deli- 
beration in  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and  is  about  to  be 
pressed  to  a  decision  with  as  little  ceremony  as  an  act  to  pay 
an  annual  salary,  or  to  establish  a  new  post  route !  Why,  Sir, 
if  it  were  a  mere  question  of  foreign  relations,  —  if  it  concerned 
no  interest,  affected  no  right,  touched  no  prerogative  of  our  own 
American  people,  a  course  like  this  would  be  extraordinary 
enough ;  but,  reaching  as  this  measure  does  to  the  very  sum  of  V 
our  own  domestic  affairs,  influencing,  as  it  will,  the  whole  des-  ) 
tiny  of  our  country  as  long  as  our  country  may  survive  it,  such  / 
a  mode  of  proceeding  is  calculated  to  excite  alarm  in  the  breast 
of  every  reflecting  patriot. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  many  distinct  views  to  be  taken  of 
this  transaction,  either  of  which  would  more  than  exhaust  the 
little  time  allowed  us  under  the  hour  rule.  There  is  the  Execu- 
tive view  of  it ;  displaying  as  much  of  assumption  and  usurpa- 
tion, in  all  its  civil  and  all  its  military  developments,  as  has  ever 
signalized  an  equal  period  in  the  history  of  the  most  despotic 
ruler  in  Christendom.  There  is  the  Diplomatic  view  of  it ; 
exhibiting  a  correspondence  which,  I  venture  to  say,  has  made 
more  than  are  willing  to  acknowledge  it,  blush,  and  cover  their 
faces  in  shame,  at  such  a  degradation  of  our  national  character 
before  the  world.  I  am  glad  to  find  that  even  the  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  has  not  been  quite  able  to 
suppress  an  intimation  of  disgust  for  some  of  the  State  papers 
and  diplomatic  correspondence  of  the  case. 

There  is  the  Texan  view  of  the  question,  too.     Sir,  I  have 


444  THE   ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS. 

never  cherished  any  particular  sympathy  for  the  people  of  Texas. 
I  have  heretofore  been  rather  inclined  to  agree  with  Governor 
McDuffie  in  the  views  presented  in  an  admirable  message  of  his 
to  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  in  December,  1836;  in 
which  he  not  only  expressed  the  opinion  that  "  if  we  should  ad- 
mit Texas  into  our  Union  while  Mexico  is  still  waging  war 
against  that  Province,  with  a  view  to  reestablish  her  supremacy 
over  it,  we  should,  by  the  very  act  itself,  make  ourselves  a  party 
to  the  war,"  and  that  we  could  not  "  take  this  step  without 
incurring  this  heavy  responsibility,  until  Mexico  herself  shall 
recognize  the  independence  of  her  revolted  Province;"  but  in 
which  he  said  also,  "  I  am  utterly  at  a  loss  to  perceive  what  title 
either  of  the  parties  to  this  controversy  can  have  to  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  American  people.  If  it  be  alleged  that  the  insur- 
gents of  Texas  are  emigrants  from  the  United  States,  it  is  ob- 
vious to  reply  that,  by  their  voluntary  expatriation,  under  what- 
ever circumstances  of  adventure,  of  speculation,  of  honor,  or  of 
infamy,  they  have  forfeited  all  claim  to  our  paternal  regard.  If 
it  be  true  that  they  have  left  a  land  of  freedom  for  a  land  of 
despotism,  they  have  done  it  with  their  eyes  open,  and  deserve 
their  destiny."  Perhaps  this  language  is  a  little  too  severe,  but 
I  am  clearly  of  opinion  that  men  who  have  deserted  their  own 
country  for  a  foreign  soil,  are  not  preeminently  entitled  to  our 
freshest  and  most  cordial  sympathies. 

I  confess,  however,  that  recent  circumstances  have  created 
something  of  reaction  in  my  mind  in  regard  to  the  people  of 
Texas.  I  cannot  help  feeling  some  sympathy  with  that  peo- 
ple under  the  precise  circumstances  in  which  they  are  now 
placed  ;  betrayed,  as  they  have  been,  into  so  humiliating  a  pos- 
ture, by  false  pretences  and  false  promises.  Where  has  been 
the  fulfilment  of  that  promise  which  a  President  of  the  United 
States,  speaking  through  his  Secretary  of  State,  dared  to  hold 
out  to  them  a  year  ago :  "  Measures  have  been  taken  to  ascer- 
tain the  opinions  and  views  of  Senators  upon  the  subject,  and 
it  is  found  that  a  clear  constitutional  majority  of  two  thirds  are 
in  favor  of  the  measure ! "  Sir,  may  we  not  begin  to  entertain 
a  hope  that  the  people  of  Texas  will  awake  to  some  respect 
for  themselves  under  the  treatment  they  have  received,  and  will 


THE  ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS.  445 

no  longer  suffer  themselves  to  be  duped  and  trifled  with  either 
by  Presidents  or  Congresses  ?  If  they  would  summon  up 
something  of  a  just  national  pride,  repel  all  further  overtures 
to  annexation,  expose  all  the  arts  and  intrigues  by  which  they 
have  been  seduced,  and  resolve  to  maintain  their  stand  as  an 
independent  nation  against  Mexico  and  against  the  world,  the 
"  God  speed "  of  all  good  men  would  go  with  them.  There 
seems  to  be  some  probability  of  such  a  movement.  The  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  has  warned  us  of 
the  danger  of  delay.  "  There  is  nothing  to  be  dreaded,"  says 
he,  "but  delay.  Delay  is  imminently  dangerous."  And  why 
is  delay  dangerous  ?  Because,  says  he,  "  there  must  be  in 
Texas  a  great  deal  of  personal  selfish  opposition  to  annexation. 
Many  eminent  men  may  oppose  it."  What  a  confession  is 
this !  So  we  are  not  only  to  get  the  start  of  the  sober  second 
thought  of  our  own  American  people  upon  this  question,  but  of 
the  people  of  Texas,  too !  We  are  to  take  a  snap  judgment  on 
the  willingness  of  both  nations  to  enter  upon  this  fatal  mar- 
riage ! 

But  I  turn  to  even  graver  views  of  the  subject.  When  the 
measure  was  originally  reported  from  the  Committee  of  which 
I  have  the  honor  to  be  a  member,  I  denounced  it  off-hand  as 
unconstitutional  in  substance  and  unconstitutional  in  form ;  as 
in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  and  of  the  good  faith  of  our 
own  country ;  as  calculated  to  involve  us  in  an  unjust  and  dis- 
honorable war;  and  as  eminently  objectionable  from  its  rela- 
tions to  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery.  The  honorable  mem- 
ber from  Alabama  (Mr.  Payne)  has  been  pleased  to  denominate 
this  my  manifesto,  and  has  done  me  the  undeserved  honor  of 
considering  me  the  spokesman  of  my  party  in  pronouncing  it. 
I  spoke  for  nobody  but  myself  then,  and  am  authorized  to  speak 
for  nobody  but  myself  now.  But  I  repeat  the  expressions  de- 
liberately this  morning,  and  shall  take  them  as  my  text  in  what 
remains  of  my  hour. 

And  first,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  one  of  those  who  deny  the 
authority  of  this  government  to  annex  a  foreign  nation  to  our 
Union,  by  any  process  whatever,  short  of  the  general  consent  of 
the  people ;  certainly  by  any  mode  less  formal  than  that  required 

38 


446  THE  ANNEXATION   OP  TEXAS. 

for  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution.  Gentlemen  tell  us  that 
this  point  was  settled  by  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  and  Florida. 
No,  no,  Sir,  it  was  not  settled  by  either  of  those  cases.  What 
said  Mr.  Van  Buren  in  1837?  What  said  Mr.  Forsyth,  ex- 
pressing, as  he  undoubtedly  did,  the  result  of  the  deliberations 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  entire  Cabinet?  His  official  reply  to  Mr. 
Memucan  Hunt  has  been  often  quoted,  but  cannot  be  too  often 
held  up  before  the  eyes  of  the  people  :  — 

"  The  question  of  the  annexation  of  a  foreign  independent  State  to  the  United 
States  has  never  before  been  presented  to  this  government.  Since  the  adoption  of 
their  Constitution,  two  large  additions  have  been  made  to  the  domain  originally 
claimed  by  the  United  States." 

"  The  circumstance,  however,  of  their  being  colonial  possessions  of  France  and 
Spain,  and  therefore  dependent  on  the  metropolitan  governments,  renders  those  trans- 
actions materially  different  from  that  which  would  be  presented  by  the  question  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas.  The  latter  is  a  State,  with  an  independent  government,  acknow- 
ledged as  such  by  the  United  States,  and  claiming  a  territory  beyond,  though  border- 
ing on,  the  region  ceded  by  France  in  the  treaty  of  the  SOth  of  April,  1803.  Whether 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  contemplated  the  annexation  of  such  a  State, 
and,  if  so,  in  what  manner  that  object  is  to  be  effected,  are  questions,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  President,  it  would  be  inexpedient,  under  existing  circumstances,  to  agitate." 

Here  is  no  pretence  of  the  right  to  annex,  and  much  less 
to  reannex,  Texas  under  the  Louisiana  or  Florida  precedents. 
Here  is  not  a  word  about  Texas  having  been  sacrificed  by  the 
Florida  treaty.  The  Texan  territory  is  declared  to  be  "  beyond, 
though  bordering  on,  the  region  ceded  by  France  in  the  treaty 
of  the  30th  of  April,  1803."  The  Louisiana  and  Florida  pre- 
cedents are  declared  to  be  "  materially  different  "  from  the  ques- 
tion of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  And  the  point  is  expressly 
proposed,  as  one  for  doubt,  to  say  the  least,  whether  the  Con- 
stitution ever  contemplated  the  annexation  of  such  a  State. 

But  who  are  the  persons  who  declare  so  impatiently,  that  the 
constitutional  power  of  Congress  to  annex  Texas  has  been  set- 
tled by  precedent  ?  They  are  those  who  deny  the  authority  of 
precedent  upon  every  other  question  but  this.  They  are  those 
by  whom  the  idea  is  utterly  rejected  and  derided,  that  the  signa- 
tures of  Washington  and  Madison  to  the  charters  of  a  National 
Bank,  and  the  existence  of  such  an  institution  for  forty  years, 
are  to  be  considered  as  settling  the  constitutionality  of  its  incor- 


THE   ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS.  447 

poration ;  and  who  are  hailing  the  reestablishment  of  the  Sub- 
Treasury  system  as  a  return  to  the  Constitution,  —  as  a  restora- 
tion of  the  government,  under  the  auspices  of  Jackson  and 
Tyler,  to  that  state  of  original  purity  from  which  it  was  cor- 
ruptly perverted  by  Washington  and  Madison !  Cicero  tells 
us  of  some  occasion  on  which  the  Roman  augurs  could  not 
look  each  other  in  the  face  without  laughing ;  and  it  would  be 
even  more  impossible,  I  should  imagine,  for  those  initiated 
in  the  mysteries  of  either  General  Jackson's  or  Mr.  Tyler's 
administrations,  to  preserve  their  gravity  at  such  an  idea  as  this. 
But  who,  again,  are  those  who  maintain  so  stoutly  the  binding 
obligation  of  precedent  on  this  occasion  ?  They  are  those,  in 
part,  who  are  just  ready  to  make  a  new  attempt  at  nullifying  a 
protective  tariff,  although  the  preamble  of  the  first  Revenue 
Law  upon  the  statute  book  declares,  that  the  encouragement  of 
domestic  industry  was  one  of  its  principal  objects,  and  although 
every  President  of  the  United  States,  from  Washington  to  Jack- 
son inclusive,  has  put  his  name  to  bills  or  messages  distinctly 
recognizing  the  same  principle ! 

Sir,  I  am  no  despiser  of  precedents.  For  the  deliberate  de- 
cisions of  our  early  Congresses  and  Cabinets  upon  questions  of 
constitutional  intention  and  interpretation,  I  entertain  the  most 
deferential  respect.  But  for  the  Louisiana  precedent,  even  if  it 
were  not  "  materially  different "  from  the  question  before  us,  I 
profess  to  entertain  no  respect  whatever.  If  it  be  a  precedent 
for  any  thing,  it  is  a  precedent  for  the  successful  violation  of  the 
Constitution,  and  not  for  its  just  interpretation  and  execution. 
It  is  of  that  school  of  political  morality  which  declares  that 
"  where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way."  It  belongs  to  the  Hoyie 
principle  of  action  —  "  where  you  are  in  doubt,  take  the  trick." 
I  say  this  in  no  spirit  of  disrespect  to  Mr.  Jefferson. 

Everybody  knows  that  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  admitted  that, 
in  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  he  had  done  "  an  act  beyond 
the  Constitution,"  and  that  he  repeatedly  besought  his  friends  to 
procure  the  adoption  of  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  to 
ratify  the  act.  His  views  were  such  as  no  unprejudiced  mind 
can  resist.  "  When  I  consider  (said  he)  that  the  limits  of  the 
United  States  are  precisely  fixed  by  the  treaty  of  1783,  that  the 


448  THE    ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS. 

Constitution  expressly  declares  itself  to  be  made  for  the  United 
States,  I  cannot  help  believing  that  the  intention  was  not  to 
permit  Congress  to  admit  into  the  Union  new  States  which 
should  be  formed  out  of  the  Territory,  for  which  and  under 
whose  authority  alone  they  were  then  acting.  I  do  not  believe 
it  was  meant  that  they  might  receive  England,  Ireland,  Holland, 
&c.,  into  it" 

And  who  can  doubt  that  Mr.  Jefferson  was  right  in  this  judg- 
ment? Who  can  imagine  that  the  people  of  1789  intended  to 
make  a  Constitution  for  any  country  but  their  own  country ;  or 
ever  dreamed  that  they  were  giving  authority  to  their  temporary 
representatives,  to  yoke  them  in,  to  bind  up  their  fortunes  for- 
ever, with  any  foreign  nation,  which,  by  its  scrip  or  its  land 
warrants,  or  by  any  other  influence,  worthy  or  unworthy,  might 
have  obtained  favor  in  our  legislative  councils  ? 

The  honorable  member  from  Alabama  considered  this  whole 
question  settled  by  the  express  authority  of  Congress  to  "  admit 
new  States."  Even  his  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  how- 
ever, would  not  cover  the  present  proposition.  Here  is  a  terri- 
tory to  be  acquired,  as  well  as  a  State  to  be  admitted.  In- 
deed, the  resolutions  reported  by  the  Committee  of  Foreign 
Affairs  make  no  pretension  to  admitting  Texas,  or  any  part  of 
it,  as  a  State.  Nor  do  either  of  the  pending  amendments.  They 
propose  a  mere  acquisition  of  territory,  and  annihilate  Texas  as 
a  State  in  the  very  act  of  annexation.  But  the  whole  history 
and  context  of  the  Constitution  forbid  such  an  interpretation  of 
the  power  to  admit  new  States,  as  the  honorable  member  con- 
tends for.  At  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Constitution 
there  were  large  territories  belonging  to  the  States,  or  already 
ceded  to  the  nation,  out  of  which  new  States  were  to  be  formed. 
The  Constitution  itself  was  to  go  into  effect  whenever  ratified 
by  nine  States,  and  there  was  no  knowing  how  long  the  other 
four  of  the  old  thirteen  might  hold  off.  These  views  are  amply 
sufficient  to  fulfil  the  reasonable  intent  of  the  clause  giving 
authority  to  admit  new  States.  More  than  that,  a  proposition 
was  expressly  negatived  in  the  convention  by  which  the  Consti- 
tution was  framed,  by  a  vote  of  eight  States  to  three,  declaring 
that  "  the  Legislature  of  the  United  States  shall  have  power  to 


THE    ANNEXATION    OF  TEXAS.  449 

erect  new  States  within  as  well  as  without  the  territory  claimed 
by  the  several  States,  or  either  of  them,  and  admit  the  same  into 
the  Union."  And  this  was  the  very  last  vote  before  the  adoption 
of  the  clause  in  its  present  form ! 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  derive  an  inference  in  favor  of 
this  proceeding  from  the  articles  of  confederation,  and  to  represent 
the  power  to  admit  new  States  into  the  Union  as  a  mere  exten- 
sion of  the  provision  by  which  Canada  and  other  colonies  might 
have  been  admitted  into  the  old  confederacy.  But  no  such  infer- 
ence can  be  sustained  for  a  moment  by  any  one  who  looks  to 
the  contemporaneous  construction  of  this  clause  of  the  Consti- 
tution by  Mr.  Madison,  in  the  Federalist. 

"In  the  articles  of  Confederation  (says  he)  no  provision  is  found  on  this  important 
subject.  Canada  was  to  be  admitted  of  right,  on  her  joining  in  the  measures  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  other  Colonies,  by  which  were  evidently  meant,  the  other  British 
Colonies,  at  the  discretion  of  nine  States.  The  eventual  establishment  of  new  States, 
seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by  the  compilers  of  that  instrument.  We  have  seen 
the  inconvenience  of  this  omission,  and  the  assumption  of  power  into  which  Congress 
have  been  led  by  it.  With  great  propriety,  therefore,  has  the  new  system  supplied  the 
defect.  The  general  precaution,  that  no  new  States  shall  be  formed,  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  federal  authority  and  that  of  the  States  concerned,  is  consonant  to  the 
principles  which  ought  to  govern  such  transactions.  The  particular  precaution  against 
the  erection  of  new  States,  by  the  partition  of  a  State  without  its  consent,  quiets  the 
jealousy  of  the  larger  States ;  as  that  of  the  smaller  is  quieted  by  a  like  precaution 
against  a  junction  of  States  without  their  consent." 

Here,  Sir,  is  the  whole  commentary  on  the  power  to  admit 
new  States,  in  the  celebrated  work  by  which  the  Constitution 
was  explained  and  recommended  to  the  people.  How  entirely 
it  negatives  the  idea  of  any  analogy  between  this  article  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  Canada  clause  of  the  confederation !  How 
distinctly  it  asserts  the  difference  between  admitting  foreign  colo- 
nies and  admitting  new  States !  How  plainly  it  implies  that 
the  States  to  be  admitted  were  to  be  literally  new  States,  esta- 
blished on  our  own  national  territory,  and  under  our  own  national 
authority !  Who  can  believe  for  a  moment,  after  reading  it,  that 
the  admission  of  foreign  States  was  within  the  most  remote 
contemplation  of  those  by  whom  the  provision  was  framed? 
How  could  Mr.  Madison  have  omitted  all  allusion  to  such  an 
idea,  if,  in  his  opinion,  it  were  embraced  within  the  legitimate 
construction  of  the  clause ! 

38* 


450  THE  ANNEXATION  OP  TEXAS. 

Sir,  there  are  other  passages  in  Mr.  Madison's  masterly  essays 
upon  the  Constitution,  equally  conclusive  as  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  We  all  know  that  one 
of  the  great  objections  arrayed  against  the  establishment  of  our 
National  Government  in  1789,  was  drawn  from  the  extent  of 
country  over  which  it  was  to  operate.  Not  a  few  of  the  people 
of  that  day  considered  it  impossible,  that  a  republican  system 
could  be  rendered  effective,  even  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
territory  which  we  then  possessed.  One  of  Mr.  Madison's  replies 
to  this  objection  is  full  of  significance  in  regard  to  the  constitu- 
tional question  which  we  are  now  considering. 

UA  second  observation  to  be  made  (says  he)  is,  that  the  immediate  object  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  is  to  secure  the  union  of  the  thirteen  primitive  States,  which  we 
know  to  be  practicable :  and  to  add  to  them  such  other  States,  as  may  arise  in  their 
own  bosoms,  or  in  their  neighborhoods,  which  we  cannot  doubt  to  be  equally  practica- 
ble. The  arrangements  that  may  be  necessary  for  those  angles  and  fractions  of  our 
territory,  which  lie  on  our  northwestern  frontier,  must  be  left  to  those  whom  further 
discoveries  and  experience  will  render  more  equal  to  the  task." 

How  irresistible  is  the  inference  from  language  like  this !  The 
object  of  the  Constitution  is  stated  to  be,  to  secure  the  union  of 
the  existing  States,  and  to  add  to  them  such  other  States  as  may 
arise  in  their  own  bosoms,  or  in  their  neighborhoods;  while  the 
only  difficulty  which  is  contemplated,  is  declared  to  be  in  rela- 
tion to  "  those  angles  and  fractions  of  our  territory  which  lie  on 
our  northwestern  frontier." 

There  were  compromises  entered  into,  also,  at  the  adoption  of 
the  ^Constitution,  utterly  inconsistent  with  a  construction  such  as 
is  now  set  up.  The  slave  basis  compromise,  which  has  been  so 
often  alluded  to  of  late,  and  which  Massachusetts  has  been 
falsely  accused  of  a  design  to  violate,  because  she  saw  fit  to 
exercise  her  constitutional  prerogative  of  proposing  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution,  was  arranged  with  unquestionable 
reference  to  our  country  as  it  then  was.  There  was  no  Louis- 
iana then.  There  was  no  Florida  then.  The  great  Northwestern 
Territory  had  been  dedicated  to  human  liberty  forever,  by  the 
immortal  ordinance  of  1787 ;  an  act  which  proved  conclusively 
what  our  fathers  understood  by  "  an  extension  of  the  area  of 
freedom."     Slavery  was  nowhere  regarded  as  a  blessing;  was 


THE  ANNEXATION    OF    TEXAS.  451 

nowhere  proclaimed  (as  it  has  recently  been  proclaimed  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  in  the  correspondence  to  which  this  subject 
has  given  occasion,)  "  a  political  institution,  essential  to  the  peace, 
safety,  and  prosperity  of  those  States  of  the  Union  in  which  it 
exists."  Its  gradual  extinction,  on  the  other  hand,  was  hopefully 
and  confidently  predicted.  It  was  supposed  that,  as  long  as  it 
continued,  a  great  and  growing  preponderance  would  be  secured 
to  the  free  States,  and  the  three  fifths  principle  was  admitted 
upon  this  understanding  alone.  This,  at  least,  is  my  reading  of 
the  history  of  those  times. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ceases 
to  be  that  Constitution  to  which  the  States  have  assented,  both 
in  relation  to  this  and  to  others  of  its  provisions,  when  its  author- 
ity is  thus  extended  beyond  the  original  sphere  for  which  it  was 
designed.  That  instrument  is  as  essentially  changed  by  a  change 
of  its  parties,  as  by  a  change  of  its  provisions,  and  the  same  power 
is  alone  competent  to  both.  It  is  for  the  people  alone,  not  by 
the  equivocal  expression  of  a  Presidential  election,  but  by  the 
solemn  forms  prescribed  by  their  own  Constitution,  to  say,  whe- 
ther they  will  admit  new  members  into  their  copartnership,  and 
upon  what  terms.  Nay,  I  doubt  whether  even  an  amendment 
of  the  Constitution,  ratified  even  by  three  fourths  of  the  States, 
ought  to  be  considered  as  forcing  the  other  fourth  to  submit  to 
a  measure  of  this  sort.  The  annexation  of  a  foreign  nation  to 
this  nation,  or  of  this  nation  to  a  foreign  nation,  is  a  change  of 
our  country  as  well  as  a  change  of  our  Constitution.  It  is  bring- 
ing us  into  association  with  those  with  whom  we  have  never 
agreed  to  be  associated.  It  is  a  new  compact,  into  which  each 
individual  State  ought  to  have,  and  has,  the  right  of  saying  for 
itself  whether  it  is  willing  to  enter,  as  fully  as  each  State  had 
originally  the  right  of  saying  whether  it  would  enter  into  the 
compact  which  now  binds  us  together.  If  ever  there  was  a 
question  which  appealed  directly  to  State  rights,  this  is  it ;  and 
it  will  be  a  mockery  to  suggest  the  existence  of  any  such  rights 
from  this  time  forth,  if  this  measure  can  be  consummated  in 
defiance  of  them.  Massachusetts  is  not  accustomed  to  indulge 
in  threats  of  disunion.  They  are  the  abundant  products  of 
other  soils.     She  loves  the  Union.     In  her  name  I  would  say, 


452  THE    ANNEXATION    OF  TEXAS. 

let  the  day  perish  in  which  it  shall  be  said,  "  this  Union  is  dis- 
solved ; "  let  it  not  be  joined  unto  the  days  of  the  year ;  let  it  not 
come  into  the  number  of  the  months!  The  language  of  her 
excellent  Governor,  in  a  message  received  by  this  morning's  mail, 
is  the  language  of  all  her  citizens. 

"  Massachusetts  as  a  State,  has  ever  maintained,  and  ever  will  maintain,  the  whole 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  All  her  people  love  and  respect  it.  Hard 
and  unequal  as  she  considers  this  feature  of  that  honored  instrument,  she  will  bow  to  it 
with  reverence  so  long  as  it  remains  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  She  regards  all  the 
guaranties  of  the  Constitution,  whether  they  relate  to  the  institutions  of  the  North  or 
the  South,  as  equally  binding  upon  every  member  of  the  Union.  She  will  stand  by  the 
Union  and  the  Constitution  as  they  were  formed,  let  them  be  assailed  from  what  quar- 
ter they  may,  and  with  inviolable  fidelity  perform  all  her  obligations  towards  them." 

Massachusetts  desires  the  establishment  of  no  new  confedera- 
tion. Her  sons  would  go  to  the  formation  of  another  govern- 
ment, as  the  ancient  Jews  to  the  building  of  the  second  Temple, 
not  without  many  tears  at  the  remembrance  of  the  first.  But, 
Sir,  the  Union  which  they  love,  is  the  Union  as  it  is.  And  if 
there  be  any  thing  which  would  shake  that  attachment,  any  thing 
which  would  absolve  her  and  all  the  States  from  their  owed 
allegiance  to  the  Constitution,  it  is  precisely  such  an  act  as  is 
now  before  us.  It  may  remain  to  be  seen,  after  its  consumma- 
tion, whether  any  of  the  States  will  claim  the  advantage  of  such 
an  absolution. 

I  come  next,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  a  consideration  of  the  mode 
in  which  the  annexation  of  Texas  is  now  proposed  to  be  accom- 
plished. The  forms  of  free  government  have  often  been  said  to 
survive  the  substance;  and  I  trust  that  not  a  few  of  those  who 
are  willing  to  adopt  this  measure  in  the  abstract,  will  refuse  to 
unite  for  that  purpose  in  any  palpable  infraction  of  constitutional 
forms.  The  resolution  reported  by  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs  is,  in  my  judgment,  such  an  infraction ;  so  palpable  and 
so  plain,  that,  as  the  venerable  Gallatin  has  said  in  his  letter  of 
last  month,  "  one  may  well  fear  to  obscure  that  which  is  self-evi- 
dent, by  adding  any  argument  to  the  simple  recital  of  the  con- 
stitutional provision,  and  of  the  proposed  resolution." 

Sir,  if  there  be  any  thing  clear  from  the  distribution  of  powers 
contained  in  the  Constitution,  it  is  that  this  House  has  no  author- 
ity whatever  to  make  a  treaty,  compact,  bargain,  settlement,  call 


THE    ANNEXATION    OF   TEXAS.  453 

it  what  you  will,  with  a  foreign  power.  This  House  may  be, 
and  often  is,  called  on  to  carry  out  a  treaty  already  made,  by  the 
appropriation  of  money  or  otherwise ;  and  gentlemen  may  differ 
as  to  how  far  we  have  any  discretion  in  such  cases,  and  how  far 
our  obligation  is  specific  and  positive  to  fulfil  the  provisions  of 
a  treaty.  But,  so  far  as  the  making  of  the  treaty  is  concerned, 
the  whole  power  is  with  the  President  and  Senate.  "  The 
President  shall  have  power,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Senate,  to  make  treaties,  provided  two  thirds  of  the 
Senators  present  concur."  This  is  the  language'of  the  Consti- 
tution. 

And  what  are  treaties  ?  "A  treaty,"  says  Thomas  Jefferson, 
in  his  manual,  "  is  a  law  of  the  land.  It  differs  from  other  laws 
only,  as  it  must  have  the  consent  of  a  foreign  nation,  being  but 
a  contract  with  respect  to  that  nation." 

"  The  essence  of  the  legislative  authority,"  says  Alexander 
Hamilton  in  the  Federalist,  "is  to  enact  laws,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  prescribe  rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  society ;  while  the 
execution  of  the  laws,  and  the  employment  of  the  common 
strength,  either  for  this  purpose,  or  for  the  common  defence,  seem 
to  comprise  all  the  functions  of  the  executive  magistrate.  The 
power  of  making  treaties  is,  plainly,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other. 
It  relates  neither  to  the  execution  of  the  subsisting  laws,  nor  to 
the  enactment  of  new  ones ;  and  still  less  to  an  exertion  of  the 
common  strength.  Its  objects  are  contracts  with  foreign  nations, 
which  have  the  force  of  law,  but  derive  it  from  the  obligations 
of  good  faith.  They  are  not  rules  prescribed  by  the  sovereign 
to  the  subject,  but  agreements  between  sovereign  and  sovereign." 

Such  is  the  constitutional  provision,  and  such  is  its  interpre- 
tation by  the  leaders  of  the  two  great  parties  to  which  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  gave  rise.  It  is  thus  the  Senate 
alone,  the  body  in  which  the  States  have  an  equal  suffrage, 
guaranteed  to  them  forever,  which  can  alone  advise  and  consent 
to  the  ratification  of  any  compact  with  a  foreign  nation ;  and 
that  body  must  do  so  by  a  two  thirds  vote,  or  not  at  all.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Constitution  is,  that  one  third  of  the  States, 
though  the  smallest  in  the  Union,  if  they  can  obtain  a  single 
vote  from  any  other  State,  may  forbid  any  alliance  or  compact 


454  THE  ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS. 

whatever  with  other  governments.  The  doctrine  of  the  Consti- 
tution is,  also,  that  the  functions  of  this  House,  and  of  the 
Legislative  Congress  of  which  it  is  a  branch,  begin  and  end 
with  domestic  legislation,  and  reach  not  one  inch  beyond  our 
own  established  national  boundaries.  There  is  no  other  parti- 
tion line  which  can  be  drawn  between  the  legislative  power  and 
the  treaty-making  power;  and,  if  that  line  be  once  overthrown, 
all  distinction  between  the  two  departments  is  at  an  end.  Yet 
here  we  have  before  us  the  plain  and  undisguised  proposition  to 
enter  into  a  compact  with  another  nation;  a  compact  which  has 
already  been  submitted  to  the  Senate  as  a  treaty,  and  which 
has  been  rejected  by  them  as  such.  The  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs  has,  indeed,  erased  the  word  treaty 
from  his  resolutions,  and  has  substituted  the  word  settlement 
The  honorable  member  from  Ohio,  too,  in  his  amendment,  has 
omitted  the  word  settlement,  and  has  substituted  the  parentheti- 
cal phrase  "  Texas  consenting."  But  neither  words,  nor  the  omis- 
sion of  words,  can  alter  things.  Nor  can  consent  give  jurisdic- 
tion. Both  resolutions  relate  to  lands,  to  laws,  to  property,  to 
persons,  out  of  our  own  territory ;  and  both  attempt  to  do  that 
which  cannot  be  done  without  the  consent  of  another  govern- 
ment. No  man  pretends  that  this  is  not  a  transaction  to  which 
there  are  two  parties ;  one  of  them,  the  United  States  of  Ame- 
rica ;  the  other,  an  independent  foreign  nation.  No  man  pre- 
tends that  both  these  parties  must  not  agree  together,  and  make 
a  compact  or  bargain,  in  order  to  render  the  transaction  com- 
plete. The  Chairman  of  Foreign  Affairs  has  expressly  said,  in 
his  opening  speech  :  "  As  it  is  a  bargain  or  contract  with  ano- 
ther country,  it  seems  to  me  that  an  arrangement,  carefully 
digested,  with  the  agents  of  that  country,  authorized  ad  hoc, 
must  be  the  best  mode,  if  not  the  only  one."  This  admission 
determines  the  whole  question.  It  makes  the  transaction  a 
treaty  ;  a  treaty,  it  is  true,  anomalous  in  its  character ;  anni- 
hilating one  of  its  parties ;  transcending  the  powers  of  the 
other  ;  but  still  a  treaty  in  form,  a  treaty  if  any  thing.  And  it 
gives  to  these  resolutions  the  character  of  a  bold  and  unblush- 
ing attempt  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  the  Constitution  by 
overthrowing  the  legitimate  authority  of  the  Senate. 


THE  ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS.  455 

And,  Mr.  Chairman,  when  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  is 
thus  about  to  be  despoiled  of  its  peculiar  prerogative,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  particular  act,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
recall  for  a  moment,  in  the  language  of  one  of  the  Fathers  of 
the  Constitution,  the  views  with  which  that  body  was  consti- 
tuted, and  that  prerogative  conferred  upon  it. 

"A  fifth  desideratum,  (said  James  Madison,)  illustrating  the  utility  of  a  Senate,  is 
the  want  of  a  due  sense  of  national  character.  An  attention  to  the  judgment  of  other 
nations,  is  important  to  every  government,  for  two  reasons  :  the  one  is,  that,  independ- 
ently of  the  merits  of  any  particular  plan  or  measure,  it  is  desirable,  on  various 
accounts,  that  it  should  appear  to  other  nations  as  the  offspring  of  a  wise  and  honora- 
ble policy  :  the  second  is,  that  in  doubtful  cases,  particularly  where  the  national  coun- 
cils may  be  warped  by  some  strong  passion,  or  momentary  interest,  the  presumed  or 
known  opinion  of  the  impartial  world,  may  be  the  best  guide  that  can  be  followed. 
What  has  not  America  lost  by  her  want  of  character  with  foreign  nations  ?  And  how 
many  errors  and  follies  would  she  not  have  avoided,  if  the  justice  and  propriety  of  her 
measures  had,  in  every  instance,  been  previously  tried  by  the  light  in  which  they  would 
probably  appear  to  the  unbiased  part  of  mankind." 

Again,  says  the  same  eminent  statesman  and  patriot,  in  the 
same  connection, — 

"  As  the  cool  and  deliberate  sense  of  the  community  ought,  in  all  governments,  and 
actually  will,  in  all  free  governments,  ultimately  prevail  over  the  views  of  its  rulers ; 
so  there  are  particular  moments  in  public  affairs,  when  the  people,  stimulated  by  some 
irregular  passion,  or  some  illicit  advantage,  or  misled  by  the  artful  misrepresentations 
of  interested  men,  may  call  for  measures  which  they  themselves  will  afterwards  be  the 
most  ready  to  lament  and  condemn.  In  these  critical  moments,  how  salutary  will  be 
the  interference  of  some  temperate  and  respectable  body  of  citizens,  in  order  to  check 
the  misguided  career,  and  to  suspend  the  blow  meditated  by  the  people  against  them- 
selves, until  reason,  justice,  and  truth  can  regain  their  authority  over  the  public  mind." 

Such  were  the  views  with  which  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  was  established,  and  such  the  views  with  which  it  was 
intrusted  with  the  treaty-making  power ;  and  if  there  were  ever 
an  occasion  which  illustrated  the  wisdom  of  this  feature  of  the 
Constitution,  and  commended  it  to  the  respect  and  support  of 
all  good  citizens,  this,  this  is  it. 

When  was  there  ever  exhibited  a  greater  want  of  a  due  sense 
of  national  character,  than  in  the  course  of  this  Texan  negotia- 
tion ?  When  was  there  ever  manifested  a  more  wanton  dispo- 
sition to  defy  the  judgment  of  other  nations,  to  outrage  the  opi- 
nion of  the  civilized  world,  and  to  shut  the  eyes  to  the  light  in 


456  THE  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 

which  the  acts  of  this  government  must  appear  to  the  unbiased 
part  of  mankind,  than  in  the  means  by  which  this  measure  has 
been  pursued,  and  in  the  motives  in  which  it  avowedly  origin- 
ated ?  When  were  irregular  passions,  illicit  advantages,  and 
artful  misrepresentations  of  interested  men,  more  plainly  at 
work  than  now,  in  stimulating  the  clamor  with  which  the  imme- 
diate annexation  of  Texas  is  demanded  ?  When  was  the  inter- 
vention of  some  conservative  body  more  needed,  until  reason* 
justice,  and  truth  can  regain  their  authority  over  the  public 
mind  ?  Sir,  these  passages  have  seemed  to  me  to  savor  of  an 
almost  prophetic  application  to  the  service  which  the  Senate 
are  called  on  to  discharge  at  the  present  crisis.  Let  me  rather 
say,  to  the  service  which  they  have  already  and  nobly  dis- 
charged, and  for  which  that  body  deserves  other  recompense, 
than  to  be  so  rudely  stripped  of  its  hitherto  unquestioned  con- 
stitutional prerogative ! 

The  honorable  member  from  Alabama,  (Mr.  Belser,)  denies, 
however,  that  this  proceeding  is  any  encroachment  on  the 
authority  of  the  Senate,  and  has  made  an  effort  to  produce  some 
precedents  of  what  he  calls  legislative  treaties.  One  class  of 
cases  to  which  he  referred  was  that  of  compacts  with  our  own 
States  for  the  cession  of  lands.  Who  can  pretend  that  these 
are  treaties  ?  The  whole  idea  of  a  treaty  under  our  Constitu- 
tion, as  I  have  already  proved,  is  a  compact  with  a  foreign 
power.  And  the  States  of  this  Union  have  never  been  called 
foreign  in  relation  to  the  General  Government,  or  even  foreign 
in  relation  to  each  other,  unless  in  certain  recent  resolutions  of 
South  Carolina,  of  which  possibly  something  may  be  heard 
from  Massachusetts  hereafter,  but  to  which  I  shall  make  no 
allusion  now.  The  General  Government,  I  presume,  may  pur- 
chase lands  of  a  State,  as  well  as  of  any  other  corporation  or 
individual,  for  constitutional  purposes ;  but  such  a  purchase  is 
no  more  a  treaty  in  one  case  than  in  the  other. 

The  honorable  member  referred  us  next  to  a  law  of  which  he 
was  particular  in  giving  us  the  volume  and  page.  (Laws  of  the 
United  States,  3d  volume,  page  562.)  Why,  Sir,  this  is  an  act 
for  taking  possession  of  Louisiana,  after  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty ! 


THE  ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS.  457 

His  next  illustration  of  legislative  treaties  was  a  resolution  of 
15th  January,  1811  —  a  resolution  which  was  passed  by  both 
branches  in  secret  session,  and  which  was  withheld  from  publi- 
cation for  a  long  period  after  its  passage.  This  resolution,  Mr. 
Chairman,  contains  interesting  and  edifying  matter,  and  with 
the  leave  of  the  Committee,  I  will  read  it. 

Resolution, 

Taking  into  view  the  peculiar  situation  of  Spain,  and  of  her  American  provinces, 
and  considering  the  influence  which  the  destiny  of  the  territory  adjoining  the  Southern 
border  of  the  United  States  may  have  upon  their  security,  tranquillity,  and  commerce : 
therefore, 

"  Resolved,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the  United  States,  under  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  existing  crisis,  cannot,  without  serious  inquietude,  see  any  part  of  the 
said  territory  pass  into  the  hands  of  any  foreign  power ;  and  that  a  due  regard  to  their 
own  safety  compels  them  to  provide,  under  certain  contingencies,  for  the  temporary 
occupation  of  the  said  territory ;  they,  at  the  same  time,  declare  that  the  said  territory 
shall,  in  their  hands,  remain  subject  to  future  negotiation." 

I  am  at  a  loss  to  perceive,  Sir,  in  what  part  of  this  resolution 
any  thing  of  the  character  of  a  treaty  is  to  be  found,  legislative 
or  otherwise.  I  am  glad  it  has  been  alluded  to,  however,  as  it 
affords  the  best  possible  illustration  of  what  the  Congress  of 
1811  understood  by  that  law  of  necessity,  that  right  of  self- 
preservation,  which  has  been  so  often  appealed  to  in  justifica- 
tion of  the  measure  before  us.  The  resolution  provides  only  for 
a  temporary  occupation  of  the  Florida  territory,  and,  instead  of 
setting  Spain  at  defiance,  expressly  declares  that  the  said  terri- 
tory shall  remain  subject  to  future  negotiation. 

But  the  honorable  member  from  Alabama  alluded,  lastly,  to 
cases  of  commercial  regulation.  These  cases  undoubtedly  are 
somewhat  peculiar  in  their  character,  but  they  are  clearly  dis- 
tinguishable from  treaties.  Congress,  in  the  passage  of  such 
acts,  undertakes  to  do  nothing  to  which  the  consent  of  another 
government  is  necessary.  We  impose  certain  duties,  for  instance, 
or  open  certain  ports,  conditionally  upon  the  action  of  foreign 
governments.  We  can  impose  the  same  duties,  or  open  the 
same  ports,  without  any  such  condition.  We  can  make  the 
same  regulations,  subject  to  any  other  condition  of  time  or  of 
circumstance,  as  well  as  subject  to  the  legislation  of  a  foreign 

39 


458  THE  ANNEXATION   OF  TEXAS. 

government.  The  concurrent  or  reciprocal  legislation  of  another 
nation  is  a  mere  motive,  in  view  of  which  we  proceed  to  pass 
acts  to  which  we  are  entirely  competent  of  ourselves,  which 
operate  only  within  our  own  boundaries,  and  which  the  consent 
of  no  other  party  is  necessary  to  complete.  The  whole  doctrine 
of  the  distinction  between  the  legislative  and  the  treaty-making 
power,  however,  has  been  laid  down  by  the  present  Secretary 
of  State  with  so  much  precision  and  power,  that  I  will  detain 
the  Committee  no  longer  upon  it  myself,  but  will  proceed  to 
read  some  extracts  of  the  speech  of  Mr.  Calhoun  on  the  com- 
mercial treaty  with  Great  Britain,  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, January  8,  1816.     (See  Elliott's  Debates,  vol.  iv.  p.  273.) 

"  He  would  establish,  he  trusted,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  House,  that  the  treaty- 
making  power,  when  it  was  legitimately  exercised,  always  did  that  which  could  not  be 
done  by  law." 

"  Why  cannot  Congress  make  peace  1  They  have  the  power  to  make  war.  .  .  . 
Why  cannot  Congress,  then,  repeal  the  act  making  war  ?  He  acknowledged,  with  the 
gentleman,  they  cannot  consistently  with  reason.  .  .  .  The  reason  is  plain ;  one 
power  may  make  war;  it  requires  two  to  make  peace.  .  .  .  It  required  a  contract 
or  a  treaty  between  the  nations  at  war.  Is  this  peculiar  to  a  treaty  of  peace  ?  No ; 
it  is  common  to  all  treaties.  It  arises  out  of  their  nature,  and  not  from  any  incidental 
circumstance  attaching  itself  to  a  particular  class.  It  is  no  more  nor  less  than  that 
Congress  cannot  make  a  contract  with  a  foreign  nation.  .  .  .  Whenever,  then,  an 
ordinary  subject  of  legislation  can  only  be  regulated  by  contract,  it  passes  from  the 
sphere  of  the  ordinary  power  of  making  laws,  and  attaches  itself  to  that  of  making 
treaties,  wherever  it  is  lodged.  .  .  .  Whatever,  then,  concerns  our  foreign  rela- 
tions, whatever  requires  the  consent  of  another  nation,  belongs  to  the  treaty  power  ; 
can  only  be  regulated  by  it ;  and  it  is  competent  to  regulate  all  such  subjects,  provided 
—  and  here  are  its  true  limits  —  such  regulations  are  not  inconsistent  with  the  Consti- 
tution. ...  It  has  for  its  object,  contracts  with  foreign  nations ;  as  the  powers  of 
Congress  have  for  their  object  whatever  can  be  done  in  relation  to  the  powers  delegated 
to  it  without  the  consent  of  foreign  nations.  Each  in  its  proper  sphere  operates  with 
genial  influence ;  but  when  they  become  erratic,  then  they  are  portentous  and  danger- 
ous. A  treaty  never  can  legitimately  do  that  which  can  be  done  by  law ;  and  the 
converse  is  also  true.  Suppose  the  discriminating  duties  repealed  on  both  sides  by 
law,  yet  what  is  effected  by  this  treaty  would  not  even  then  be  done ;  the  plighted  faith 
would  be  wanting.  Either  side  might  repeal  its  law  without  a  breach  of  contract.  It 
appeared  to  him  that  gentlemen  are  too  much  influenced  on  this  subject,  by  the  exam- 
ple of  Great  Britain.  Instead  of  looking  to  the  nature  of  our  government,  they  have 
been  swayed  in  their  opinion  by  the  practice  of  that  government,  to  which  we  are  but 
too  much  in  the  habit  of  looking  for  precedents." 

But  we  are  now  told,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  Texas  was  once  a 
part  of  our  own  territory,  ceded  to  us  by  France  in  1803 ;  that 


THE  ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS.  459 

this  is,  therefore,  no  question  of  original  annexation ;  that  we 
are  only  about  to  reclaim  and  reannex  it.  Sir,  we  have  often 
heard  of  the  magic  power  of  words  before  now,  but  the  question 
before  us  will  be  a  lasting  illustration  of  the  mightier  magic  of 
syllables.  There  were  two  editions  of  a  memorable  letter  to  the 
people  of  Carroll  county,  Kentucky,  published  last  Spring ;  the 
first  was  a  letter  relative  to  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  the  second 
was  a  letter  relative  to  the  re-annexation  of  Texas.  They  were 
published  within  a  few  weeks  of  each  other,  and  prove  how 
much  importance  is  attached  to  this  mono-syllabic  after-thought. 
O,  Sir,  if  the  friends  of  this  measure  had  exhibited  half  as  much 
of  the  "  suaviter  in  modo"  as  they  have  of  the  "fortiter  in  re," 
it  would  have  been  better,  far  better  for  the  honor  of  our  country. 

But  my  hour  is  on  the  point  of  expiring,  and  I  must  leave  all 
further  remark  upon  the  subject  to  another  opportunity.  I  re- 
joice to  believe  that  this  is  not  the  last  time  of  asking  in  relation 
to  this  abhorrent  union,  and  that  we  are  not  called  on  to  declare 
our  objections  to  it  now,  under  the  penalty  of  forever  afterwards 
holding  our  peace.  Meantime,  circumstances  may  have  changed 
before  the  measure  is  presented  to  us  again.  It  may  come 
before  the  country  in  a  more  constitutional  shape.  It  may  in- 
volve less  danger  of  war.  It  may  involve  less  encroachment  on 
the  rights  of  others.  Objections  of  a  temporary  and  formal 
character  may  have  been  removed.  But  I  am  unwilling  to  re- 
sume my  seat  without  saying,  that  no  such  change  of  circum- 
stances will  alter  the  case  for  me.  I  am  against  annexation, 
now  and  always  — 

Because  I  believe  it  to  be  clearly  unconstitutional  in  sub- 
stance ; 

Because  I  believe  it  will  break  up  the  balance  of  our  system, 
violate  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution,  and  endanger  the 
permanence  of  our  Union  ; 

And,  above  all,  because  I  am  uncompromisingly  opposed  to 
the  extension  of  Domestic  Slavery,  or  to  the  addition  of  another 
inch  of  Slaveholding  Territory  to  this  Nation. 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNI- 
TED STATES,  FEBRUARY  1,  1845,  —  A  BILL  FOR  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  A 
TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  OREGON  BEING  UNDER  CONSIDERATION, — 
IN   THE   COMMITTEE   OF   THE   WHOLE   ON   THE   STATE   OF   THE   UNION. 


I  took  the  floor  last  evening,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  I  stated  when 
the  Committee  rose,  with  no  view  of  preparing  myself  for  any 
formal  speech  on  the  Oregon  question.  It  may  be  remembered, 
that  I  addressed  the  House  on  that  question  at  some  length 
last  year.  The  circumstances  of  the  case  have  not  materially 
changed  since  then,  and  my  opinions  in  regard  to  it  are  alto- 
gether unaltered.  I  shall  content  myself,  therefore,  with  a  few 
remarks  in  reference  to  the  precise  bill  under  consideration,  and 
with  some  observations  in  reply  to  gentlemen  who  have  preceded 
me  in  the  debate. 

I  shall  enter  into  no  argument  of  the  American  title  to  the 
Oregon  territory.  No  such  argument,  certainly,  is  needed  to 
convince  the  members  of  this  House  of  the  justice  of  our  claim 
to  that  territory.  Whatever  else  we  may  differ  about,  we  all 
seem  to  have  a  sufficient  sense  of  the  soundness  of  our  own 
title.  It  seems  to  be  forgotten,  however,  that  it  is  Great  Britain, 
and  not  the  United  States,  which  requires  to  be  convinced  on 
this  point.  If  gentlemen  would  only  undertake  to  satisfy  Sir 
Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Aberdeen  that  the  American  title  is  en- 
tirely indisputable,  and  that  the  British  pretension  is  altogether 
void  and  groundless  ;  or  if  they  could  fortify  Mr.  Calhoun  in  his 
efforts  to  enforce  these  positions  upon  the  British  minister  with 
whom  he  is  treating,  they  would  turn  their  researches  and  their 
rhetoric  to  a  more  profitable  account.     I  fear  they  are  contribut- 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES.        461 

ing  to  no  such  result.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  arguments, 
however  strong,  would  lose  much  of  their  weight  in  the  quarters 
I  have  suggested,  when  uttered  in  the  tone  of  menace  and  defi- 
ance which  has  characterized  so  much  of  this  debate.  Nor  can 
I  forbear  to  say,  that  it  appears  to  me  extremely  impolitic  for  us 
to  be  publicly  engaged  in  any  arguments  on  the  subject,  while 
negotiations  in  regard  to  it  are  actually  on  foot  within  ear-shot 
of  this  Hall,  and  while  we  are  necessarily  ignorant  how  far  our 
own  individual  views  may  conform  to  those,  which  the  Ameri- 
can Secretary  of  State  may  be  at  this  moment  pressing  upon 
the  attention  of  the  British  negotiator. 

Indeed,  Sir,  this  whole  proceeding  is,  in  my  judgment,  emi- 
nently calculated  to  impede  and  embarrass  the  negotiations  in 
which  the  two  governments  are  employed.  We  have  received 
authentic  assurances  that  those  negotiations  have  not  yet  failed, 
that  they  are  still  in  progress,  and  that  a  communication  in 
regard  to  them  may  be  expected  from  the  Executive  before  the 
close  of  the  present  session.  Why  not  wait  for  this  communi- 
cation ?  Why  insist  on  taking  any  step  in  the  dark,  when,  in 
a  few  weeks  at  the  most,  we  shall  be  able  to  act  advisedly,  and 
to  see  clearly  the  ground  on  which  we  are  treading  ? 

I  cannot  help  thinking,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  course  pro- 
posed to  be  pursued  on  this  subject,  savors  somewhat  of  distrust 
of  the  hands  to  which  our  side  of  this  negotiation  is  committed. 
I  know  not  that  any  such  thing  is  intended.  I  know  not  that 
there  is  any  purpose  to  influence,  by  this  proceeding,  the  Cabinet 
arrangements  of  the  President  elect.  It  seems  to  me,  however, 
that  the  peculiar  friends  of  the  present  Secretary  of  State  may 
well  feel  some  little  jealousy  on  the  point.  There  is  such  a  thing 
known  to  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  as  a  vote  of  confi- 
dence in  the  ministry.  The  passage  of  this  bill,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  circumstances  under  which  it  will  have  been 
passed,  and  with  the  considerations  by  which  it  has  been  urged, 
will  seem  not  a  little  like  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence  in  our 
American  Secretary.  I  am  no  champion  of  Mr.  Calhoun's. 
His  Texan  negotiations  and  correspondence  have  certainly  not 
inspired  me  with  the  most  enthusiastic  admiration  of  his  diplo- 
matic ability  or  tact.    But  it  seems  passing  strange,  I  confess, 

39* 


462  GREAT   BRITAIN  AND   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

that  any  of  his  friends  should  be  willing  to  acquiesce  in  such 
marked  imputations  on  his  statesmanship  and  ministerial  fidelity 
as  have  been  heard  on  all  sides  of  the  House.  "  We  cannot 
wait  for  negotiations.  We  want  no  more  of  them.  They  are 
sacrificing  our  territory.  They  are  only  another  name  for  sur- 
renders of  our  rightful  soil  and  sovereignty."  These  are  the 
cries  by  which  this  measure  is  to  be  carried  through !  Why,  Sir, 
I  should  imagine,  from  all  this,  that  we  had  some  unprincipled 
or  incompetent  British  Whig  at  the  head  of  our  Foreign  affairs, 
ready  to  mart  our  territory  for  gold ;  or  that  some  such  person 
was  likely  to  succeed  to  the  Department  of  State  at  the  earliest 
moment.  Such  cries  are  the  stale  and  unfounded  reproaches 
with  which  political  opponents  have  been  wont  to  assail  our 
public  functionaries  for  party  effect.  That  they  should  now  be 
heard  from  the  self-styled  Democracy  of  the  House,  while  a 
Democratic  Secretary  of  State  has  the  great  seals  of  the  nation 
still  in  his  hands,  and  while  a  fire-new  Democratic  administra- 
tion is  on  the  very  eve  of  accession,  is,  indeed,  not  a  little  extra- 
ordinary. 

No  more  negotiations !  Why,  Sir,  one  would  suppose  that 
this  would  be  the  very  time  when  a  majority  of  this  House 
would  desire  to  have  negotiations  entered  upon,  and  would  feel 
a  confidence  that  they  would  be  conducted  to  a  triumphant  con- 
clusion. What  have  they  to  fear  ?  In  the  humiliating  failure 
of  all  previous  negotiations,  they  have  the  foil  which  is  to  give 
a  greater  brilliancy  to  their  own  success.  If  the  treaty  of  Wash- 
ington was  really  so  inglorious  a  surrender,  pray,  pray,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, do  not  forbid  the  abler,  the  more  accomplished,  the  more 
patriotic  negotiator  of  your  own  choice,  present  or  future,  to  give 
us  the  example  of  a  better  treaty.  Do  not  forbid  him  to  retrieve 
the  character  of  American  diplomacy;  to  plucT?  up  the  drowning 
honor  of  the  country  from  the  waters  of  the  St.  John's ;  and  to 
show  us,  for  all  time  to  come,  how  to  preserve,  with  a  greater 
skill,  at  once  the  rights  and  the  interests  of  the  Republic,  includ- 
ing that  highest  of  all  her  interests,  Peace ! 

No  more  negotiations !  The  treaty  of  Washington  an  inglo- 
rious surrender !  To  be  sure,  four  fifths  of  the  Senate  ratified 
that  treaty,  and  the  whole  country  applauded  it.     But  then 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES.        463 

Maine  has  never  assented  to  it!  So  says  one  of  the  honorable 
members  from  Maine,  (Mr.  Hamlin.)  Maine  had  her  commis- 
sioners here,  had  she  not,  with  full  powers  to  agree  upon  a  con- 
ventional line  of  boundary?  and  they  did  agree  upon  such  a  line. 
And  Maine  has  since  received  into  her  treasury  the  money  for 
which  those  commissioners  stipulated,  and  for  which  the  treaty 
provided.  Not,  Sir,  the  mere  reimbursement  of  expenses  in- 
curred in  maintaining  her  supposed  rights,  as  the  honorable 
member  implied,  but  the  rated  consideration  for  the  lands  to 
which  she  relinquished  her  claim.  And  yet  the  honorable  mem- 
ber insists  that  Maine  has  never  yet  assented  to  the  treaty !  This 
is  an  extraordinary  position,  certainly.  I  trust  that  it  is  not 
advanced  now,  as  a  pretence  for  repudiating  the  treaty,  and  for 
setting  up  a  new  claim  to  reannexation,  hereafter.  How  is  the 
position  sustained  ?  Simply  by  the  allegation  that  the  treaty 
was  opposed  by  "  the  only  Democratic  Senator  from  Maine  in 
the  body  by  which  the  treaty  was  ratified."  As  if  it  were  not 
an  ample  set-off  to  that  suggestion,  that  the  treaty  was  sup- 
ported by  the  only  Whig  Senator  from  Maine  at  the  same 
period ;  a  gentleman  (the  Hon.  George  Evans)  of  whom  I  may 
say,  without  intending  any  disparagement  to  the  Democratic 
Senator  referred  to,  (the  Hon.  Reuel  Williams,  for  whom  I  have 
a  high  personal  esteem,  founded  upon  a  long  acquaintance,) 
that  he  is  second  to  none  of  his  colleagues,  past  or  present,  nor, 
indeed,  to  any  member  of  the  body  to  which  he  belongs,  in  abi- 
lity, in  patriotism,  or  in  a  just  regard  for  the  rights  and  the  inter- 
ests, either  of  his  own  State  or  of  the  nation  at  large. 

No  more  negotiations !  Why,  Mr.  Chairman,  where  is  such 
a  doctrine  as  this  to  lead  us  ?  Inevitably  to  war.  To  war  with 
England  now ;  to  war  with  all  the  world  hereafter,  or,  certainly, 
with  all  parts  of  the  world  with  which  we  may  have  controversies 
of  any  sort.  And  even  war  can  never  put  an  end  to  the  neces- 
sity of  negotiation.  Unless  war  is  to  be  perpetual,  you  must 
come  back  to  negotiation  in  the  end.  The  only  question  in  the 
case  before  us  —  the  only  question  in  every  case  of  disputed 
international  rights  —  is,  not  whether  you  will  negotiate  or  fight, 
but  whether  you  will  negotiate  only,  or  negotiate  and  fight  both. 
Battles  will  never  settle  boundaries  between  Great  Britain  and 


464        GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

the  United  States,  in  Oregon,  or  elsewhere.  The  capture  of 
ships,  the  destruction  of  commerce,  the  burning  and  plundering 
of  cities,  will  leave  us  just  where  we  commenced.  First  or  last, 
negotiation  alone  can  settle  this  question.  For  one,  therefore, 
I  am  for  negotiation  first,  before  war,  and  without  war.  I  believe 
that  we  shall  get  quite  as  much  of  Oregon  in  this  way ;  and  I 
know  that  we  shall  get  it  at  less  expense,  not  merely  of  money, 
but  of  all  that  makes  up  the  true  welfare  and  honor  of  our 
country. 

Sir,  the  reckless  flippancy  with  which  war  is  spoken  of  in  this 
House  and  elsewhere,  as  a  thing  to  be  "  let  come,"  rather  than 
wait  for  the  issue  of  negotiations,  is  deserving,  in  my  judgment, 
of  the  severest  rebuke  and  reprobation  from  every  christian 
patriot  and  statesman.  I  say  let  it  not  come,  let  it  never  come, 
if  any  degree  of  honorable  patience  and  forbearance  will  avert 
it.  I  protest  against  any  course  of  proceeding  which  shall  invite 
or  facilitate  its  approach.  I  protest  against  it,  in  behalf  of  the 
commerce  of  the  nation,  so  considerable  a  part  of  which  I  have 
the  honor  to  represent.  I  protest  against  it,  in  the  name  of  the 
public  morality  and  religion,  which  ought  to  be  represented  by 
every  member  on  this  floor.  I  protest  against  it,  also,  in  the 
spirit  of  a  true  Republican  Democracy,  My  venerable  colleague, 
(Mr.  Adams,)  alluded  yesterday  to  the  old  and  well-known  cor- 
respondence of  James  Madison  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  under 
the  signatures  of  Helvidius  and  Pacificus,  and  expressed  his 
wish  that  it  might  be  freshly  read  by  all  who  took  an  interest  in 
ascertaining  the  just  limitations  of  executive  power.  I  cordially 
respond  to  that  sentiment.  But  I  will  venture  to  say  that  no 
one  will  read  these  letters  without  being  struck  with  the  force, 
the  beauty,  the  consummate  justness  and  truth  of  a  warning 
against  war,  which  one  of  those  letters  contains,  and  which  con- 
stitutes the  crown-jewel  of  the  whole  series. 

"  War  is,  in  fact,(says  James  Madison,)  the  true  nurse  of  Executive  aggrandizement. 
In  war  a  physical  force  is  to  be  created,  and  it  is  the  Executive  will  which  is  to  direct 
it  In  war  the  public  treasures  are  to  be  unlocked,  and  it  is  the  Executive  hand  which 
is  to  dispense  them.  In  war  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  office  are  to  be  multiplied, 
and  it  is  the  Executive  patronage  under  which  they  are  to  be  enjoyed.  It  is  in  war, 
.finally,  that  laurels  are  to  be  gathered,  and  it  is  the  Executive  brow  they  are  to  encir- 
cle.   The  strongest  passions  and  most  dangerous  weaknesses  of  the  human  breast,  — 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE  UNITED   STATES.  465 

ambition,  avarice,  vanity,  the  honorable  or  venial  love  of  fame,  are  all  in  conspiracy 
against  the  desire  and  the  duty  of  peace. 

Hence  it  has  grown  into  an  axiom,  that  the  Executive  is  the  department  of  power 
most  distinguished  by  its  propensity  to  war ;  hence  it  is  the  practice  of  all  States,  in 
proportion  as  they  are  free,  to  disarm  this  propensity  of  its  influence." 

Such  is  the  noble  testimony  which  was  borne  by  one  of  the 
fathers  of  our  country,  half  a  century  ago,  to  the  anti-Republican 
tendencies  of  war.  And  it  is  of  this  "  true  nurse  of  Executive 
aggrandizement,"  that  gentlemen,  who  are  pluming  themselves 
upon  their  exclusive  democracy,  are  so  continually  crying  —  let 
it  come !  Such  a  cry,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  not  only  inconsistent 
with  sound  Republicanism  and  true  morality,  but  it  is  to  the 
last  degree  puerile.  I  intend  no  disrespect  to  any  gentleman 
who  hears  me  ;  but  as  I  have  listened  to  the  heroic  strains  which 
have  resounded  through  this  hall  for  some  days  past,  in  reference 
to  the  facility  with  which  we  could  muster  our  fleets  in  the 
Pacific,  and  march  our  armies  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
whip  Great  Britain  into  a  willingness  to  abandon  her  pretensions 
to  Oregon,  I  have  wished  that  some  Philip  Faulconbridge  were 
here  to  reply,  as  he  does  in  Shakspeare's  King  John,  to  some 
swaggering  citizen  of  Angiers,  — 


Here 's  a  large  mouth,  indeed, 


That  spits  forth  death,  and  mountains,  rocks,  and  seas ! 

Talks  as  familiarly  of  roaring  lions, 

As  maids  of  thirteen  do  of  puppy-dogs ! 

He  speaks  plain  cannon,  fire  and  smoke,  and  bounce." 

This  is  certainly  no  bad  description  of  much  of  the  debate  to 
which  this  bill  has  given  occasion,  and  which  might  better  have 
befitted  the  dramatic  stage  than  the  council-halls  of  a  civilized 
nation. 

And  against  whom  are  all  these  gasconading  bravadoes  in- 
dulged ?  What  nation  has  been  thus  bethumped  and  bastinadoed 
with  brave  words !  I  have  no  compliments  to  bestow  on  Great 
Britain,  and  am  not  here  as  her  apologist  or  defender.  But  this, 
at  least,  I  can  say,  without  fear  of  imputation  or  impugnment, 
that,  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  she  is  that  nation  which  is 
able  to  do  us  the  most  good  in  peace,  and  the  most  harm  in  war. 
She  is  that  nation  with  whom  the  best  interests  of  our  country 


466  GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

imperatively  demand  of  us  to  go  along  harmoniously,  so  long  as 
we  can  do  so  without  a  sacrifice  of  unquestioned  right  and 
honor.  She  is  that  nation,  a  belligerent  conflict  with  whom, 
would  put  back  the  cause  of  human  civilization  and  improve- 
ment more  than  it  has  advanced  in  half  a  century  past,  or  would 
recover  in  half  a  century  to  come.  Peace  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  is  not  a  mere  interest  of  the  two  countries. 
It  is  an  interest  of  the  world,  of  civilization,  of  humanity ;  and 
a  fearful  reckoning  will  be  theirs  who  shall  Wantonly  disturb  it. 

In  this  view,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  cannot  help  deploring  the  prin- 
ciple of  hatred  towards  England,  which  seems  to  have  been 
recently  inscribed,  by  not  a  few  of  our  public  men,  as  the  first 
article  of  their  political  creed.  There  are  those  with  whom  a 
fling  at  Great  Britain  appears  to  be  the  principal  study  of  all 
their  oratory,  and  who  seem  to  regard  no  argument  complete, 
which  does  not  contain  some  denunciation  of  her  grasping  policy 
or  her  spurious  philanthropy.  They  seem  to  have  adopted,  in 
reference  to  England,  the  maxim  which  Lord  Nelson  is  related 
to  have  inculcated  towards  France,  in  his  advice  to  some  of  the 
midshipmen  under  his  command  —  "  There  are  three  things  (said 
he)  which  you  are  constantly  to  bear  in  mind :  first,  you  must 
always  implicitly  obey  orders,  without  attempting  to  form  any 
opinion  of  your  own  respecting  their  propriety ;  secondly,  you 
must  consider  every  man  your  enemy  who  speaks  ill  of  your 
King ;  and  thirdly,  you  must  hate  a  Frenchman  as  you  hate  the 
devil."  Such  a  maxim  might  be  pardoned,  perhaps,  to  soldiers 
and  sailors,  on  the  eve  of  an  engagement  in  mortal  combat  with 
their  foes ;  but  it  is  the  last  which  ought  to  be  entertained  by 
those  who  are  intrusted  with  the  power  and  the  duty  of  pacific 
legislation. 

But  then  Great  Britain  is  so  insolent  and  so  aggressive,  that 
we  cannot  help  hating  her.  She  is  hemming  us  round  on  every 
side,  the  honorable  member  from  Illinois  tells  us,  and  we  must 
make  a  stand  against  her  soon,  or  we  shall  be  absolutely  over- 
run! —  Mr.  Chairman,  this  phrase,  that  Great  Britain  is  hemming 
us  in  on  every  side,  has  become  so  great  a  favorite  of  late  years 
in  our  political  dialectics,  that  I  am  disposed  to  inquire,  before  it 
is  irrevocably  incorporated  into  our  dictionary  of  truisms,  how 
far  it  is  as  exact  as  it  is  elegant. 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE   UNITED   STATES.  467 

"  Great  Britain  is  hemming  us  in  on  every  side,  and  already 
has  us  inclosed  in  her  network  on  our  own  continent ; "  this,  I 
think,  was  the  declaration  of  the  honorable  member  from  Illi- 
nois. How  far,  sir,  will  such  a  declaration  bear  the  light  of  his- 
torical truth  ?  It  would  seem  to  imply,  that  the  United  States 
of  America  was  the  original  civilized  nation  established  on  this 
continent ;  that  Great  Britain  had  subsequently  made  settle- 
ments in  our  neighborhood ;  and  that  she  had  systematically 
proceeded  to  environ  us  on  all  sides  with  her  colonial  posses- 
sions and  military  posts.  This  is  certainly  a  new  reading  of 
American  history.  I  have  some  how  or  other  obtained  an  im- 
pression from  the  schools,  that  Great  Britain  once  possessed 
almost  the  whole  of  this  continent,  or,  at  any  rate,  a  very  much 
larger  part  of  it  than  she  now  enjoys.  I  have  an  indistinct  idea, 
that  there  was  a  day  when  she  held  dominion  over  almost  all 
the  territories  in  which  we  now  rejoice.  I  have  some  dreamy 
recollection  of  having  read  or  heard  about  stamp  acts,  and  tea 
taxes,  and  Boston  port-bills ;  about  Bunker  hills,  and  Saratogas, 
and  Yorktowns  ;  about  revolutions,  and  declarations,  and  treaties 
of  Independence.  And  it  is  still  my  belief,  Mr.  Chairman,  which 
fire  will  not  burn  out  of  me,  that,  by  some  means  or  other, 
Great  Britain  has  been  deprived,  within  the  last  seventy  years, 
of  by  far  her  most  valuable  colonies  on  this  continent ;  that 
there  has  been  a  great  deal  more  of  ripping,  than  hemming,  as 
to  this  network  of  hers ;  that,  instead  of  her  hemming  us  in. 
we  have  thrust  her  out,  and  have  left  her  a  comparatively,  if  not 
a  really,  insignificant  power  in  this  Western  Hemisphere ! 

Sir,  Great  Britain  has  not  acquired  one  foot  of  soil  upon  this 
continent,  except  in  the  way  of  honorable  treaty  with  our  own 
government,  since  the  day  on  which  we  finally  ousted  her  from 
her  old  dominion  within  the  limits  of  our  Republican  Union. 
Every  body  knows  that  she  acquired  Canada  by  the  treaty  of 
1763.  We  ourselves  helped  her  to  that  acquisition.  Not  a  few 
of  the  forces  —  not  a  few  of  the  leaders,  by  which  our  own  inde- 
pendence was  achieved,  were  trained  up,  as  by  a  Providential 
preparation,  for  the  noble  duty  which  awaited  them,  in  the  war 
which  resulted  in  the  cession  of  Canada  to  Great  Britain.  Cer- 
tainly, then,  we  have  no  cause  of  quarrel  with   Great  Britain 


468  GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

that  Canada  is  hers.  But  then,  she  has  dared  to  think  about 
Texas,  she  has  cast  some  very  suspicious  glances  at  Cuba,  and 
there  is  great  reason  to  apprehend  that  her  heart  is  at  this  moment 
upon  California !  True,  she  has  formally  denied,  to  our  own 
government,  that  she  has  any  desire  to  see  Texas  other  than  an 
independent  nation.  True,  she  once  conquered  Cuba,  and  gave 
it  back  again  to  Spain  by  the  treaty  of  1763.  True,  she  has 
given  no  outward  and  visible  sign  of  any  passionate  yearning 
for  the  further  dismemberment  of  Mexico.  But  who  trusts  to 
diplomatic  assurances  ?  Who  confides  in  innocent  appearances  ? 
Diplomatic  assurances !  Has  not  the  chairman  of  our  own 
Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs  warned  us,  that,  "  like  the  oaths 
which  formerly  accompanied  treaties,  they  have  been  the  cheap 
contrivances  of  premeditated  hostile  action  ? "  Has  he  not 
warned  us  especially,  against  the  diplomatic  assurance  of  Great 
Britain  in  regard  to  Texas,  as  "  the  ordinary  harbinger  of  what- 
ever it  most  solemnly  denies  ?  " 

Such  a  course  of  argument  as  this,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  certainly 
in  one  respect  entirely  conclusive.  There  is,  obviously,  no  mode 
of  replying  to  it.  Once  assume  the  position,  that  neither  the 
words  nor  the  deeds  of  Great  Britain  are  to  be  taken  in  evidence 
of  her  designs,  but  that  her  assurances  are  all  hollow,  and  her 
acts  all  hypocritical,  and  there  is  no  measure  of  aggression  and 
outrage  which  you  may  not  justly  apprehend  from  her.  I  do 
not  believe,  however,  that  any  considerable  part  of  this  House? 
or  of  this  country,  will  acquiesce  in  the  propriety  of  proceeding 
upon  premises  which  involve  imputations  so  gross  and  so  gratui- 
tous. And  once  again  I  ask,  where  is  the  proof  of  these  alarm- 
ing and  aggressive  purposes  of  Great  Britain,  so  far  as  our  own 
continent  is  concerned  ?  Where  is  the  evidence  that  she  is 
inclosing  us  in  a  fatal  network,  and  hemming  us  in  on  every 
side  ?  Nay,  sir,  I  boldly  put  the  question  to  the  consciences  of 
all  who  hear  me  —  of  which  of  the  two  countries,  Great  Britain 
or  the  United  States,  will  impartial  history  record,  that  it  mani- 
fested a  spirit  of  impatient  and  insatiate  self-aggrandizement 
on  this  North  American  continent  ?  How  does  the  record  stand, 
as  already  made  up  ?  If  Great  Britain  has  been  thinking  of 
Texas,  we  have  acquired  Louisiana ;  if  Great  Britain  has  been 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE  UNITED   STATES.  469 

looking  after  Cuba,  we  have  established  ourselves  in  Florida ;  if 
Great  Britain  has  set  her  heart  on  California,  we  have  put  our 
hand  upon  Texas.  Reproach  Great  Britain,  if  you  please,  with 
the  policy  she  has  pursued  in  extending  her  dominions  else- 
where. Reprobate,  if  you  please,  her  course  of  aggression  upon 
the  East  Indian  tribes  ;  and  do  not  forget  to  include  your  own 
Indian  policy  in  the  same  commination.  But  let  us  hear  no 
more  of  her  encroaching  spirit  in  this  quarter.  It  is  upon  our- 
selves, and  not  upon  her,  that  such  a  spirit  may  be  fairly  charged. 
I  say  to  the  gentleman  from  Illinois,  as  one  of  the  peculiar 
friends  of  reannexing  Texas,  and  reoccupying  the  whole  of  Ore- 
gon, mutato  nomine,  de  te  fabula  narratur. 

Indeed,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  story  has  been  told  of  us  already. 
We  have  been  anticipated  in  all  these  imputations  of  an  un- 
scrupulous spirit  of  aggrandizement.  I  have  here  a  speech  by 
Mr.  Huskisson  —  a  name  held  in  peculiar  reverence  by  the 
friends  of  free  trade  in  this  House,  and  entitled  to  the  respectful 
regard  of  us  all,  both  for  the  intellectual  ability  and  the  moral 
excellence  with  which  it  was  long  associated  —  delivered  in  the 
British  House  of  Commons  in  1830,  on  the  political  and  com- 
mercial relations  of  Great  Britain  and  Mexico.  The  speech  is 
full  of  interesting  and  curious  matter,  and  I  doubt  not  that  I 
shall  be  indulged  in  reading  some  passages  from  it  to  the  House. 

"  But,  Sir,  if  there  are  great  political  interests  which  should  induce  us  to  endeavor 
to  maintain  to  Spain  her  present  sovereignty  and  possession  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Eico. 
there  are  other  political  considerations  which  make  it  not  less  important  —  if  possible, 
still  more  important  —  that  Mexico  should  settle  into  a  state  of  internal  peace  and  tran- 
quillity, and  of  entire  and  secure  independence.  If  the  United  States  have  declared 
that  they  cannot  allow  the  island  of  Cuba  to  belong  to  any  maritime  power  in  Europe , 
Spain  excepted,  neither  can  England,  as  the  first  of  those  maritime  powers  —  I  say  it 
fearlessly,  because  I  feel  it  strongly — suffer  the  United  States  to  bring  under  their 
dominion  a  greater  portion  of  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  than  that  which  they 
now  possess." 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  be  it  remembered,  was  a  public  declara- 
tion on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  year  1830, 
by  one  of  the  most  leading  and  influential  British  statesmen  of 
that  day.  And  I  cannot  help  remarking,  before  I  read  on,  that 
it  appears  to  have  produced  not  the  slightest  sensation  on  this 
side  of  the  water.     General  Jackson  was  then  President  of  the 

40 


470  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

United  States.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  then  Secretary  of  State, 
and  was  drafting,  in  that  capacity,  those  memorable  instructions 
which  afterwards  cost  him  his  recall  from  London;  instructions, 
by  which  the  attention  of  the  British  Government  was  invited 
to  the  peculiar  relations  of  amity  existing,  not  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  but  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  Democratic  Administration  which  had  just  succeeded  to 
power.  This  peculiar  friendship  of  General  Jackson  and  his 
friends  towards  Great  Britain,  was  in  no  degree  disturbed,  it 
seems,  by  the  distinct  declaration  that  we  should  not  be  suffered 
to  annex  Texas.  There  was  no  outcry  against  British  interfer- 
ence or  British  aggression.  There  was  no  clamor  about  her 
designs  to  effect  the  abolition  of  Southern  slavery.  No,  Sir,  the 
abolition  movements  of  Great  Britain  had  not  then  been  com- 
menced in  her  own  colonies.  And  a  most  notable  circumstance 
it  is,  that  the  disposition  of  Great  Britain  to  prevent  the  annex- 
ation of  Texas  to  this  country,  should  have  been  so  clearly  mani- 
fested, before  she  had  made  the  slightest  demonstration  of  an 
anti-slavery  spirit.  It  puts  an  utterly  extinguishing  negative 
upon  the  charge,  that  her  opposition  is  the  mere  result  of  her 
designs  upon  American  slavery.  But  let  me  proceed  with  the 
speech  of  Mr.  Huskisson. 

"  Within  the  last  twenty-seven  years  they  have  hecome  masters  of  all  the  shores  of 
that  Gulf,  from  the  point  of  Florida  to  the  river  Sabine,  including  the  mouths  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  of  other  great  rivers,  the  port  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  valuable  and 
secure  harbors  of  Florida ;  and,  within  these  few  days,  we  hear  of  their  intention  of 
forming  a  naval  station  and  arsenal  at  the  islands  of  the  Dry  Tortugas,  a  commanding 
position  in  the  Gulf  stream  between  Florida  and  Cuba.  With  all  this  extent  of  coast 
and  islands,  we  know,  further,  that  designs  are  entertained,  and  daily  acted  upon  — I 
will  not  say  by  the  present  Government  of  the  United  States,  but,  notoriously,  by  the 
people  —  to  get  possession  of  the  fertile  and  extensive  Mexican  province  of  Texas. 
To  borrow  an  expression  of  a  deceased  statesman  of  that  country,  '  the  whole  people 
of  America  have  their  eye'  upon  that  province.  They  look  to  all  the  country  between 
the  river  Sabine  and  the  river  Bravo  del  Norte,  as  a  territory  that  must,  ere  long,  belong 
to  their  Union.  They  have,  also,  I  believe,  that  same  eye  upon  some  of  the  western 
coast  of  Mexico,  possessing  valuable  ports  in  the  Gulf  of  California.  Should  they 
obtain  these  districts,  the  independence  of  Mexico,  I  will  venture  to  say,  will  be  no 
better,  or  more  secure,  than  that  of  the  Creek  Indians,  or  any  other  Indian  tribe  now 
living  within  the  circle  of  the  present  recognized  limits  of  the  United  States  ;  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  will  become  as  much  a  part  of  their  waters  as  the  Black  Sea  was  once 
of  the  waters  of  Turkey,  or  as  the  channel  which  separates  England  from  Ireland  may 
be  considered  as  part  of  the  waters  of  the  United  Kingdom. 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES.        471 

"I  maybe  told,  Sir,  that  these  are  visionary  alarms,  contemplating  schemes  of 
aggrandizement  and  ambition  which  never  have  been,  and  probably  never  will  be, 
entertained  in  any  quarter  At  this  moment,  I  willingly  admit  that  there  exists  a 
friendly  disposition  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  I  cannot  doubt  that 
his  Majesty's  Government  fully  reciprocates  that  disposition.  Upon  every  account,  I 
am  glad  to  see  these  two  powerful  States  living  upon  terms  of  honorable  and  mutual 
confidence,  each  relying  upon  the  peaceful  councils  of  the  other.  But  it  is  not  to  be 
imputed  to  me  that  I  am  undervaluing  this  good  understanding,  or  that  I  am  guilty  of 
want  of  respect  to  the  United  States,  or  even  of  discretion  as  an  individual  member  of 
Parliament,  if,  on  this  occasion,  I  do  not  lose  sight  of  those  circumstances  of  a  perma- 
nent nature  which  belong  to  the  fixed  policy  of  the  United  States,  and  to  those  motives 
of  action  which,  however  dormant  at  present,  would  probably  be  revived,  under  con- 
tingencies that,  in  the  course  of  events,  may  hereafter  arise  —  contingencies,  which  the 
views  and  passions  of  the  American  people  would  not  fail  to  turn  to  account  for  the 
attainment  of  a  long  cherished  and  favorite  object. 

"  At  all  periods  of  our  history,  the  House  of  Commons  has  held  topics  of  this  nature 
to  be  fair  grounds  of  parliamentary  consideration.  Jealousy,  for  instance,  of  the 
aggrandizement  of  the  house  of  Bourbon,  has  always  been  held  an  element  entitled  to 
enter  into  every  general  discussion  affecting  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  and  I  am 
sure  there  is  nothing  in  the  general  character  of  Democratic  Republics  or  in  the  past 
conduct  of  the  United  States,  from  which  we  can  infer,  that  their  aspirations  after 
power  and  aggrandizement  are  less  steadily  kept  in  view  than  those  of  an  absolute 
monarch  in  Europe.  In  looking  to  the  future, let  us  consult  the  experience  of  the  past. 
But,  in  the  case  of  the  New  World,  we  have  something  more  than  the  history  of  the 
last  thirty  years  to  guide  our  judgment.  The  views  and  sentiments  of  those  who, 
during  that  period,  have  directed  or  influenced  the  affairs  of  the  United  States,  have 
been  brought  before  us  by  the  publication  of  their  correspondence.  I  am  afraid  the 
living  statesmen  of  this  country  have  scarcely  had  time  to  made  themselves  acquainted 
with  those  views  and  sentiments,  as  they  stand  disclosed  in  the  memoirs  and  correspond- 
ence of  a  deceased  statesman  of  America,  I  mean  the  late  Mr.  Jefferson,  a  man  who, 
from  the  period  of  their  first  declaration  of  independence  —  a  declaration  of  which  he 
was  the  author  —  to  the  close  of  his  life,  seems  to  have  possessed  the  greatest  ascend- 
ency in  the  councils  of  his  country,  and  whose  avowed  principles  and  views  appear  to 
become  every  day  more  predominant  in  the  public  feelings  of  his  countrymen. 

"  In  respect  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  the  immense  interests,  commercial,  colonial, 
and  maritime,  which  are  closely  connected  with  the  navigation  of  that  Gulf,  these 
memoirs  are  full  of  instruction  —  I  might  say,  of  admonitions  —  well  deserving  the 
most  serious  attention  of  the  people  of  this  country.  I  will  not  trouble  the  House  with 
any  long  extracts  from  them ;  but  I  cannot  deny  myself  the  opportunity  of  pointing 
their  attention  to  a  few  passages,  which  show  how  soon  the  United  States,  after  they 
became  a  separate  nation,  fixed  their  eye  upon  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  how  steadily 
and  successfully  they  have  watched  and  seized  every  opportunity  to  acquire  dominion 
and  ascendency  in  that  part  of  the  world.  Within  seven  years  after  the  time  when 
their  independence  had  been  established,  and  finally  recognized  in  1783,  we  find  them 
setting  up  a  claim  of  positive  right  to  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  from  its 
source  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  and  it  is  not  a  little  curious  to  see  what  was  the  oppor- 
tunity they  took  of  asserting  this  right  against  Spain,  a  power  which  had  materially 
assisted  them  in  obtaining  their  independence.  In  the  year  1790,  it  will  be  recollected 
that  a  dispute  had  arisen  between  England  and  Spain  respecting  Nootka  Sound. 


472  GREAT   BRITAIN  AND   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Whilst  these  two  countries  were  arming,  and  every  thing  appeared  to  threaten  war 
between  them,  the  United  States  thought  that  they  saw,  in  the  embarrassments  of  Spain, 
an  opening  to  claim  this  navigation  as  of  right.  Whether  such  a  claim  could  or  could 
not  be  sustained  by  any  principle  of  the  law  of  nations,  is  a  question  which  I  will  not 
stop  to  examine.  The  affirmative  was  at  once  boldly  assumed  by  America,  and  her 
demand  proceeded  upon  that  assumption.  The  right  once  so  affirmed,  what  does  the 
House  think  was  the  corollary  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  built  upon 
their  assertion  of  that  supposed  right  ?  I  will  give  it  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
himself,  not  a  private  individual,  but  the  Secretary  of  State,  conveying  the  instructions 
of  his  Government  to  Mr.  Carmichael,  then  the  American  envoy  at  Madrid :  — '  You 
know,'  writes  Mr.  Jefferson,  '  that  the  navigation  cannot  be  practised  without  a  port, 
where  the  sea  and  river  vessels  may  meet  and  exchange  loads,  and  where  those  em- 
ployed about  them  may  be  safe  and  unmolested.  The  right  to  use  a  thing  compre- 
hends a  right  to  the  means  necessary  to  its  use,  and  without  which  it  would  be  useless.' 
I  know  not  what  the  expounders  of  the  law  of  nations  in  the  old  world  will  have  to 
say  to  this  novel  and  startling  doctrine.  In  this  instruction,  which  is  dated  the  2d  of 
August,  1790,  the  principle  is  only  laid  down  in  the  abstract. 

"  I  will  now  show  the  House  the  special  application  of  it  to  the  claim  in  question,  by 
quoting  another  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson  to  Mr.  Short,  the  American  envoy  at  Paris, 
dated  only  eight  days  after  the  former,  namely,  the  10th  of  August.  It  is  as  follows : 
'  The  idea  of  ceding  the  island  of  New  Orleans  could  not  be  hazarded  to  Spain  in  the 
first  step  ;  it  would  be  too  disagreeable  at  first  view ;  because  this  island,  with  its  town, 
constitutes,  at  present,  their  principal  settlement  in  that  part  of  their  dominions,  (Lou- 
isiana,) containing  about  three  thousand  white  inhabitants,  of  every  age  and  sex.  Rea- 
son and  events,  however,  may,  by  little  and  little,  familiarize  them  to  it.  That  we  have 
a  right  to  some  spot  as  an  entrepot  for  our  commerce  may  be  at  once  affirmed.  I  sup- 
pose this  idea  (the  cession  of  New  Orleans)  too  much  even  for  the  Count  de  Montmorin 
at  first,  and  that,  therefore,  you  will  find  it  prudent  to  urge,  and  get  him  to  recommend 
to  the  Spanish  court,  only  in  general  terms,  a  port  near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  with  a 
circumjacent  territory  sufficient  for  its  support,  well  defined,  and  extra-territorial  to 
Spain,  leaving  the  idea  to  future  growth.' 

"  Contrary  to  the  expectation  of  the  United  States  when  those  instructions  were 
given,  Great  Britain  and  Spain  settled  their  differences  without  an  appeal  to  arms; 
and,  in  consequence,  these  practical  applications  of  the  law  of  nations  were  no  longer 
pressed  by  the  United  States.  Soon  after,  Spain  became  involved  in  war  with  France, 
and  that  war  terminated  in  her  being  compelled  to  cede  Louisiana  to  the  latter  power. 
In  1803,  that  whole  province  was  sold  by  France  to  the  United  States.  By  this  pur- 
chase they  acquired  not  only  New  Orleans,  but  a  very  extensive  territory  within  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  I  next  go  \o  the  year  1806.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  then  no  longer  Secre- 
tary of  State ;  he  had  been  raised  to  the  more  important  post  of  President  of  the 
United  States.  In  that  character  we  find  him  writing  to  Mr.  Monroe,  then  the  Ame- 
rican minister  in  London,  in  the  following  terms:  '  We  begin  to  broach  the  idea,  that 
we  consider  the  whole  Gulf  stream  as  of  our  own  waters,  in  which  hostilities  and 
cruising  are  to  be  frowned  on  for  the  present,  and  prohibited  so  soon  as  either  consent 
or  force  will  permit  us.'  The  letter,  from  which  this  is  an  extract,  is  dated  the  4th  of 
May,  1806. 

"If  the  United  States  'broached'  this  idea  in  1806,  they  are  not  likely  to  have  aban- 
doned it  in  1819,  when,  in  addition  to  Louisiana,  they  procured,  by  treaty  with  Spain, 
the  further  important  cession  of  the  Floridas.     That  it  is  a  growing  rather  than  a 


GREAT   BRITAIN  AND   THE   UNITED   STATES.  473 

waning  principle  of  their  policy,  I  think  we  may  infer  from  a  later  letter  which  we  find 
in  this  correspondence,  not  written,  indeed,  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  any  public  character, 
but  addressed  by  him,  as  a  person  exercising  from  his  retirement  the  greatest  sway  in 
the  councils  of  the  Union,  to  the  President.  This  letter,  dated  so  lately  as  the  25th  of 
October,  1823,  discusses  the  interests  of  the  United  States  in  respect  to  Cuba  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  these  are  the  statements  which  it  avows :  ?  I  candidly  confess  that 
I  have  ever  looked  on  Cuba  as  the  most  interesting  addition  which  could  ever  be  made 
to  our  system  of  States.  The  control  which,  with  Florida  Point,  this  island  would  give 
us  over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  the  countries  and  isthmus  bordering  on  it,  as  well  as 
all  those  whose  waters  flow  into  it,  would  fill  up  the  measure  of  our  political  well- 
being.  Yet  I  am  sensible  this  can  never  be  obtained,  even  with  her  own  consent,  but 
by  war.' " 

These  extracts  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Huskisson,  in  1830, 
Mr.  Chairman,  are  at  once  amusing  and  edifying.  I  think  no 
one  can  help  smiling  at  the  ingenious  devices  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
which  they  disclose,  for  extending  our  dominion  over  sea  and 
land.  They  prove,  too,  most  abundantly,  (and  it  was  for  this 
purpose  that  I  have  introduced  them,)  that  all  the  charges 
against  Great  Britain,  which  we  are  now  making,  as  to  her 
designs  upon  Texas,  upon  California,  and  upon  Cuba,  are  but 
the  flattest  repetition  of  those  which  Great  Britain  long  ago 
arrayed  against  us.  They  prove,  still  further,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  that  the  jealousy  of  Great  Britain  as  to  the  extension 
of  our  dominion  over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  long  antecedent 
to  any  movement  on  her  part  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and 
utterly  demolish  the  position  that  her  desire  to  maintain  the 
independence  of  Texas  is  the  mere  result  of  spurious  philan- 
thropy and  abolition  fanaticism.  But  I  leave  them  to  speak  for 
themselves,  and  turn  to  considerations  more  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  question  before  us. 

The  honorable  member  from  Illinois  (Mr.  Douglas)  seemed 
greatly  excited  yesterday  at  a  remark  which  fell  from  my  friend 
from  Pennsylvania,  (Mr.  E.  J.  Morris,)  in  reference  to  the  ulti- 
mate destiny  of  the  Oregon  Territory,  and  to  the  likelihood  of 
its  becoming  the  site  of  an  independent  nation,  instead  of  re- 
maining as  a  permanent  member  of  our  own  confederacy.  The 
honorable  member  chafed  himself  into  a  state  of  most  towering 
indignation  at  the  bare  suggestion  of  such  an  idea,  and  de- 
nounced it  in  the  most  unsparing  terms  as  an  almost  treason- 
able proposition  for  dissolving  the  Union.    He  invoked  the  atten- 

40* 


474  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

tion  of  the  whole  country  to  this  first  intimation  of  a  design  to 
dismember  our  Republic,  and  demanded  a  prompt  expression  of 
rebuke  and  condemnation  upon  all  who  were  privy  to  so  mon- 
strous and  revolting  a  proposition.  Pray,  Sir,  does  the  honor- 
able member  know  with  whom  this  idea  originated,  or  by  whom, 
certainly,  it  was  most  deliberately  and  emphatically  uttered  in 
this  Capitol?  Let  me  beg  his  attention  to  a  passage  from  the 
speech  of  an  honorable  Senator  from  Missouri,  who,  I  hope,  has 
lost  nothing  of  the  confidence  of  his  own  party  by  a  course  of 
proceeding  in  regard  to  the  annexation  of  Texas,  by  which  he 
has  gained  the  respect  of  not  a  few  of  his  political  opponents, 
and  has  literally  "  overcome  more  than  his  enemies." 

"  Mr.  Benton  proceeded  to  the  next  inquiry  —  the  effect  which  the  occupation  of  the 
Columbia  would  have  upon  this  Union. 

"  On  this  point  he  could  speak  for  himself  only,  but  he  could  speak  without  reserve. 
He  believed  that  the  union  of  these  States  would  not  be  jeoparded  by  the  occupation 
of  that  river,  but  that  it  would  be  the  means  of  planting  the  germ  of  a  new  and  inde- 
pendent power  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains.  There  was  a  beginning  and  a  natural 
progress  in  the  order  of  all  things.  The  military  post  on  the  Columbia  would  be  the 
nucleus  of  a  settlement.  Farmers,  traders,  and  artisans,  would  collect  about  it. 
When  arrived  at  some  degree  of  strength  and  population,  the  young  society  would 
sicken  of  a  military  government,  and  sigh  for  the  establishment  of  a  civil  authority. 
A  territorial  government  obtained,  the  full  enjoyment  of  State  rights  would  next  be 
demanded  ;  and,  these  acquired,  loud  clamors  would  soon  be  heard  against  the  hard- 
ship of  coming  so  far  to  the  Seat  of  Government.  All  this  would  be  in  the  regular 
order  of  events,  and  the  consequence  should  be  foreseen  and  provided  for.  This 
Republic  should  have  limits.  The  present  occasion  does  not  require  me  to  say  where 
these  limits  should  be  found  on  the  North  and  South ;  but  they  arc  fixed  by  the  hand 
of  nature,  and  posterity  will  neither  lack  sense  to  see,  nor  resolution  to  step  up  to 
them.  Westward,  we  can  speak  without  reserve ;  and  the  ridge  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains may  be  named  without  offence,  as  presenting  a  convenient,  natural  and  everlast- 
ing boundary.  Along  the  back  of  this  ridge,  the  western  limit  of  this  republic  should 
be  drawn,  and  the  statue  of  the  fabled  god,  Terminus,  should  be  raised  upon  its  high- 
est peak,  never  to  be  thrown  down.  In  planting  the  seed  of  a  new  power  on  the  coast 
of  the  Pacific  ocean,  it  should  be  well  understood  that,  when  strong  enough  to  take 
care  of  itself,  the  new  government  should  separate  from  the  mother  empire,  as  the 
child  separates  from  the  parent  at  the  age  of  manhood.  The  heights  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  should  divide  their  possessions ;  and  the  mother  Republic  would  find  her- 
self indemnified  for  her  cares  and  expense  about  the  infant  power,  in  the  use  of  a  post 
in  the  Pacific  ocean ;  the  protection  of  her  interests  in  that  sea ;  the  enjoyment  of  the 
fur  trade ;  the  control  of  the  Indians ;  the  exclusion  of  a  monarchy  from  her  border , 
the  frustration  of  the  hostile  schemes  of  Great  Britain ;  and,  above  all,  in  the  erection 
of  a  new  Republic,  composed  of  her  children,  speaking  her  language,  inheriting  her 
principles,  devoted  to  liberty  and  equality,  and  ready  to  stand  by  her  side  against  the 
combined  powers  of  the  old  world." 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   THE   UNITED    STATES.  475 

Such,  Mr.  Chairman,  were  the  views  of  Mr.  Benton,  in  1825. 
Here  is  the  earliest  public  expression  of  the  idea,  which  has  so 
electrified  with  horror  the  honorable  member  from  Illinois,  and 
which  has  drawn  forth  the  heaviest  bolts  of  his  indignation. 

"  0  !  many  a  shaft,  at  random  sent, 
Finds  mark  the  archer  little  meant ! " 

His  fulminations,  it  is  plain,  have  passed  quite  over  the  heads 
of  his  opponents,  and  have  fallen  upon  one  whom,  of  all  others, 
he  would  most  gladly  have  spared. 

Nor  is  Mr.  Benton  the  only  one  of  the  honorable  member's 
Democratic  exemplars  whom  he  has  unconsciously  scathed.  A 
most  respectable  and  intelligent  friend  of  mine  (Mr.  T.  G.  Cary, 
of  Boston,)  visited  Monticello  in  1818.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  then 
greatly  interested  in  the  subject  of  Western  emigration,  and  in 
the  reports  of  Lewis  and  Clarke.  In  the  course  of  conversation 
he  inquired  whether,  when  Mr.  Astor  sold  out  Astoria  to  the 
British  Fur  Company,  he  retained  a  right  to  property  of  any 
kind  there.  "  Because,"  said  he,  "  I  am  anxious  to  ascertain  that 
there  was  some  reservation  on  which  a  territorial  claim  may 
be  made.  I  am  desirous  of  seeing  a  new  confederation  growing 
up  there."  "  You  say  a  new  confederation,  (replied  my  friend;) 
you  mean  a  distinct  one,  then."  "  Certainly,"  said  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, "  the  extent  would  be  altogether  too  great  for  one  govern- 
ment." 

The  same  view  was  expressed  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Astor,  which  has  been  referred  to  by  another  highly  intelli- 
gent and  distinguished  Boston  merchant,  (Hon.  William  Stur- 
gis,)  in  a  very  able  lecture  upon  the  Oregon  question,  delivered 
before  the  Boston  Mercantile  Library  Association,  a  few  days 
since.     In  that  letter,  Mr.  Jefferson  says,  — 

"  I  considered  as  a  great  public  acquisition  the  commencement  of  a  settlement  on 
that  point  of  the  Western  coast  of  America,  and  looked  forward  with  gratification  to 
the  time,  when  its  descendants  should  have  spread  themselves  through  the  whole 
length  of  that  coast,  covering  it  with  free  and  independent  Americans,  unconnected 
with  us  but  by  the  ties  of  blood  and  interest,  and  enjoying  like  us  the  rights  of  self- 
government." 

These  are  antiquated  opinions,  I  shall  be  told,  which  the 
young  Democracy  cannot  recognize.     Railroads  and  steam  en- 


476  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

gines  have  annihilated  space,  and  have  exploded  all  theories 
which  rested  on  the  accidents  of  extent  and  distance.  But 
what,  Mr.  Chairman,  becomes  of  that  argument,  of  which  we 
have  heard  so  much  in  the  late  debate  upon  Texas,  about  natu- 
ral boundaries,  and  "  the  configuration  of  the  earth  ?  "  It  is  not 
a  little  amusing  to  observe  what  different  views  are  taken  as  to 
the  indications  of  "  the  hand  of  nature,"  and  the  pointings  of 
"  the  finger  of  God,"  by  the  same  gentlemen,  under  different  cir- 
cumstances and  upon  different  subjects.  In  one  quarter  of  the 
compass  they  can  descry  the  hand  of  nature  in  a  level  desert 
and  a  second-rate  river,  plainly  defining  our  legitimate  bounda- 
ries and  beckoning  us  impatiently  to  march  up  to  them.  But 
when  they  turn  their  eyes  to  another  part  of  the  horizon,  the 
loftiest  mountains  of  the  universe  are  quite  lost  upon  their  gaze. 
There  is  no  hand  of  nature  there.  The  configuration  of  the 
earth  has  no  longer  any  significance.  The  Rocky  Mountains 
are  mere  molehills.  Our  destiny  is  onward.  We  must  cover 
this  whole  continent  —  ay,  and  go  beyond  it,  if  necessary,  says 
the  honorable  member  from  Illinois.  And  all  for  the  glory  of 
the  Republic!  "  The  finger  of  God  "  never  points  in  a  direction 
contrary  to  the  extension  of  the  glory  of  the  Republic !  This 
would  seem  to  be  the  sum  and  upshot  of  the  whole  matter. 
Sir,  there  is  a  definition  of  glory  by  the  immortal  dramatist 
whom  I  have  already  quoted,  which  such  a  course  of  remark 
has  brought  to  my  remembrance,  and  which  I  cannot  forbear 
citing. 

"  Glory  is  like  a  circle  in  the  water, 
Which  never  ccaseth  to  enlarge  itself, 
'Till,  by  broad  spreading,  it  disperse  to  nought.'' 

And  this,  this,  will  be  the  glory  of  that  spirit  of  aggrandize- 
ment which  is  seen,  at  this  moment,  leaping  over  the  Sabine  in 
one  quarter,  and  dashing  itself  upon  the  Rocky  mountains  in 
another! 

A  few  words  in  reference  to  the  precise  bill  before  us,  Mr. 
Chairman,  will  bring  me  to  a  close. 

I  listened,  Sir,  with  great  pleasure,  to  the  remarks  of  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  by  which  this  bill  was  introduced, 
(Mr.  A.  V.  Brown,)  who  closed  the  debate  last  evening.     If  the 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   THE  UNITED   STATES.  477 

whole  discussion  had  been  conducted  in  the  same  tone  and 
temper  in  which  he  addressed  the  House,  and  if  the  bill  had 
been  originally  drafted  in  the  shape  to  which  he  has  expressed 
his  willingness  now  to  reduce  it,  there  would  have  been  little 
cause  for  regretting  the  introduction  of  the  subject.  I  agree 
with  him  in  his  two  principal  positions.  I  concur  with  him, 
first,  in  the  opinion,  that  it  is  inexpedient  for  us  to  terminate  the 
convention  of  joint  occupation  until  negotiations  have  been  still 
longer  pursued.  I  agree  with  him,  also,  that  it  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  existence  of  that  convention  for  us  to  extend 
our  jurisdiction  over  our  own  citizens,  just  so  far  as  Great 
Britain  has  extended  her  jurisdiction  over  her  own  subjects,  in 
the  Oregon  Territory ;  and,  so  far,  I  am  willing  to  go  with  him. 

But  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  bill  under  consideration,  even 
with  the  amendments  which  have  been  proposed,  goes  far  be- 
yond this  mark.  The  section  which  provides  for  the  granting  of 
lands  to  settlers,  with  whatever  limitations  and  qualifications  it 
may  be  guarded,  will  be  considered  as  an  assumption  of  exclu- 
sive sovereignty,  or,  as  an  indirect  mode  of  securing  an  exclu- 
sive advantage.  The  British  Government  will  so  construe  it. 
And  how  will  our  Secretary  of  State  be  able  to  gainsay  such  a 
construction,  when  he  has  already  admitted  the  justice  with 
which  it  would  be  set  up,  in  a  speech  of  his  own  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  within  eighteen  months  past,  as  printed  in 
the  Congressional  Globe  before  me  ?  I  need  not  trouble  the 
committee  with  citations.  Any  gentleman  can  turn  to  the 
speech  for  himself.  But  is  it  not  worth  while  for  the  friends  of 
Mr.  Calhoun  to  pause,  before  they  place  him  in  a  predicament, 
in  which  the  only  alternatives  will  be,  either  to  resign  his  post, 
or  to  defend  a  course  of  proceeding,  as  Secretary,  which  he  has 
openly  condemned  as  a  Senator  ? 

Even  as  a  measure  for  the  American  settlers  in  Oregon,  with- 
out regard  to  the  claims  of  Great  Britain,  this  bill  is  not  alto- 
gether to  my  taste.  It  provides  for  the  appointment  of  a  go- 
vernor and  judge,  who  are  to  have  absolute  authority  to  promul- 
gate and  enforce  throughout  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  any  and 
all  laws  which  they  may  see  fit  to  select  from  the  statutes  of 
any  State  or  Territory  in  the  Union ;  which  laws  are  to  con- 


478  GREAT   BRITAIN  AND   TIIE   UNITED   STATES. 

tinue  in  force  until  positively  disapproved  of  by  Congress  —  a 
limitation  which  we  all  know,  from  our  experience  in  regard  to 
other  Territories,  is  practically  inoperative.  This  discretionary 
dominion  of  these  two  officers  is  to  last  until  there  shall  be  five 
thousand  free  white  male  American  citizens  of  twenty-one 
years  of  age  in  Oregon  to  authorize  the  establishment  of  a 
legislative  body  for  themselves.  This  will  be  no  brief  term  for 
such  a  Duarchy.  The  tide  of  emigration  is  now  setting  towards 
California,  and  not  towards  Oregon.  There  has  been  a  great 
deal  of  delusion  as  to  the  prospect  of  an  early  colonization  of 
Oregon.  It  is  now  pretty  well  understood  that  there  are  as 
good  lands  on  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  on  the  other, 
so  far,  at  least,  as  the  country  north  of  the  42d  degree  of  lati- 
tude is  concerned.  The  day  is  still  distant,  when  there  will  be 
five  thousand  free  white  male  American  citizens  in  Oregon.  I 
am  told  that  there  are  not  two  thousand  there  now.  And  I  do 
not  believe  that  these  American  citizens  will  thank  you  for 
breaking  up  the  little  temporary  organization  upon  which  they 
have  agreed  among  themselves,  in  order  to  make  way  for  so 
arbitrary  a  system  as  is  provided  for  them  by  this  bill. 

One  limitation  upon  the  discretion  of  these  two  irresponsible 
lawgivers  ought  certainly  to  be  imposed,  if  the  bill  is  to  pass. 
As  it  now  stands,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  them  from  legal- 
izing the  existence  of  domestic  slavery  in  Oregon.  It  seems  to 
be  understood  that  this  institution  is  to  be  limited  by  the  terms 
of  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  is  nowhere  to  be  permitted  in 
the  American  Union  above  the  latitude  of  36°  30'.  There  is 
nothing,  however,  to  enforce  this  understanding  in  the  present 
case.  The  published  documents  prove  that  Indian  slavery 
already  exists  in  Oregon.  I  intend,  therefore,  to  move,  when- 
ever it  is  in  order  to  do  so,  the  insertion  of  an  express  declara- 
tion that  "  there  shall  neither  be  slavery,  nor  involuntary  servi- 
tude, in  this  Territory,  except  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall 
have  been  duly  convicted."  * 

But  I  am  in  hopes,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  bill  will  not  be- 
come a  law  at  the  present  session,  in  any  shape.     Every  thing 

*  This  amendment  was  subsequently  offered  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  and  adopted  by  a 
vote  of  131  to  69. 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND    THE   UNITED    STATES.  479 

conspires,  in  my  judgment,  to  call  for  the  postponement  of  any 
such  measure  to  a  future  day.  We  ought  not  to  contemplate 
the  possibility  of  a  question  like  this  being  settled  otherwise 
than  by  peaceful  negotiations.  We  ought  to  give  ample  time 
for  those  negotiations,  and  do  nothing  which  can  interrupt  or 
embarrass  them.  We  have  nothing  to  regret  in  our  past  nego- 
tiations with  Great  Britain  ;  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  those 
in  which  wre  are  now  engaged.  Reproaches  as  to  the  former, 
and  menaces  as  to  the  latter,  are  alike  but  the  ebullitions  of 
party  heat  or  personal  hate,  and  will  perish  with  the  breath  in 
which  they  are  uttered.  Mr.  Webster  has  dared  to  preserve  the 
peace  of  the  country  by  abating  something  of  our  extreme  terri- 
torial claims  on  the  Northeast,  and  he  has  earned  the  gratitude 
of  all  good  citizens  by  doing  so.  I  trust  Mr.  Calhoun  will  not 
be  frightened  out  of  that  kindred  spirit  of  conciliation  and  con- 
cession, which  he  has  already  manifested  on  this  subject  in  the 
Senate,  by  the  bluster  and  braggardism  of  this  debate.  We  have 
twice  offered  to  compromise  with  Great  Britain  on  the  49th 
parallel  of  latitude,  and  such  a  compromise  would  be  the  very 
best  result  that  we  have  a  right  to  anticipate  now.  And  even  if 
some  slight  deviations  from  this  line  should  be  found  necessary 
for  effecting  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  question,  the  sober 
judgment  of  the  nation  would  not  hesitate  to  approve  the  con- 
cession. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  if  gentlemen  will  insist  on  contemplating 
the  necessity  of  a  resort  to  arms  upon  this  question  —  if  they 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  inasmuch  as  the  49th  parallel 
has  been  twice  offered  and  twice  refused,  there  is  a  point  of 
honor  between  the  two  nations  which  can  only  be  settled  by  a 
fight  —  if  they  are  converts  to  the  syllogism  of  the  honorable 
member  from  Illinois,  that  no  English  Minister  dares  to  accept 
the  49th  parallel,  and  no  American  Secretary  dares  to  offer 
more,  ergo,  they  both  dare  to  involve  the  wTorld  in  war  —  still, 
still,  I  say,  postpone  the  present  proceeding.  We  enter,  to-day, 
upon  the  last  month  of  an  expiring  administration.  A  new 
President  is  about  to  enter  upon  the  four  years'  term  to  which 
the  people  have  elected  him.  A  new  Congress  will  soon  be  in 
existence  to  act  upon  his  recommendations.     Upon  this  new 


480  GREAT   BRITAIN  AND   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

administration  has  been  solemnly  devolved  the  responsibility  of 
conducting  both  the  domestic  and  foreign  affairs  of  the  nation 
during  its  next  Olympiad.  Let  us  leave  that  responsibility 
undisturbed.  Let  us  not  employ  the  last  moments  of  our  power 
in  creating  difficulties  which  others  must  encounter,  and  exciting 
storms  which  others  must  breast.  Rather  let  us  do  what  we 
may,  to  secure  for  those  upon  whose  shoulders  the  government 
has  fallen,  a  serene  sky  and  a  calm  sea  at  the  outset  of  their 
voyage,  that  they  may  take  their  observations,  and  shape  their 
course  deliberately  ;  and  let  all  our  good  wishes  go  with  them,  — 
as  my  own  certainly  will,  —  that  they  may  complete  their  career, 
without  striking  either  on  Domestic  Discord  or  Foreign  War! 
If  they  fail  in  doing  so,  let  the  responsibility  be  wholly  their 
own. 


ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

A     SPEECH     DELIVERED     IN     THE     HOUSE    OF     REPRESENTATIVES     OF    THE 
UNITED    STATES,   JANUARY   3,  1846. 


I  understand  the  Chair  to  have  decided  that,  upon  the  pend- 
ing motion  to  refer  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state 
of  the  Union  a  bill  for  raising  two  regiments  of  riflemen,  the 
whole  question  of  Oregon  is  open  to  debate.  The  House,  too, 
has  virtually  sanctioned  this  decision,  by  declining  to  sustain  the 
previous  question  a  few  moments  since.  I  cannot  altogether 
agree  in  the  fitness  of  such  a  decision,  but  I  am  unwilling  to 
omit  the  opportunity  which  it  affords  for  expressing  some  views 
upon  the  subject. 

My  honorable  colleague  (Mr.  Adams)  in  his  remarks  yester- 
day, and  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs 
(Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll)  this  morning,  have  alluded  to  the  course 
pursued  by  them  last  year,  and  have  told  us  that  they  both  voted 
for  giving  immediate  notice  to  Great  Britain  of  our  intention  to 
terminate,  at  the  earliest  day,  what  has  been  called  the  conven- 
tion of  joint  occupation.  Though  a  much  humbler  member  of 
the  House,  I  may  be  permitted  to  allude  to  the  fact  that  I  voted 
against  that  proceeding  last  year,  and  to  add  that  I  intend  to  do 
so  again  now.  I  may  be  allowed,  also,  to  remind  the  House  of  a 
series  of  resolutions  upon  this  subject,  which  I  offered  to  their  con- 
sideration some  days  ago.  I  know  not  whether  those  resolutions 
will  ever  emerge  from  the  pile  of  matter  under  which  they  now 
lie  buried  upon  your  table.  If  they  should,  however,  I  am  by 
no  means  sure  that  I  shall  not  propose  to  lay  them  aside  again 
without  discussion.  Nothing,  certainly,  was  further  from  my 
purpose  in  offering  them,  than  to  involve  this  House  in  a  stormy 
41 


482         ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

debate  about  peace  and  war.  Such  debates,  I  am  quite  sensible, 
are  of  most  injurious  influence  on  the  public  quiet  and  prosper- 
ity, and  I  have  no  disposition  to  render  myself  responsible  for  a 
renewal  of  them.  I  desired  only  then,  and  I  desire  only  now,  to 
place  before  the  House  and  before  the  country,  before  it  is  too 
late,  some  plain  and  precise  opinions,  which  are  sincerely  and 
strongly  entertained  by  myself,  and  which  I  believe  to  be  no  less 
strongly  entertained  by  many  of  those  with  whom  I  am  politi- 
cally associated,  in  regard  to  the  present  most  critical  state  of 
our  foreign  relations. 

I  desire  to  do  this  on  many  accounts,  and  to  do  it  without 
delay.  An  idea  seems  to  have  been  gaining  ground  in  some 
quarters,  and  to  have  been  somewhat  industriously  propagated 
in  all  quarters,  that  there  is  no  difference  of  sentiment  in  this 
House  in  reference  to  the  course  which  has  thus  far  been  pur- 
sued, or  which  seems  about  to  be  pursued  hereafter,  in  regard  to 
this  unfortunate  Oregon  controversy.  Now,  Sir,  upon  one  or  two 
points  connected  with  it,  there  may  be  no  difference  of  opinion. 
I  believe  there  is  none  upon  the  point,  that  the  United  States 
have  rights  in  Oregon  which  are  not  to  be  relinquished.  I 
believe  there  is  none  upon  the  point,  that,  if  the  controversy 
with  Great  Britain  should  result  in  war,  our  country,  and  the 
rights  of  our  country  on  both  sides  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
are  to  be  maintained  and  defended  with  all  the  power  and  all 
the  vigor  we  possess.  I  believe  there  is  none  either  upon  the 
point,  that  such  is  the  state  of  this  controversy  at  the  present 
moment,  that  we  owe  it  to  ourselves,  as  guardians  of  the  public 
safety,  to  bestow  something  more  than  the  ordinary  annual 
attention  —  I  might  better  say  the  ordinary  annual  inattention  — 
upon  our  national  defences,  and  to  place  our  country  in  a  posture 
of  preparation  for  meeting  the  worst  consequences  which  may 
befall  it. 

So  far,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  believe  there  are  common  opinions, 
united  thoughts  and  counsels,  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  and 
indeed  throughout  the  country,  without  distinction  of  party. 
But  certainly  there  are  wide  differences  of  sentiment  among 
ourselves  and  among  our  constituents,  upon  other  no  less  inter- 
esting and  substantial  points.     And  I  am  not  one  of  those  who 


ARBITRATION   OF   THE   OREGON   QUESTION.  483 

believe  in  the  necessity,  or  in  the  expediency,  of  concealing  these 
differences.  I  have  very  little  faith  in  the  hush  policy.  I  have 
very  little  faith  in  the  wisdom  of  keeping  up  an  appearance  of 
entire  unanimity  upon  a  question  like  this,  where  such  unanimity 
does  not  exist,  for  the  sake  of  mere  stage  effect,  and  with  a  view 
of  making  a  more  profound  impression  upon  the  spectators. 
Every  body  understands  such  concerted  arrangements ;  every 
body  sees  through  them,  whether  the  theatre  of  their  presentment 
be  on  one  side  of  the  Atlantic  or  on  the  other. 

Because  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord  John  Russell,  and  Lord 
Aberdeen  and  Lord  Palmerston,  thought  fit  to  unite  in  a  com- 
mon and  coincident  expression  of  sentiment,  in  the  two  Houses 
of  Parliament,  eight  or  nine  months  ago,  during  the  well-remem- 
bered debate  on  the  President's  inaugural  address,  I  do  not 
know  —  I  do  not  believe  —  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
were  any  the  more  awed  from  the  maintenance  of  their  own 
previous  views  and  purposes  in  regard  to  Oregon,  than  if  these 
distinguished  leaders  of  opposite  parties  had  exhibited  something 
less  of  dramatic  unity,  and  had  indulged  rather  more  freely  in 
those  diversities  of  sentiment  which  ordinarily  lend  interest  to 
their  discussions.  Nor  am  I  of  opinion,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
a  similar  course  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  is  to  have  any  material 
influence  on  the  action  of  the  British  Government.  I  hold,  at 
any  rate,  that  it  is  better  for  us  all  to  speak  our  own  minds,  to 
declare  our  own  honest  judgments,  and  to  look  more  to  the 
influence  of  our  remarks  upon  our  own  people  and  our  own 
policy,  than  upon  those  of  Great  Britain. 

I  may  add,  Sir,  that  in  presenting  these  resolutions  at  the 
earliest  opportunity  which  was  afforded  me,  I  was  actuated  by 
the  desire  to  put  my  own  views  upon  record,  before  the  return- 
ing Steamers  should  bring  back  to  us  from  England  the  angry 
recriminations  to  which  the  last  message  of  the  President  may 
not  improbably  give  occasion,  and  before  the  passions  of  our 
people  were  inflamed  by  any  violent  outbreaks  of  British  feeling, 
which  that  document  is  so  likely  to  excite. 

I  am  perfectly  aware,  Mr.  Speaker,  that,  let  me  express  the 
views  which  I  entertain  when  I  may,  I  shall  not  escape  reproach 
and  imputation  from  some  quarters  of  the  House.    I  know  that 


484         ARBITRATION  OP  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

there  are  those  by  whom  the  slightest  syllable  of  dissent  from  the 
extreme  views  whieh  the  Administration  would  seem  recently 
to  have  adopted,  will  be  eagerly  seized  upon  as  evidence  of  a 
want  of  what  they  call  patriotism  and  American  spirit.  I  spurn 
all  such  imputations  in  advance.  I  spurn  the  notion  that  patriot- 
ism can  only  be  manifested  by  plunging  the  nation  into  war,  or 
that  the  love  of  one's  own  country  can  only  be  measured  by  one's 
hatred  to  any  other  country.  Sir,  the  American  spirit  that  is 
wanted  at  the  present  moment,  wanted  for  our  highest  honor, 
wanted  for  our  dearest  interests,  is  that  which  dares  to  confront 
the  mad  impulses  of  a  superficial  popular  sentiment,  and  to 
appeal  to  the  sober  second  thoughts  of  moral  and  intelligent  men. 
Every  schoolboy  can  declaim  about  honor  and  war,  the  British 
lion  and  the  American  eagle  ;  and  it  is  a  vice  of  our  nature  that 
the  calmest  of  us  have  heartstrings  which  may  vibrate  for  a  mo- 
ment even  to  such  vulgar  touches.  But,  —  thanks  to  the  institu- 
tions of  education  and  religion  which  our  fathers  founded! — the 
great  mass  of  the  American  people  have,  also,  an  intelligence  and 
a  moral  sense  which  will  sooner  or  later  respond  to  appeals  of  a 
higher  and  nobler  sort,  if  we  will  only  have  the  firmness  to  make 
them.  It  was  a  remark  of  an  old  English  courtier,  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  to  one  who  threatened  to  take  the  sense  of  the 
people  on  some  important  question,  that  he  would  take  the  non- 
sense of  the  people  and  beat  him  twenty  to  one.  And  it  might 
have  been  something  better  than  a  good  joke  in  relation  to  the 
people  of  England  at  the  time  it  was  uttered.  But  I  am  not 
ready  to  regard  it  as  applicable  to  our  own  intelligent  and  edu- 
cated American  people  at  the  present  day.  An  appeal  to  the 
nonsense  of  the  American  people  may  succeed  for  an  hour ;  but 
the  stern  sense  of  the  country  will  soon  reassert  itself,  and  will 
carry  the  day  in  the  end. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  there  are  other  reproaches,  besides  those  of 
my  opponents,  to  which  I  may  be  thought  to  subject  myself, 
by  the  formal  promulgation  of  the  views  which  I  entertain  on 
this  subject.  It  has  been  said,  in  some  quarters,  that  it  is  not 
good  party  policy  to  avow  such  doctrines ;  that  the  friends  of 
the  Administration  desire  nothing  so  much  as  an  excuse  for 
branding  the   Whigs  of  the   Union  as  the  peace  party  ;  and 


ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION.         485 

that  the  only  course  for  us  in  the  minority  to  pursue,  is  to  brag 
about  our  readiness  for  war  with  those  that  brag  loudest.  Now, 
I  am  entirely  sensible  that  if  an  opponent  of  the  present  adminis- 
tration were  willing  to  make  a  mere  party  instrument  of  this 
Oregon  negotiation,  he  might  find  in  its  most  recent  history  the 
amplest  materials,  for  throwing  back  upon  the  majority  in  this 
House  the  imputations,  in  which  they  have  been  heretofore  so 
ready  to  indulge.  How  easy  and  obvious  it  would  be  for  us  to 
ask,  where,  where  was  the  heroic  determination  of  the  Executive 
to  vindicate  our  title  to  the  whole  of  Oregon  —  yes,  sir,  "  the 
ivhole  or  none"  —  when  a  deliberate  offer  of  more  than  five 
degrees  of  latitude  was  recently  made  to  Great  Britain  ? —  Made, 
too,  at  a  moment  when  the  President  and  his  Secretary  of  State 
tell  you  that  they  firmly  believed  that  our  right  to  the  whole 
was  clear  and  unquestionable !  How  easy  it  would  be  to  taunt 
the  Secretary  of  State  with  the  policy  he  has  pursued  in  his 
correspondence,  of  keeping  back  those  convincing  arguments 
upon  which  he  now  relies  to  justify  him  in  claiming  the  whole 
of  this  disputed  territory,  until  his  last  letter,  —  until  he  had 
tried  in  vain  to  induce  Great  Britain  to  accept  a  large  part  of 
this  territory,  —  as  if  he  were  afraid  to  let  even  his  own  country 
understand  how  good  our  title  really  was,  in  case  he  could  suc- 
ceed in  effecting  a  compromise  ! 

For  myself,  however,  I  utterly  repudiate  all  idea  of  party 
obligations  or  party  views  in  connection  with  this  question.  I 
scorn  the  suggestion  that  the  peace  of  my  country  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  mere  pawn  on  the  political  chess-board,  to  be 
perilled  for  any  mere  party  triumph.  We  have  seen  enough  of 
the  mischief  of  mingling  such  questions  with  party  politics. 
We  see  it  at  this  moment.  It  has  been  openly  avowed  else- 
where, and  was  repeated  by  the  honorable  member  from  Illinois 
(Mr.  Douglas)  in  this  House  yesterday,  that  Oregon  and  Texas 
were  born  and  cradled  together  in  the  Baltimore  convention ; 
that  they  were  the  twin  offspring  of  that  political  conclave ;  and 
in  that  avowal  may  be  found  the  whole  explanation  of  the  diffi- 
culties and  dangers  with  which  the  question  is  now  attended. 

I  honor  the  administration,  Mr.  Speaker,  for  whatever  spirit 
of  conciliation,  compromise,  and  peace,  it  has  hitherto  mani- 
41* 


486         ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

fested  on  this  subject,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  so.  If 
I  have  any  thing  to  reproach  them  with,  or  taunt  them  for,  it  is 
for  what  appears  to  me  as  an  unreasonable  and  precipitate  aban- 
donment of  that  spirit.  And  if  anybody  desires  on  this  account, 
or  any  other  account,  to  brand  me  as  a  member  of  the  peace 
party,  I  bare  my  bosom,  I  hold  out  both  my  hands,  to  receive 
that  brand.  I  am  willing  to  take  its  first  and  deepest  impres- 
sion, while  the  iron  is  sharpest  and  hottest.  If  there  be  any 
thing  of  shame  in  such  a  brand,  I  certainly  glory  in  my  shame. 
As  Cicero  said,  in  contemplation  of  any  odium  which  might 
attach  to  him  for  dealing  in  too  severe  or  summary  a  manner 
with  Catiline,  "  Eo  animo  semper  fui,  ut  invidiam  virtute  partam, 
gloriam,  non  invidiam,  putarem  !  " 

But  who,  who  is  willing  to  bear  the  brand  of  being  a  member 
of  the  war  party  ?  Who  will  submit  to  have  that  Cain-mark 
stamped  upon  his  brow  ?  I  thank  Heaven  that  all  men,  on  all 
sides,  have  thus  far  refused  to  wear  it.  No  man,  of  ever  so 
extreme  opinions,  has  ventured  yet  to  speak  upon  this  ques- 
tion without  protesting,  in  the  roundest  terms,  that  he  was  for 
peace.  Even  the  honorable  member  from  Illinois,  who  was 
for  giving  the  notice  to  quit  at  the  earliest  day,  and  for  pro- 
ceeding at  once  to  build  forts  and  stockades,  and  for  asserting 
an  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  the  whole  Oregon  Territory  at  the 
very  instant  at  which  the  twelve  months  should  expire,  was  as 
stout  as  any  of  us  for  preserving  peace.  My  venerable  colleague, 
(Mr.  Adams,)  too,  from  whom  I  always  differ  with  great  regret, 
but  in  differing  from  whom  on  the  present  occasion,  I  conform 
not  more  to  my  own  conscientious  judgment  than  to  the  opi- 
nions of  my  constituents  and  of  a  great  majority  of  the  people  of 
Massachusetts,  as  I  understand  them  —  he,  too,  I  am  sure,  even 
in  that  very  torrent  of  eloquent  indignation  which  cost  us  for  a 
moment  the  order  and  dignity  of  the  House,  could  have  had 
nothing  but  the  peace  of  the  country  at  heart.  So  far  as  peace, 
then,  is  concerned,  it  seems  that  we  are  all  agreed.  "  Only  it 
must  be  an  honorable  peace;"  —  that,  I  think,  is  the  stereotyped 
phrase  of  the  day ;  and  all  our  differences  are  thus  reduced  to 
the  question,  What  constitutes  an  honorable  peace  ? 

Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  answer  to  this  question  must 


ARBITRATION   OP   THE   OREGON   QUESTION.  487 

depend  upon  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  case  to  which  it 
is  applied.  Yet,  I  will  not  pass  to  the  consideration  of  that  case 
without  putting  the  burden  of  proof  where  it  belongs.  Peace, 
sir,  in  itself,  in  its  own  nature,  and  of  its  own  original  essence, 
is  honorable.  No  individual,  no  nation,  can  lay  a  higher  claim 
to  the  honor  of  man  or  the  blessing  of  Heaven  than  to  seek 
peace  and  ensue  it.  Louis  Philippe  may  envy  no  monument 
which  ever  covered  human  dust,  if  it  may  justly  be  inscribed  on 
his  tombstone,  (as  has  recently  been  suggested,)  that,  while  he 
lived,  the  peace  of  Europe  was  secure  !  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
war,  in  its  proper  character,  is  disgraceful ;  and  the  man  or  the 
country  which  shall  wilfully  and  wantonly  provoke  it,  deserves 
the  execrations  of  earth  and  heaven.  These,  Mr.  Speaker,  are 
the  general  principles  which  civilization  and  Christianity  have 
at  length  ingrafted  upon  the  public  code  of  Christendom.  If 
there  be  exceptions  to  them,  as  I  do  not  deny  there  are,  they  are 
to  be  proved  specially  by  those  who  allege  them.  Is  there,  then, 
any  thing  in  the  Oregon  controversy,  as  it  now  stands  before  us, 
which  furnishes  an  exception  to  these  general  principles  ?  —  any 
thing  which  would  render  a  pacific  policy  discreditable,  or  which 
would  invest  war  with  any  degree  of  true  honor  ?  I  deny  it 
altogether.  I  reiterate  the  propositions  of  the  resolutions  on 
your  table.     I  maintain, — 

1.  That  this  question,  from  its  very  nature,  is  peculiarly  and 
eminently  one  for  negotiation,  compromise,  and  amicable  adjust- 
ment. 

2.  That  satisfactory  evidence  has  not  yet  been  afforded  that 
no  compromise  which  the  United  States  ought  to  accept  can  be 
effected. 

3.  That,  if  no  other  mode  of  amicable  settlement  remains, 
arbitration  ought  to  be  resorted  to ;  and  that  this  government 
cannot  relieve  itself  from  its  responsibility  to  maintain  the  peace 
of  the  country  while  arbitration  is  still  untried. 

I  perceive,  sir,  that  the  brief  time  allowed  us  in  debate  will 
compel  me  to  deal  in  the  most  summary  way  with  these  pro- 
positions, and  that  I  must  look  to  other  opportunities  for  doing 
full  justice  either  to  them  or  to  myself.  Let  me  hasten,  how- 
ever, to  do  them  what  justice  I  may. 


488         ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

There  are  three  distinct  views  in  which  this  question  may  be 
presented,  as  one  peculiarly  fit  for  negotiation  and  compromise. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  character  of  the  subject-matter  of 
the  controversy.  Unquestionably  there  may  be  rights  and  claims 
not  of  a  nature  to  admit  of  compromise,  and  as  to  which  there 
must  be  absolute  and  unconditional  relinquishment  on  one  side 
or  the  other,  or  a  conflict  is  inevitable.  I  may  allude  to  the 
impressment  of  our  seamen  as  an  example,  —  a  practice  which 
could  not  be  renewed  by  Great  Britain  at  any  moment,  or  under 
any  circumstances,  without  producing  immediate  hostilities.  But 
here  we  have  as  the  bone  of  our  contention,  a  vast  and  vacant 
territory,  thousands  of  miles  distant  from  both  countries,  entirely 
capable  of  division,  and  the  loss  of  any  part,  I  had  almost  said 
of  the  whole,  of  which,  would  not  be  of  the  smallest  practical 
moment  to  either  of  them ;  —  a  territory  the  sovereignty  of  which 
might  remain  in  abeyance  for  half  a  century  longer  without 
serious  inconvenience  or  detriment  to  anybody,  and  in  reference 
to  which  there  is  certainly  not  the  slightest  pretence  of  a  neces- 
sity for  summary  or  precipitate  action.  We  need  ports  on  the 
Pacific.  As  to  land,  we  have  millions  of  acres  of  better  land 
still  unoccupied  on  this  side  of  the  mountains.  What  a  spec- 
tacle it  would  be,  in  the  sight  of  men  and  of  angels,  for  the  two 
countries  which  claim  to  have  made  the  greatest  advances  in 
civilization  and  Christianity,  and  which  are  bound  together  by 
so  many  ties  of  nature  and  art,  of  kindred  and  of  commerce, 
each  of  them  with  possessions  so  vast  and  various,  to  be  seen 
engaging  in  a  conflict  of  brute  force  for  the  immediate  and  ex- 
clusive occupation  of  the  whole  of  Oregon !  The  annals  of 
barbarism  would  afford  no  parallel  to  such  a  scene ! 

In  the  second  place,  sir,  there  is  the  character  of  the  title  to 
this  territory  on  both  sides.  I  shall  attempt  no  analysis  or  his- 
tory of  this  title.  I  am  certainly  not  disposed  to  vindicate  the 
British  title  ;  and  as  to  the  American,  there  is  nothing  to  be 
added  to  the  successive  expositions  of  the  eminent  statesmen 
and  diplomatists  by  whom  it  has  been  illustrated.  But,  after 
all,  what  a  title  it  is  to  fight  about !  Who  can  pretend  that  it 
is  free  from  all  difficulty  or  doubt  ?  Who  would  take  an  acre 
of  land  upon  such  a  title  as  an  investment,  without  the  warranty 


ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION.         489 

of  something  more  than  the  two  regiments  of  riflemen  for  which 
your  bill  provides  ?  Of  what  is  the  title  made  up  ?  Vague 
traditions  of  settlement,  musty  records  of  old  voyages,  con- 
flicting claims  of  discovery,  disputed  principles  of  public  law, 
acknowledged  violations  of  the  rights  of  aboriginal  occupants  — 
these  are  the  elements  —  I  had  almost  said  the  beggarly  ele- 
ments —  out  of  which  our  clear  and  indisputable  title  is  com- 
pounded. I  declare  to  you,  Sir,  that  as  often  as  I  thread  the 
mazes  of  this  controversy,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  dispute  as  to 
the  relative  rights  of  two  parties  to  a  territory,  to  which  neither 
of  them  has  any  real  right  whatever ;  and  I  should  hardly  blame 
the  other  nations  of  the  world  for  insisting  on  coming  in  for 
scot  and  lot  in  the  partition  of  it.  Certainly,  if  we  should  be 
so  false  to  our  character  as  civilized  nations  as  to  fight  about  it, 
the  rest  of  Christendom  would  be  justified,  if  they  had  the 
power,  in  treating  us  as  we  have  always  treated  the  savage 
tribes  of  our  own  continent,  and  turning  us  both  out  altogether. 

Why,  look  at  a  single  fact  in  the  history  of  this  controversy. 
In  1818,  we  thought  our  title  to  Oregon  as  clear  and  as  unques- 
tionable as  we  think  it  now.  We  proposed  then  to  divide  it 
with  Great  Britain,  without  the  slightest  reference  to  any  third 
party  in  interest.  Yet  at  that  very  moment  Spain  was  in  pos- 
session of  those  rights  of  discovery,  which,  since  they  were 
transferred  to  us  by  the  treaty  of  Florida,  we  consider  as  con- 
stituting one  of  the  strongest  elements  in  our  whole  case.  It  is 
a  most  notable  incident,  that  in  the  discussions  of  1818  not  a 
word  was  said  in  regard  either  to  the  rights  of  Spain  or  to  the 
Nootka  convention.  Yet  now  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  are  found  placing  their  principal  reliance  on  these  two 
sources  of  title.  Is  there  not  enough  in  this  historical  fact  to 
lead  us  to  distrust  our  own  judgments  and  our  own  conclusions, 
and  to  warn  us  of  the  danger  of  fixing  our  views  so  exclusively 
on  our  own  real  or  imagined  wants  or  interests,  as  to  overlook 
the  rights  of  others  ? 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood,  Mr.  Speaker.  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  saying  that  I  honestly  think,  upon  as  dispassionate  a 
review  of  the  correspondence  as  I  am  capable  of,  that  the  Ameri- 
can title  to  Oregon  is  the  best  now  in  existence.     But  I  hon- 


490         ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

estly  think,  also,  that  the  whole  character  of  the  title  is  too  con- 
fused and  complicated  to  justify  any  arbitrary  and  exclusive 
assertions  of  right,  and  that  a  compromise  of  the  question  is 
every  way  consistent  with  reason,  interest,  and  honor. 

There  is  one  element  in  our  title,  however,  which  I  confess 
that  I  have  not  named,  and  to  which  I  may  not  have  done  en- 
tire justice.  I  mean  that  new  revelation  of  right,  which  has 
been  designated  as  the  right  of  our  manifest  destiny  to  spread 
over  this  whole  continent.  It  has  been  openly  avowed,  in  a 
leading  administration  journal,  that  this,  after  all,  is  our  best  and 
strongest  title ;  one  so  clear,  so  preeminent,  and  so  indisputable, 
that  if  Great  Britain  had  all  our  other  titles  in  addition  to  her 
own,  they  would  weigh  nothing  against  it.  The  right  of  our 
manifest  destiny  !  There  is  a  right  for  a  new  chapter  in  the  law 
of  nations ;  or  rather  in  the  special  laws  of  our  own  country ; 
for  I  suppose  the  right  of  a  manifest  destiny  to  spread,  will  not 
be  admitted  to  exist  in  any  nation  except  the  universal  Yankee 
nation!  This  right  of  our  manifest  destiny,  Mr.  Speaker,  re- 
minds me  of  another  source  of  title  which  is  worthy  of  being 
placed  beside  it.  Spain  and  Portugal,  we  all  know,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century  laid  claim  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
this  whole  northern  continent  of  America.  Francis  I.  is  related 
to  have  replied  to  this  pretension,  that  he  should  like  to  see  the 
clause  in  Adam's  Will,  in  which  their  exclusive  title  was  found. 
Now,  Sir,  I  look  for  an  early  reproduction  of  this  idea.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  if  due  search  be  made,  a  copy  of  this  primeval 
instrument,  with  a  clause  giving  us  the  whole  of  Oregon,  can 
be  somewhere  hunted  up.  Perhaps  it  may  be  found  in  that 
same  Illinois  cave  in  which  the  Mormon  Testament  has  been 
discovered.  I  commend  the  subject  to  the  attention  of  those  in 
that  neighborhood,  and  will  promise  to  withdraw  all  my  opposi- 
tion to  giving  notice  or  taking  possession,  whenever  the  right  of 
our  manifest  destiny  can  be  fortified  by  the  provisions  of  our 
great  First  Parent's  last  will  and  testament ! 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  a  third,  and,  in  my  judgment,  a  still  more 
conclusive  reason  for  regarding  this  question  as  one  for  negotia- 
tion and  compromise.  I  refer  to  its  history,  and  to  the  admis- 
sions on  both  sides  which  that  history  contains.     For  thirty  years 


ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION.         491 

this  question  has  been  considered  and  treated  as  one  not  of  title, 
but  of  boundary.  To  run  a  boundary  line  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  —  this  has  been  the  avowed  object  of  each  successive  nego- 
tiation. It  has  been  so  treated  by  Mr.  Monroe,  and  Mr.  Adams,  and 
Mr.  Gallatin,  and  Mr.  Rush,  and  by  all  the  other  American  states- 
men who  have  treated  of  it  at  all.  Offers  of  compromise  and  ar- 
rangement have  been  repeatedly  made  on  both  sides  on  this  basis. 
Three  times  we  have  offered  to  Great  Britain  to  divide  with  her 
on  the  49th  parallel  of  latitude,  and  to  give  her  the  navigation 
of  the  Columbia  into  the  bargain.  Mr.  Polk  and  Mr.  Buchanan 
themselves  have  acted  upon  the  same  principle  up  to  the  moment 
of  the  final  abrupt  termination  of  the  negotiations.  They  have 
offered  again  to  make  the  49th  parallel  the  boundary  line  between 
the  possessions  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  in  the 
Northwestern  Territory.  With  what  face,  then,  can  we  now 
turn  round  and  declare  that  there  is  no  boundary  line  to  be  run, 
nothing  to  negotiate  about,  and  that  any  such  course  would 
involve  a  cession  and  surrender  of  American  soil!  Such  a 
course  would  be  an  impeachment  of  the  conduct  of  the  distin- 
guished statesmen  whose  names  I  have  mentioned.  It  implies 
an  imputation  upon  the  present  President  of  the  United  States 
and  his  Secretary  of  State.  And,  explain  it  as  we  may,  it 
would  be  regarded  as  an  unwarrantable  and  offensive  assump- 
tion by  the  whole  civilized  world. 

Sir,  I  am  glad  to  perceive  that  the  language  of  the  President's 
message  is  in  some  degree  conformable  to  this  view.  He  tells 
us  that  the  history  of  the  negotiation  thus  far  "  affords  satisfac- 
tory evidence,"  not  that  no  compromise  ought  to  be  made,  but 
that  "  no  compromise  which  the  United  States  ought  to  accept 
can  be  effected." 

And  this  brings  me  to  another  of  my  propositions.  I  take 
issue  with  the  message  on  this  point.  I  deny  that  the  rejection 
of  the  precise  offer  which  was  made  to  Great  Britain  last  sum- 
mer, has  furnished  satisfactory  evidence  that  no  compromise 
which  the  United  States  ought  to  accept  can  be  effected.  Cer- 
tainly, I  regret  that  Great  Britain  did  not  accept  that  offer. 
Certainly,  I  think  that  this  question  might  fairly  be  settled  on 


492  ARBITRATION   OF  THE   OREGON  QUESTION. 

the  basis  of  the  49th  parallel;  and  I  believe  sincerely  that,  if 
precipitate  and  offensive  steps  be  not  taken  on  our  part,  the 
question  will  ultimately  be  settled  on  that  basis.  But  there  may 
be  little  deviations  from  that  line  required,  to  make  it  acceptable 
to  Great  Britain  ;  and,  if  so,  we  ought  not  to  hesitate  in  making 
them.  I  deny  that  the  precise  offer  of  Mr.  Buchanan  is  the  only 
one  which  the  United  States  ought  to  accept  for  the  sake  of 
peace.  Such  a  suggestion  is  an  impeachment  of  the  wisdom 
and  patriotism  of  men  by  no  means  his  inferiors,  who  have  made 
other  and  more  liberal  offers.  I  think  that  we  ought  to  accept  a 
compromise  at  least  as  favorable  to  Great  Britain  as  the  one 
which  we  have  three  times  proposed  to  her.  If  we  are  unwilling  to 
give  her  the  navigation  of  the  Columbia,  we  should  provide  some 
equivalent  for  it.  If  the  question  is  to  be  amicably  settled,  it 
must  be  settled  on  terms  consistent  with  the  honor  of  both  par- 
ties. And  nobody  can  imagine  that  Great  Britain  will  regard  it 
as  consistent  with  her  honor,  to  take  a  line  less  favorable  to  her 
interests,  than  that  which  she  has  three  times  declined  within 
the  last  thirty  years.  Let  me  say,  however,  in  regard  to  the 
navigation  of  the  Columbia,  that,  if  I  understand  it  aright,  it  is 
of  very  little  importance  whether  we  give  it  or  withhold  it,  as  the 
river  is  believed  not  to  be  navigable  at  all,  where  it  is  struck  by 
the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  latitude.  I  trust  that  we  shall  not  add 
folly  to  crime,  by  going  to  war  rather  than  yield  the  navigation 
of  an  unnavigable  river. 

And  here,  Sir,  I  have  a  word  to  say  in  reference  to  a  remark 
made  by  the  honorable  member  from  New  York  who  has  just 
taken  his  seat,  (Mr.  Preston  King.)  I  understood  him  to  say 
that  the  Administration,  in  making  the  offer  of  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  to  Great  Britain  during  the  last  summer,  did  it  with  the 
perfect  understanding  that  it  would  be  rejected.  I  appeal  to  the 
honorable  member  to  say  whether  I  have  quoted  him  correctly. 

Mr.  P.  King.     I  said  I  had  heard  it,  and  believed  it  to  be  so. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  There  is  an  admission  to  which  I  wish  to 
call  the  solemn  attention  of  the  House  and  of  the  country.  I 
trust  in  Heaven  that  the  honorable  member  is  mistaken.  I  trust, 
for  the  honor  of  the  country,  that  the  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Affairs  will  obtain  official  authority  to  contradict  this 
statement. 


ARBITRATION   OF  THE   OREGON   QUESTION.  '      493 

Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll.  I  will  not  wait  for  any  authority.  I 
deny  it  most  unqualifiedly. 

Mr.  P.  King.  I  have  no  other  authority  on  this  subject  than 
public  rumor,  and  this  I  believe  to  be  correct. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  It  cannot  be  correct.  What  sort  of  an  ad- 
ministration are  you  supporting,  if  you  can  believe  them  to  have 
been  guilty  of  an  act  of  such  gross  duplicity  in  the  face  of  the 
world,  in  order  to  furnish  themselves  with  a  pretext  for  war?  I 
would  not  have  heard  their  enemy  suggest  such  an  idea. 

Mr.  P.  King.  Any  man  of  common  sense  might  have  known 
that  such  a  proposition  to  the  British  Government  would  be 
rejected,  as  it  has  been,  without  even  being  remitted  across  the 
water. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  Better  and  better.  I  thank  the  honorable 
member  even  more  for  the  admission  he  has  now  made. 

Mr.  P.  King.     You  are  welcome  to  it. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  I  am  under  no  particular  obligation  to  vin- 
dicate the  course  of  the  present  Administration.  But,  as  an 
American  citizen,  without  regard  to  party,  and  with  a  single  eye 
to  the  honor  of  my  country,  I  would  indignantly  repel  the  idea 
that  our  Government,  in  whosesoever  hands  it  might  be,  could 
be  guilty  of  so  scandalous  and  abominable  an  act  as  that  which 
has  now  been  imputed  to  it  by  one  of  its  peculiar  defenders. 
But  the  honorable  member  admits  that  any  man  of  common 
sense  must  have  understood,  that  the  minister  of  Great  Britain 
would  refuse  the  offer  which  was  thus  made,  (hypocritically  made, 
as  he  believes,)  and  would  refuse  it  precisely  as  it  has  been  re- 
fused, without  even  transmitting  it  across  the  water.  What, 
then,  becomes  of  all  the  indignation  which  has  been  expressed 
and  implied  by  the  Administration  and  its  friends,  from  the 
Secretary  of  State  downwards,  at  the  rejection,  and  more  par- 
ticularly at  the  manner  of  the  rejection,  of  that  offer  ?  Why,  it 
seems,  after  all,  that  the  honorable  member  and  myself  are  not 
so  very  far  apart.  This  admission  of  his  is  entirely  in  accord- 
ance with  the  view  which  I  have  already  expressed,  that  if  any 
compromise  whatever  was  to  be  made,  (and  I  rejoice  to  find  that 
even  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs  has  this 
morning  emphatically  denominated  himself  a  compromiser,)  the 
42 


494         ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION. 

rejection  of  this  precise  offer  does  not  authorize  us  to  leap  at 
once  to  the  conclusion,  that  "  no  compromise  which  the  United 
States  ought  to  accept  can  be  effected."  If  our  Government 
has  thus  far  made  no  offer,  except  one  which  "  any  man  of  com- 
mon sense  might  have  known  would  be  rejected  precisely  as  it 
has  been,"  I  trust  it  will  bethink  itself  of  making  another  offer 
hereafter,  which  will  afford  to  Great  Britain  a  less  reasonable  pre- 
text for  so  summary  a  proceeding. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  certainly  possible  that,  with  the  best 
intentions  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  all  efforts  at  negotiating  a 
compromise  may  fail.  It  may  turn  out  hereafter,  though  I  deny 
that  it  is  yet  proved,  that  no  compromise  which  the  United 
States  ought  to  accept  can  be  effected.  What  then  ?  Is  there 
no  resort  but  war?  Yes,  yes ;  there  is  still  another  easy  and 
obvious  mode  of  averting  that  fearful  alternative.  I  mean  arbi- 
tration ;  a  resort  so  reasonable,  so  just,  so  conformable  to  the 
principles  which  govern  us  in  our  daily  domestic  affairs,  so  con- 
formable to  the  spirit  of  civilization  and  Christianity,  that  no 
man  will  venture  to  say  one  word  against  it  in  the  abstract. 
But  then  we  can  find  no  impartial  arbiter,  say  gentlemen ;  and, 
therefore,  we  will  have  no  arbitration.  Our  title  is  so  clear  and 
so  indisputable,  that  we  can  find  nobody  in  the  wide  world  impar- 
tial enough  to  give  it  a  fair  consideration ! 

Sir,  this  is  a  most  unworthy  pretence ;  unworthy  of  us,  and 
offensive  to  all  mankind.  It  is  doing  injustice  to  our  own  case 
and  to  our  own  character,  to  assume  that  all  the  world  are  pre- 
judiced against  us.  Nothing  but  a  consciousness  of  having 
giving  cause  for  such  a  state  of  feeling,  could  have  suggested  its 
existence.  The  day  has  been  when  we  could  hold  up  our  heads 
and  appeal  confidently,  not  merely  for  justice,  but  for  sympathy 
and  succor,  if  they  were  needed,  to  more  than  one  gallant  and 
generous  nation.  We  may  do  so  again,  if  we  will  not  wantonly 
outrage  the  feelings  of  the  civilized  world.  For  myself,  there  is 
no  monarch  in  Europe  to  whom  I  should  fear  to  submit  this 
question.  The  King  of  France,  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  Empe- 
ror of  Russia,  either  of  them  would  bring  to  it  intelligence, 
impartiality,  and  ability.  But,  if  there  be  a  jealousy  of  crowned 
heads,  why  not  propose  a  commission  of  civilians  ?     If  you  will 


ARBITRATION  OF  THE  OREGON  QUESTION.         495 

put  no  trust  in  princes,  there  are  profound  jurists,  accomplished 
historians,  men  of  learning,  philosophy,  and  science,  on  both  sides 
of  the  water,  from  whom  a  tribunal  might  be  constituted,  whose 
decision  upon  any  question  would  command  universal  confidence 
and  respect.  The  venerable  Gallatin,  (to  name  no  other  Ame- 
rican name,)  to  whose  original  exposition  of  this  question  we 
owe  almost  all  that  is  valuable  in  the  papers  by  which  our  title 
has  since  been  enforced,  would  add  the  crowning  grace  to  his 
long  life  of  patriotic  service,  by  representing  his  country  once 
more  in  a  tribunal  to  which  her  honor,  her  interests,  and  her 
peace  might  safely  be  intrusted.  At  any  rate,  let  us  not  reject 
the  idea  of  arbitration  in  the  abstract;  and,  if  the  terms  cannot 
be  agreed  upon  afterwards,  we  shall  have  some  sort  of  apology 
for  not  submitting  to  it.  General  Jackson,  sir,  did  not  regard 
arbitration  as  a  measure  unfit  either  for  him  or  his  country  to 
adopt.  Indeed,  it  is  well  understood  that  he  was  so  indignant 
at  the  King  of  Holland's  line  not  being  accepted  by  us,  that  he 
declined  to  take  any  further  steps  on  the  subject  of  the  north- 
eastern boundary. 

I  cannot  but  regret,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  the  President,  in  mak- 
ing up  an  issue  before  the  civilized  world,  upon  which  he  claims 
to  be  relieved  from  all  responsibility  which  may  follow  the  failure 
to  settle  this  question,  has  omitted  all  allusion  to  the  fact  that 
arbitration  on  this  subject  of  Oregon  has  been  once  solemnly 
tendered  to  us  by  Great  Britain.  I  am  willing,  however,  to  put 
the  very  best  construction  on  this  omission  of  which  it  is  sus- 
ceptible, and  to  believe  that  the  President  desired  to  leave  him- 
self uncommitted  upon  the  point.  Without  some  such  expla- 
nation, it  certainly  has  a  most  unfortunate  and  disingenuous 
look.  This  omitted  fact  is,  indeed,  enough  to  turn  the  scale  of 
the  public  judgment  upon  the  whole  issue.  Arbitration  offered 
by  Great  Britain,  and  perseveringly  rejected  by  us,  leaves  the 
responsibility  for  the  preservation  of  peace  upon  our  own 
shoulders.  The  Administration  cannot  escape  from  the  burden 
of  that  responsibility.  And  a  fearful  responsibility  it  is,  both  to 
man  and  to  God ! 

Before  concluding  my  remarks,  as  the  clock  admonishes  me  I 
soon  must,  I  desire  to  revert  to  one  or  two  points  to  which  I 


496  ARBITRATION    OF  THE   OREGON  QUESTION. 

alluded  briefly  [at  the  outset.  I  have  already  declared  myself 
opposed  to  the  views  of  my  honorable  colleague,  (Mr.  Adams,) 
as  to  giving  the  notice  to  Great  Britain.  I  honestly  believe  that 
the  termination  of  that  convention  of  joint  occupation,  (I  call 
it  by  this  name  for  convenience,  not  perceiving  that  it  makes 
any  material  difference  as  to  the  real  questions  before  us,)  at  this 
moment,  under  existing  circumstances,  and  with  the  view,  which 
my  honorable  colleague  has  expressed,  of  following  it  up  by  the 
immediate  occupation  of  the  whole  of  Oregon,  would  almost 
unavoidably  terminate  in  war.  I  see  no  probable,  and  hardly 
any  possible,  escape  from  such  a  consequence.  And  to  what  end 
are  we  to  involve  our  country  in  such  a  calamity  ?  I  appeal  to 
my  honorable  colleague,  and  to  every  member  on  this  floor,  to 
tell  me  what  particular  advantage  is  to  be  derived  from  giving 
this  notice  and  terminating  this  convention  at  this  precise 
moment,  and  in  advance  of  any  amicable  adjustment.  The 
honorable  member  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll)  has 
said  that  this  convention  is  the  own  child  of  my  honorable  col- 
league. It  has  been  twice  established  under  his  auspices,  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  statesmen  as  patriotic  and  dis- 
criminating as  any  who  now  hold  the  helm  of  our  Government. 
"What  evil  has  it  done  ?     What  evil  is  it  now  doing  ? 

The  honorable  member  from  Pennsylvania  has  given  us  a  rich 
description  of  the  rapid  influx  of  population  into  that  territory. 
He  has  presented  us  with  a  lively  picture  of  I  know  not  how 
many  thousand  women  and  children  on  their  winding  way  to 
this  promised  land  beyond  the  mountains.  Let  them  go !  God 
speed  them !  There  is  nothing  in  the  terms  of  this  convention 
which  impedes  their  passage,  nor  any  thing  which  prevents  us 
from  throwing  over  them  the  protection  of  a  limited  territorial  go- 
vernment. I  am  ready  to  go  as  far  as  Great  Britain  has  gone, 
in  establishing  our  jurisdiction  there ;  and  no  interest,  either  of 
those  who  are  going  there,  or  of  those  who  are  staying  here,  calls 
on  us  to  go  further  at  present.  The  best  interests  of  both  parties, 
on  the  contrary,  forbid  any  such  proceeding.  Gentlemen  talk 
about  following  up  this  notice  by  taking  immediate  possession 
of  the  territory.  This  is  sooner  said  than  done.  What  if  Great 
Britain  should  happen  to  get  the  start  of  us  in  that  proceeding  ? 


ARBITRATION   OF  THE    OREGON    QUESTION.  497 

Such  a  thing  would  not  be  matter  of  very  great  astonishment 
to  those  who  remember  her  celerity  in  such  movements,  and  her 
power  to  sustain  them  when  once  made.  Where  should  we  be 
then  ?     Would  there  be  no  war  ? 

And  what  would  be  the  consequences  of  a  war  under  such 
circumstances ;  the  consequences,  not  upon  cotton  or  upon  com- 
merce, not  upon  Boston,  or  Charleston,  or  New  York,  but  what 
would  be  the  consequences  so  far  merely  as  Oregon  itself  is 
concerned  ?  The  cry  is  now  "  the  whole  of  Oregon  or  none," 
and  echo  would  answer,  under  such  circumstances,  "  none ! "  I 
see  not  how  any  man  in  his  senses  can  resist  the  conviction,  that, 
whatever  compensation  we  might  console  ourselves  with,  by  a 
cut  out  of  Canada,  or  by  the  whole  of  Canada,  —  that  under 
whatever  circumstances  of  success  we  might  carry  on  the  war 
in  other  quarters  of  the  world  or  of  our  own  continent,  —  the 
adoption  of  such  a  course  would  result  in  the  immediate  loss  of 
the  whole  of  the  territory  in  dispute.  This,  at  least,  is  my  own 
honest  opinion. 

As  a  friend,  then,  to  Oregon,  with  every  disposition  to  main- 
tain our  just  rights  to  that  territory,  with  the  most  sincere  desire 
to  see  that  territory  in  the  possession  of  such  of  our  own  people 
as  desire  to  occupy  it — whether  hereafter  as  an  independent 
nation,  as  was  originally  suggested  by  a  distinguished  Senator 
from  Missouri,  (Mr.  Benton,)  and  more  recently  by  a  no  less 
distinguished  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  (Mr.  Webster,)  or  as 
a  portion  of  our  own  wide-spread  and  glorious  Republic —  I  am 
opposed  to  the  steps  which  are  now  about  to  be  so  hotly  pursued. 

Sir,  I  feel  that  I  have  a  right  to  express  something  more  than 
an  ordinary  interest  in  this  matter.  There  is  no  better  element 
in  our  title  to  Oregon  than  that  which  has  been  contributed  by 
Boston  enterprise.  You  may  talk  about  the  old  navigators  of 
Spain,  and  the  Florida  treaty,  and  the  settlement  at  Astoria,  and 
the  survey  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,  as  much  as  you  please,  but  you 
all  come  back,  for  your  best  satisfaction,  to  " Auld  Robin  Gray  " 
in  the  end.  Captain  Robert  Gray,  of  Boston,  in  the  good  ship 
Columbia,  gave  you  your  earliest  right  of  foothold  upon  that  soil. 

I  have  seen,  within  a  few  months  past,  the  last  survivor  of  his 
hardy  crew,  still  living  in  a  green  old  age,  and  exhibiting  with 

42* 


498  ARBITRATION   OF   THE   OREGON   QUESTION. 

pride  a  few  original  sketches  of  some  of  the  scenes  of  that  now 
memorable  voyage.  My  constituents  all  feel  a  pride  in  their 
connection  with  the  title  to  this  territory.  But  in  their  name  I 
protest  against  the  result  of  their  peaceful  enterprise  being  turned 
to  the  account  of  an  unnecessary  and  destructive  war.  I  protest 
against  the  pure  current  of  the  river  which  they  discovered,  and 
to  which  their  ship  has  given  its  noble  name,  being  wantonly 
stained  with  either  American  or  British  blood! 

But  while  I  am  thus  opposed  to  war  for  Oregon,  or  to  any 
measures  which,  in  my  judgment,  are  likely  to  lead  to  war,  I 
shall  withhold  no  vote  from  any  measure  which  the  friends  of 
the  Administration  may  bring  forward  for  the  defence  of  the 
country.  Whether  the  Bill  be  for  two  regiments  or  for  twenty 
regiments,  it  shall  pass  for  all  me.  To  the  last  file,  to  the  utter- 
most farthing,  which  they  may  require  of  us,  they  shall  have  men 
and  money  for  the  public  protection.  But  the  responsibility  for 
bringing  about  such  a  state  of  things  shall  be  theirs,  and  theirs 
only.  They  can  prevent  it,  if  they  please.  The  Peace  of  the 
country  and  the  Honor  of  the  country  are  still  entirely  com 
patible  with  each  other.  The  Oregon  question  is  still  perfectly 
susceptible  of  an  amicable  adjustment,  and  I  rejoice  to  believe 
that  it  may  still  be  so  adjusted.  We  have  had  omens  of  peace 
in  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol,  if  none  in  this.  But  if  war 
comes,  the  Administration  must  take  the  responsibility  for  ail  its 
guilt  and  all  its  disgrace. 


NOTE. 


The  Resolutions  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  speech,  and  which  were  offered 
by  Mr.  Winthrop  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  19th  of  December, 
1845,  were  as  follows :  — 

Resolved,  That  the  differences  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
on  the  subject  of  the  Oregon  Territory,  are  still  a  fit  subject  for  negotiation  and 
compromise,  and  that  satisfactory  evidence  has  not  yet  been  afforded  that  no 
compromise  which  the  United  States  ought  to  accept  can  be  effected. 

Resolved,  That  it  would  be  a  dishonor  to  the  age  in  which  we  live,  and  in  the 
highest  degree  discreditable  to  both  the  nations  concerned,  if  they  should  suffer 
themselves  to  be  drawn  into  a  war,  upon  a  question  of  no  immediate  or  practi- 
cal interest  to  either  of  them. 

Resolved,  That  if  no  other  mode  for  the  amicable  adjustment  of  this  question 
remains,  it  is  due  to  the  principles  of  civilization  and  Christianity  that  a  resort 
to  arbitration  should  be  had ;  and  that  this  government  cannot  relieve  itself 
from  all  responsibility  which  may  follow  the  failure  to  settle  the  controversy, 
while  this  resort  is  still  untried. 

Resolved,  That  arbitration  does  not  necessarily  involve  a  reference  to  crowned 
heads  ;  and  that,  if  a  jealousy  of  such  a  reference  is  entertained  in  any  quarter, 
a  commission  of  able  and  dispassionate  citizens,  either  from  the  two  countries 
concerned  or  from  the  world  at  large,  offers  itself  as  an  obvious  and  unobjec- 
tionable alternative. 


RIVER  AND  HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 


A  SPEECn  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF 
THE  UNION,  MARCH  12,  1846. 


I  am  glad  of  an  opportunity,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  give  something 
more  than  a  silent  vote  in  favor  of  the  bill  now  under  considera- 
tion. I  know  not  how  it  may  be  with  others,  but  to  me  it  is 
not  a  little  refreshing,  to  find  this  House  once  more  engaged  in 
the  discussion  of  measures,  which  look  to  the  immediate  inte- 
rests of  our  own  country,  within  its  rightful  and  recognized  limits. 
We  have  been  so  much  occupied  of  late  with  questions  of  fo- 
reign relation, —  with  matters  pertaining  to  recent  and  remote 
acquisitions,  or  distant  and  disputed  territories, — that  we  have 
been  in  danger  of  forgetting  the  old  and  ample  homestead  which 
our  fathers  bequeathed  to  us.  The  astrologer,  in  the  fable,  is 
said  to  have  gazed  so  intently  at  the  stars,  that  he  stumbled 
into  the  well.  And  we,  too,  have  kept  our  eyes  so  exclusively 
on  the  sister  stars,  as  they  have  been  termed,  —  the  twin  comets^ 
let  me  rather  call  them,  which  are  sweeping  through  our  politi- 
cal sky,  in  marvellous  coincidence  with  those  which  are,  at  this 
moment,  shooting  across  the  heavens  above  us,  and  which 
would  seem  to  be,  even  now,  according  to  the  old  superstition, 
"  shaking  from  their  horrid  hair  pestilence  and  war,"  — that  the 
nearer  and  dearer  interests  of  the  people  have  been  almost  aban- 
doned to  their  fate. 

I  rejoice,  Sir,  that  we  have  at  last  found  a  moment  for  with- 
drawing our  eyes  from  Oregon  and  Texas,  and  fixing  them  upon 
our  own  domestic  condition.  I  rejoice  in  the  contemplation  of 
a  bill  providing,  not  for  the  external  aggrandizement,  but  for  the 


RIVER  AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS.  501 

internal  improvement,  of  our  country.  I  trust  that  no  one  will 
be  afraid  of  the  name  —  internal  improvement.  It  is  a  name, 
it  is  a  thing,  which  ought  to  rally  to  its  support  every  real  friend 
of  the  Republic.  In  every  view  which  can  be  taken  of  the  true 
interest  of  the  Republic,  this  bill,  and  bills  like  this,  must  be 
regarded  as  of  no  other  than  first-rate  importance.  To  our  com- 
merce, to  our  agriculture,  to  our  manufactures,  (if,  indeed,  this 
nation  is  henceforth,  under  the  ruthless  policy  of  the  present 
administration,  to  have  any  manufactures  of  its  own,)  —  to  all 
our  material  and  to  all  our  moral  interests,  to  our  prosperity  in 
peace  and  to  our  protection  in  war,  to  the  preservation  of  our 
political  union,  and  to  the  promotion  of  that  more  substantial 
union,  whose  best  and  most  binding  cement  must  be  derived 
from  mutual  intercourse  and  reciprocal  interchanges,  —  to  all, 
alike  and  equally,  the  policy  of  which  this  measure  is  a  practi- 
cal illustration,  will  lend  the  most  effective  encouragement  and 
aid. 

Sir,  it  would  be  a  waste  of  words  to  enter  upon  any  detailed 
amplification  of  these  ideas.  Nobody  denies  their  abstract  just- 
ness. Every  one  will  readily  concur  with  me  in  the  position, 
that  nothing  is  calculated  to  conduce  more  to  the  general  pros- 
perity and  welfare  of  our  country,  than  the  improvement  of  its 
landcourses  and  watercourses,  and  the  increased  facilitation  of 
all  its  ways  and  means  of  personal  and  commercial  intercom- 
munication. 

Yet  this  bill  meets  with  opposition;  with  the  sternest  and 
most  strenuous  opposition  from  some  quarters  of  the  House.  It 
is  branded  with  all  sorts  of  reproachful  and  ignominious  epi- 
thets. It  is  styled  a  measure  of  profligacy  and  plunder.  It  is 
denounced  as  anti-Republican  and  unconstitutional.  Its  friends 
are  reproached  with  resorting  to  a  disgraceful  system  of  log- 
rolling ;  and  a  special  rule,  even,  has  been  summarily  adopted, 
under  the  lead  of  the  enemies  of  the  bill,  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
feating it  in  detail,  and  of  breaking  up  what  has  been  stigma- 
tized as  the  corrupt  combination  of  its  friends. 

I  desire  to  vindicate  the  bill  from  some  of  these  aspersions. 
I  desire  to  take  issue  on  one  or  two  of  the  most  plausible 
grounds  on  which  it  has  been  thus  rudely  and  bitterly  assailed, 


502  RIVER   AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

and  upon  one  or  two  of  the  artful  suggestions  which  are  likely 
to  prove  the  causes  of  its  failure,  if  fail  it  ultimately  shall. 

I  begin  with  the  alleged  unconstitutionality  of  the  measure. 
I  have  no  purpose,  however,  of  entering  upon  this  part  of  the 
subject  at  any  great  length,  or  with  any  particular  elaborateness. 
I  decline  doing  so  for  two  reasons.  One>  that  I  could  have  no 
hope  of  adding  any  thing  new  to  the  constitutional  views  of  the 
subject  which  have  been  presented  to  the  House  and  to  the 
country  a  thousand  times  before.  The  other,  that  after  the  ex- 
perience we  have  recently  had,  of  the  manner  in  which  consti- 
tutional impediments,  the  plainest  and  most  palpable,  may  be 
overlooked  or  overleaped  at  will,  constitutional  arguments  seem 
to  have  lost  their  whole  title  to  respect.  So  far  as  the  Constitu- 
tion goes  in  establishing  a  frame  of  government,  and  in  making 
specific  provisions  for  the  tenure  of  office  or  the  distribution  of 
duties,  so  far  it  may  still  be  cited  as  an  instrument  of  precise 
import  and  established  authority.  But  so  far  as  it  leaves  any 
thing  for  interpretation  and  construction,  any  thing  for  argument, 
implication,  or  inference,  it  has  become  "a  charter  wide  withal  as 
the  wind,"  and  one  as  to  whose  meaning  the  weathercocks  of  the 
hour  are  the  only  trustworthy  guides.  In  the  proceedings  which 
have  attended  the  final  consummation  of  the  Texan  policy,  we 
have  seen  the  doctrine  established  beyond  revocation,  that  the 
immediate  will  of  the  people,  as  understood  and  expressed  by 
the  Representatives,  Senators,  and  President  for  the  time  be- 
ing—  nay,  Sir,  that  the  immediate  will  of  a  dominant  party,  as 
proclaimed  at  the  eleventh  hour  of  some  Baltimore  Convention 
—  is  de  facto  the  Constitution.  In  other  words,  a  view  of  the 
Constitution  has  been  adopted  and  practised  upon,  in  these  lat- 
ter days,  far  more  latitudinarian,  and  longitudinarian,  too,  than 
was  ever  dreamed  of  before;  and  that,  under  the  immediate 
auspices,  at  the  direct  instigation,  and  for  the  peculiar  interests, 
of  those,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  plume  themselves  on 
being  strict  constructionists  of  the  straitest  sect. 

But  though  the  day  for  elaborate  constitutional  argument 
seems  thus  to  have  been  brought  to  a  close,  I  cannot  deny  my- 
self the  satisfaction  of  reminding  some  of  these  gentlemen,  who, 
having  effected  their  own  darling  design  by  an  unmatched  out- 


RIVER  AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS.  503 

stretching  of  power,  would  now  shrink  back  again  within  the 
shell  of  strict  construction,  —  that  the  bill  under  consideration 
may  appeal,  for  a  sanction  to  its  constitutionality,  to  authority 
and  to  example,  which  even  they  will  hardly  venture  to  dispute. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  has  been  not  a  little  discussion,  for  some 
days  past,  as  to  the  precise  provision  of  the  Constitution  under 
which  this  bill  may  be  justified.  For  myself  let  me  say,  that 
whenever  I  have  been  able  to  find  a  uniform  current  of  example, 
running  through  a  long  series  of  years,  in  favor  of  the  exercise 
of  any  particular  power,  I  have  never  thought  it  important  to 
perplex  myself  too  deeply  as  to  the  exact  clause  from  which  the 
power  was  derived.  Yet  I  could  not  but  listen  with  more  than 
ordinary  pleasure  to  the  able  argument  of  the  honorable  mem- 
ber from  Maryland,  (Mr.  Constable,)  who  addressed  the  com- 
mittee a  few  moments  since,  and  who  derived  the  authority  of 
Congress  to  pass  this  bill  from  the  power  given  us  expressly  by 
the  Constitution  "  to  regulate  commerce."  It  was  fit,  Sir,  that 
the  vindication  of  this  particular  power  should  come  from  such 
a  quarter.  It  was  in  the  capital  of  the  State  which  the  honora- 
ble member  in  part  represents,  that  the  first  concerted  movement 
was  made  to  confer  this  power  upon  the  General  Government. 
It  was  at  Annapolis,  that  the  incipient  measures  were  taken, 
which  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  present  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  It  was  there,  in  the  month  of  September  of 
the  year  1786,  that  a  meeting  of  commissioners  from  some  of 
the  principal  States  was  held,  "  to  take  into  consideration  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  the  United  States ;  to  consider  how  far 
a  uniform  system  in  their  commercial  intercourse  and  regula- 
tions might  be  necessary  to  their  common  interest  and  perma- 
nent harmony ;  and  to  report  to  the  several  States  such  an  act 
relative  to  this  great  object  as,  when  unanimously  ratified  by 
them,  would  enable  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled 
effectually  to  provide  for  the  same." 

At  this  meeting  only  six  of  the  States  were  represented  :  the 
States  of  Maryland,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, and  Virginia.  The  meeting  was  therefore  dissolved  without 
having  attempted  any  definite  action  ;  but  not,  however,  without 
having  adopted  an  address  to  the  States  recommending  a  future 


504  RIVER  AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

convention  with  enlarged  powers.  As  one  of  the  reasons  for  this 
recommendation,  the  commissioners  say :  "  They  are  the  more 
naturally  led  to  this  conclusion,  as,  in  the  course  of  their  reflec- 
tions on  the  subject,  they  have  been  induced  to  think  that  the 
power  of  regulating  trade  is  of  such  comprehensive  extent,  and 
will  enter  so  far  into  the  general  system  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, that,  to  give  it  efficacy,  and  to  obviate  questions  and  doubts 
concerning  its  precise  nature  and  limits,  may  require  a  corre- 
spondent adjustment  of  other  parts  of  the  federal  system." 

Out  of  this  recommendation  came  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  great  original  object  of  its  establishment 
was,  thus,  to  confer  upon  the  General  Government  "the  power 
to  regulate  commerce ; "  and  that  power  was  accordingly  con- 
ferred in  that  large  and  comprehensive  sense  in  which  it  was 
understood  by  the  commissioners  at  Annapolis,  among  whom 
were  James  Madison,  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  others  of  the 
most  prominent  members  of  the  convention,  by  which  the  Con- 
stitution was  subsequently  framed. 

Under  this  authority,  the  General  Government,  from  the  earli- 
est days  of  its  existence,  has  made  provision  for  the  promotion 
and  protection  of  the  navigating,  the  commercial,  and  the  indus- 
trial interests  of  the  people.  It  has  done  this  by  light-house 
systems.  It  has  done  this  by  pilot  systems.  It  has  done  this 
by  consular  systems.  It  has  done  this  by  currency  systems.  It 
has  done  this  by  coast  survey  systems.  It  has  done  this  by  the 
systematic  establishment  of  breakwaters,  sea-walls,  beacons,  and 
buoys  upon  our  bays  and  harbors.  It  has  done  this  by  its  sys- 
tematic encouragement  of  American  tonnage.  And  it  has  done 
this  by  its  no  less  systematic  legislation  for  the  protection  of 
American  labor. 

Yes,  Sir,  these  systems,  one  and  all,  had  their  origin  "  in  the 
better  days  of  the  Republic,"  to  use  the  phrase  which  was  em- 
ployed by  the  honorable  member  from  Alabama,  (Mr.  Payne,) 
who  so  pathetically  deplored  the  introduction  of  the  measure 
before  us,  as  marking  the  degeneracy  of  modern  republicanism. 

I  confess,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  was  a  little  astonished  at  hear- 
ing such  a  phrase  from  such  a  source.  "  The  better  days  of  the 
Republic ! "    And  this  from  a  leading  member  of  the  party  which 


RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS.  505 

assumes  to  itself  an  exclusive  title  to  the  name  of  Democracy ! 
What,  Sir,  the  Democracy  of  this  country,  the  progressive  Demo- 
cracy, in  the  first  flush  of  its  recent  and  most  triumphant  success, 
with  all  the  branches  of  the  Government  under  its  control,  look- 
ing back  so  soon  and  with  such  a  sigh  to  the  past,  and  acknow- 
ledging that  the  Republic  has  seen  better  days  and  better  Demo- 
crats !  If  such  a  sentiment  had  found  utterance  on  this  side  of 
the  House,  it  would  have  been  rebuked  as  an  evidence  of  that 
ultra  conservatism,  and  of  that  opposition  to  all  progress,  with 
which  the  Whig  party  of  the  nation  is  so  frequently  and  so 
falsely  charged. 

In  all  seriousness,  however,  I  sympathize  most  sincerely  with 
the  honorable  member  in  this  sentiment.  Better  days,  I  freely 
admit  with  him,  —  O!  how  much  better  days,  —  this  Republic 
has  seen  in  the  past;  and  God  grant  that  it  may  still  see  better 
in  the  future!  Better,  in  all  that  relates  to  the  moral  character 
of  its  internal  administration.  Better  in  all  that  concerns  the 
wise,  just,  or  generous  administration  of  its  foreign  affairs. 
Better,  in  every  view  of  its  Constitution  and  laws,  and  of  the 
union  and  liberty  which  they  were  framed  to  secure. 

And  now,  Sir,  I  beg  the  honorable  member  to  turn  back  with 
me  to  the  records  of  some  of  those  "  better  days  of  the  Repub- 
lic," and  to  see  whether  the  measures  which  he  has  so  roundly 
denounced,  are  altogether  without  example.  Let  him  open  with 
me  this  first  volume  of  the  new  and  beautiful  edition  of  our 
National  Code  —  a  volume  worthy  in  its  mechanical  execution 
of  the  rich  matter  which  it  contains —  and  let  us  follow  together, 
for  a  few  moments,  the  first  Congress  of  the  United  States,  with 
Washington  at  their  head,  in  their  practical  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution  which  they  had  just  established. 

Their  first  Act  provided  only  for  administering  to  each  other, 
and  to  the  various  officers  of  the  State  and  National  Govern- 
ments, the  required  oath  to  support  the  new  Constitution. 
Under  the  solemn  obligations  of  that  oath,  they  proceeded  to 
the  work  of  legislation.  And  what  was  their  second  Act  ?  An 
act,  be  it  remembered,  which  was  signed  by  George  Washing- 
ton, in  the  very  year  in  which  the  Constitution,  framed  by  the 
convention  over  which  he  had  presided,  was  put  into  operation, 
43 


506  RIVER   AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

and  on  the  very  day  on  which,  thirteen  years  before,  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  was  formally  promulgated  to  the  people. 
Methinks,  Sir,  that  if  any  man,  on  any  day,  might  be  presumed 
to  have  affixed  a  signature,  in  the  true  spirit  which  declared  our 
Independence  and  dictated  our  Constitution,  it  would  be  George 
Washington,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1789 !  And  what  was  the 
act  to  which  he  did  affix  his  signature  on  that  day  ? 

"  Whereas,  (says  its  never-to-be-forgotten  preamble,)  it  is 
necessary  for  the  support  of  Government,  for  the  discharge  of 
the  debts  of  the  United  States,  and  the  encouragement  and  pro- 
tection of  manufactures,  that  duties  be  laid  on  goods,  wares,  and 
merchandise  imported,  Be  it  enacted,"  — 

Be  what  enacted,  Sir?  That  there  be  no  specific  duties? 
That  no  article  shall  be  subject  to  any  duty  higher  than  the 
lowest  which  will  yield  the  largest  amount  of  revenue  ?  That 
there  shall  be  no  discriminations,  except  with  a  view  to  the 
wants  of  the  Government?  That  salt  shall  be  free,  and  that 
there  shall  be  no  bounty  or  drawback  for  the  fisheries  ?  No,  no, 
Mr.  Chairman,  not  one  of  these  absurd  edicts  of  the  present 
Administration  is  to  be  found  associated  with  this  memorable 
preamble  of  the  first  Congress,  or  with  this  memorable  signature 
of  George  Washington.  The  bill  before  me  contains  provisions 
the  very  reverse  of  them  all.  Here  is  a  list  of  forty  or  fifty 
enumerated  articles,  subjected  to  every  variety  of  specific  duties. 
Here  are  other  lists  of  articles,  subjected  to  ad  valorem  duties, 
arranged  with  obvious  reference  to  protection.  Here  is  a  duty 
of  six  cents  a  bushel  on  salt ;  and  here  is  a  provision  for  those 
allowances  and  encouragements  to  the  fisheries,  under  which 
was  built  up  that  nursery  for  seamen,  from  whence  went  out  the 
hardy  mariners  who  broke  the  spell  of  British  invincibility  on 
the  ocean  in  1812,  and  who  have  defended  their  country's  flag 
in  every  danger  and  on  every  deep. 

In  this  act,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  found  the  first  practical  exempli- 
fication of  the  principles  of  the  Constitution.  Here  is  the  earli- 
est development  of  that  "  power  to  regulate  commerce,"  which 
it  was  the  main  purpose  of  the  Constitution  to  confer  upon  the 
General  Government.  It  is  employed  in  this  instance  for  the 
protection  of  manufactures.     Pass  to  the  third  act,  and  you  find 


t 

RIVER  AND  HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS.  507 

it  called  into  exercise  again,  for  the  protection  of  the  navigating 
interests  of  the  country.  Specific,  discriminating  duties,  are 
there  imposed,  for  the  encouragement  of  vessels  built  in  the 
United  States,  or  belonging  to  American  citizens;  and  the  first 
movement  is  there  made  towards  the  establishment  of  that  great 
monopoly  —  the  coasting  trade  —  which  was  perfected  and  con- 
summated by  the  eleventh  act  of  the  same  session  of  the  same 
Congress.  The  honorable  member  will  find  in  this  act  the  prin- 
ciple of  protection  carried  to  the  extent  of  absolute  and  perpetual 
prohibition. 

Let  me  call  the  attention  of  the  honorable  member  more  espe- 
cially, however,  to  the  ninth  act  of  the  first  Congress,  that  he 
may  see  what  was  the  earliest  execution  of  this  power  "  to  regu- 
late commerce,"  in  connection  with  the  immediate  subject  of  the 
bill  before  us.  It  is  here  enacted,  "  that  all  expenses  which  shall 
accrue  from  and  after  the  15th  day  of  August,  one  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  in  the  necessary  support,  main- 
tenance, and  repairs  of  all  light-houses,  beacons,  buoys,  and 
public  piers,  erected,  placed,  or  sunk  before  the  passing  of  this 
act,  at  the  entrance  of,  or  within  any  bay,  inlet,  harbor,  or  port 
of  the  United  States,  for  rendering  the  navigation  thereof  easy 
and  safe,  shall  be  defrayed  out  of  the  treasury  of  the  United 
States."  It  is  further  enacted,  "  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  provide  by  contracts,  which  shall 
be  approved  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  for  building 
a  light-house  near  the  entrance  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  for  re- 
building, when  necessary,  and  keeping  in  good  repair,  the  light- 
houses, beacons,  buoys,  and  public  piers  in  the  several  States, 
and  for  furnishing  the  same  with  the  necessary  supplies ;  and 
also  to  agree  for  the  salaries,  wages,  or  hire  of  the  person  or 
persons  appointed  by  the  President  for  the  superintendence  and 
care  of  the  same."  It  is  further  enacted  by  the  same  bill,  "  that 
all  pilots  in  the  bays,  inlets,  rivers,  harbors,  and  ports  of  the 
United  States,  shall  continue  to  be  regulated  in  conformity  with 
the  existing  laws  of  the  States,  respectively,  wherein  such  pilots 
may  be,  or  with  such  laws  as  the  States  may,  respectively,  here- 
after enact  for  the  purpose,  until  further  legislative  provision  shall 
be  made  by  Congress." 

"CTFI7ERSIT7I 


508  RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 

By  the  terms  of  this  act,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  plainly  perceive 
that  the  members  of  the  first  Congress  of  the  United  States,  so 
many  of  whom  had  been  personally  and  prominently  engaged 
in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  were  not  merely  of  opinion 
that  the  General  Government  had  the  power  to  establish  light- 
houses, beacons,  buoys,  and  public  piers  in  the  various  bays, 
inlets,  and  harbors  of  the  Union,  and  to  regulate  the  pilotage  in 
all  the  ports  and  rivers  of  the  country,  but  that  they  considered 
it  one  of  its  positive  and  paramount  duties  so  to  do.  The  bill 
commences  by  assuming  all  the  light-houses,  beacons,  buoys, 
and  public  piers,  which  had  been  already  constructed  by  the 
several  States,  and  by  bringing  them  henceforth  under  the  exclu- 
sive control  and  direction  of  the  National  Legislature.  It  pro- 
ceeds to  speak  of  the  persons,  under  whose  care  and  superintend- 
ence these  various  works  were  to  be  placed,  as  national  officers, 
to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  and  paid  out  of  the  national 
treasury.  It  goes  on  to  sanction  the  pilot  laws  of  the  several 
States,  as  they  already  existed,  or  as  they  might  thereafter  be 
enacted,  but  only  "  until  further  legislative  provision  shall  be 
made  by  Congress."  Thus,  in  every  line  of  the  bill  is  found  the 
most  explicit  declaration,  or  the  clearest  implication,  that  the 
new  Constitution  had  devolved  the  responsibility  of  making 
provision  for  all  these  matters  upon  the  Government  of  the 
Union. 

Nor  does  the  phraseology  of  this  bill  fail  to  furnish  us  with 
the  reason  upon  which  such  legislation  proceeded.  "  For  render- 
ing the  navigation  thereof  easy  and  safe,"  —  this  is  the  language 
of  the  first  section,  and  most  comprehensive  and  conclusive 
language  it  is.  It  sets  forth,  with  a  distinctness  which  defies 
all  attempt  at  mystification,  that  the  rendering  of  the  navigation 
of  the  various  bays,  inlets,  rivers,  harbors,  and  ports  of  the 
United  States  easy  and  safe,  was,  in  the  judgment  of  the  first 
Congress,  with  Washington  at  its  head,  and  with  Madison 
among  its  members,  a  subject  of  national  concern,  and  of  con- 
stitutional appropriation. 

With  such  language  as  this  before  their  eyes,  how  can  gentle- 
men undertake  to  draw  distinctions,  as  they  have  done,  between 
the  erection  of  light-houses  and  the  improvement  of  harbors  ? 


RIVER   AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS.  509 

Let  me  give  them  a  case.  We  have,  in  the  harbor  of  Boston, 
a  ledge  of  rocks,  well  known  to  mariners  by  the  name  of  Minot's 
Ledge.  It  presents  a  most  dangerous  obstruction  to  our  navi- 
gation. Many  a  fair  ship  has  gone  to  pieces  upon  that  ledge,  and 
more  than  one  seaman  has  perished  among  its  breakers,  while 
his  home  was  almost  within  view.  For  ten  years  past  we  have 
been  calling  upon  you  to  place  a  light-house  there,  and,  during 
those  same  ten  years,  cargoes  have  been  lost  for  want  of  that 
light-house,  the  mere  duties  upon  which  would  have  more  than 
defrayed  the  cost  of  its  construction.  Nobody  doubts  that  such 
a  light-house  would  be  constitutional,  and  I  trust  that  the  day  is 
not  far  distant  when  it  will  be  erected. 

But  suppose,  Sir,  it  were  as  practicable  and  as  economical  to 
remove  these  rocks,  as  to  build  a  light-house  upon  them ;  will 
any  one  presume  to  say  that  we  have  the  power  to  do  the  one, 
but  not  to  do  the  other  ?  Are  they  not  different  means  of  ac- 
complishing the  same  end  ?  Do  not  both  measures  rest  alike 
on  the  same  broad  principle  of  "  rendering  the  navigation  of  the 
harbor  easy  and  safe  ?  "  Upon  what  imaginable  ground  can  you 
justify  one  and  condemn  the  other  ?  Even  if  you  deny  that 
either  step  can  be  taken  under  the  power  "  to  regulate  com- 
merce," and  proceed  to  justify  your  light-house  system  as  an 
incident  to  the  navy  power,  or  to  any  other  power,  how  does 
that  help  the  matter  ?  What  principle  of  discrimination  can 
you  set  up,  which  shall  forbid  you  to  remove  a  rock,  or  a  ledge 
of  rocks,  from  the  pathway,  either  of  your  merchantmen  or  your 
men-of-war,  but  which  shall  give  you  unquestioned  authority  to 
build  a  light-house,  by  which  they  may  descry  such  rocks,  and 
may  sail  safely  and  easily  round  them  ? 

But  one  word,  however,  seems  to  me  to  be  necessary  to  extin- 
guish the  idea  which  has  been  suggested,  that  the  power  to  erect 
light-houses  is  an  incident  to  the  power  to  maintain  a  navy. 
The  power  to  build  and  equip  a  navy,  existed  under  the  old 
Confederation.  Yet  it  was  only  after  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution, as  we  have  seen  in  this  act,  that  light-houses  were 
made  the  subject  of  national  legislation,  or  were  understood  to 
be  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  early  acts  of  our  National  Legislature,  to 
43* 


510  RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 

which  I  have  thus  referred,  are  the  true  practical  exemplifica- 
tions of  what  the  Constitution  was  designed  to  be,  by  those  who 
framed  it.  They  are  of  more  value  to  the  right  understanding 
of  that  instrument  than  even  the  essays  of  the  Federalist,  as 
showing,  not  how  it  was  explained  before  its  adoption,  but  how 
it  was  executed  afterwards.  They  bear  the  same  sort  of  relation 
to  the  text  of  the  Constitution,  which  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
bear  to  the  Gospel  narrative.  They  ought  to  be  studied  in  our 
schools,  and  committed  to  memory  by  our  children,  as  the  laws 
of  the  Twelve  Tables  were  in  the  schools  and  by  the  youth  of 
Rome.  The  four  Acts  which  I  have  particularly  cited,  are  parts 
of  one  comprehensive  system.  They  are  consistent  chapters  of 
one  homogeneous  statute.  Whatever  doubts  may  be  entertained 
as  to  their  being  all  justified  by  the  same  precise  clause  of  the 
Constitution,  they  all  obviously  rest  on  one  and  the  same  prin- 
ciple of  administering  that  Constitution — the  principle  that  it 
is  to  be  administered  for  the  protection  of  the  people  —  their 
protection  in  peace  as  well  as  in  war — their  general  welfare,  as 
well  as  their  common  defence. 

Sir,  it  was  a  notable  saying,  some  four  or  five  years  ago,  of 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  leaders  of  the  now  dominant  party 
of  the  nation,  "let  the  Government  attend  to  its  own  business, 
and  let  the  people  attend  to  theirs."  The  remark  was  made  in 
immediate  reference  to  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme,  which  was 
then  agitating  the  country,  and  which  is  now  again  about  to  be 
pressed  through  this  House.  It  was  a  remark,  however,  of  broad 
and  general  import,  and  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  to  express 
the  whole  distinctive  policy  of  the  party  to  which  its  author 
belongs.  "  Let  the  Government  attend  to  its  own  business,  and 
let  the  people  attend  to  theirs!  "  I  need  hardly  say  that  I  hold 
to  no  such  doctrine.  The  party  of  which  I  am  a  member,  is 
organized  on  no  such  principle  of  disregard  and  unconcern  for 
the  interests  of  the  people.  We  maintain  that  this  Govern- 
ment of  ours  was  established  for  something  besides  "  attending 
to  its  own  business,"  upholding  its  own  authority,  and  keeping 
its  own  state.  We  deny  its  right  to  isolate  itself  from  the  con- 
cerns of  the  people,  to  elevate  itself  upon  a  pedestal  of  proud, 
repulsive,  solitary  lordliness,  and  to  avert  its  eyes  from  every 


RIVER   AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS.  511 

thing  but  its  own  convenience,  its  own  necessities,  or  its  own 
dignity.  We  demand,  on  the  contrary,  that  in  all  its  provisions 
for  itself,  whether  in  relation  to  revenue,  or  currency,  or  whatever 
else,  it  shall  keep  the  business  of  the  people  constantly  in  view, 
and  shall  shape  all  its  measures  to  the  end  of  promoting  the 
greatest  prosperity  and  welfare  of  the  whole  country.  Govern- 
ments erected  and  maintained  for  the  sake  of  those  who  ad- 
minister them;  rulers  in  their  own  right  and  for  their  own  ends; 
State  statues  set  up  for  show ;  these  all  belong  to  other  ages,  or 
certainly  to  other  lands.  The  supreme  law  of  our  Republic  is 
the  common  defence  and  general  welfare  of  the  People. 

This  doctrine,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  Government  is  to  attend 
to  its  own  business,  and  to  leave  the  people  to  attend  to  theirs, 
strikes  not  alone  at  the  uniform  circulating  medium  at  which  it 
was  aimed.  It  strikes  at  the  discriminating  duties  of  a  protect- 
ing tariff.  And  it  strikes,  also  and  equally,  at  these  very  improve- 
ments of  rivers  and  harbors,  western  and  eastern,  on  the  lakes 
and  on  the  ocean.  It  is  one  and  the  same  policy,  which  protects 
labor,  provides  a  currency,  and  facilitates  intercommunication. 
It  is  one  and  the  same  principle  of  administration,  which  lifts 
a  snag  in  the  Mississippi,  removes  a  sand  bar  in  Lake  Erie, 
builds  a  breakwater  in  Delaware  Bay,  or  a  sea-wall  in  Boston 
Harbor,  issues  a  national  currency  at  Philadelphia  or  at  Wash- 
ington, or  levies  a  duty  for  the  encouragement  of  Pennsylvania 
iron  or  coal,  New  York  wool  or  salt,  Louisiana  sugar,  New  Eng- 
land cotton  prints,  or  Kentucky  cotton  bagging.  Abandon  that 
policy,  repudiate  that  principle,  adopt  this  "  mind  your  business" 
doctrine,  and  not  only  will  snags  and  sand  bars  continue  to 
obstruct  your  internal  navigation,  but  American  enterprise  and 
American  labor,  in  all  their  branches,  will  be  laid  prostrate 
beneath  an  overwhelming  flood  of  foreign  competition  ! 

The  honorable  member  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Rhett,) 
however,  denies,  in  the  roundest  terms,  that  any  part  of  this 
policy  had  its  origin  in  1789;  and  insists  on  dating  the  commence- 
ment of  the  whole  of  it  at  "about  the  year  1820."  To  my  ap- 
prehension this  is  a  plain  prole statio  contra  factum.  It  is  as 
clearly  a  mistake,  in  my  humble  judgment,  as  his  ascription  of 
the  memorable  phrase,  —  "We  are  all  Federalists  and  all  Re- 


512  RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS- 

publicans,"  to  Mr.  Monroe,  instead  of  to  its  true  author,  Mr. 
Jefferson.  Until  he  can  expunge  from  the  statute-book  the  four 
acts  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  I  know  not  how  many  other 
acts  scattered  broadcast  along  the  pathway  of  our  national  legis- 
lation from  1789  to  1820, — not  forgetting,  certainly,  that  system 
of  cotton  minimums  which  was  established  in  1816  under  the 
auspices  of  Mr.  Lowndes  and  Mr.  Calhoun, —  he  can  make  no 
headway  whatever  in  maintaining  such  a  position. 

The  honorable  member,  however,  not  merely  insists  that  this 
whole  system  had  its  origin  "  about  the  year  1820,"  but  that  it 
has  always  been  the  main  subject  of  difference  between  the 
federal  and  republican  parties.  The  true  republican  party,  he 
again  and  again  declared,  have  always  been  opposed  to  these 
measures.  Now,  Sir,  I  desire  to  join  issue  with  him  on  this 
point  also.  I  utterly  deny  the  correctness  of  his  position;  and 
I  proceed  to  plant  myself  upon  authority,  which  he  is  the  last 
person  who  will  attempt  to  shake.  The  honorable  member 
must  have  forgotten  the  speech  of  Mr.  McDuffie,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, on  the  subject  of  "  Internal  Improvements,"  in  the  year 
1823.  Or,  certainly,  he  has  overlooked  the  preface  with  which 
the  printed  copy  of  that  speech  was  introduced  to  the  world. 
Let  me  read  to  him,  and  to  the  House,  the  remarks  which  that 
preface  contains,  in  allusion  to  a  pamphlet  which  had  just  before 
been  published  under  the  title  of  Consolidation. 

"  Moreover,  in  the  early  history  of  parties,  (says  Mr.  McDuffie,) 
and  when  Mr.  Crawford  advocated  a  renewal  of  the  old  char- 
ter (of  the  United  States  Bank,)  it  was  considered  a  federal 
measure ;  which  internal  improvements  never  was,  as  this  author 
erroneously  states.  This  latter  measure  originated  in  the  admi- 
nistration of  Mr.  Jefferson,  with  the  appropriation  for  the  Cum- 
berland road  ;  and  was  first  proposed,  as  a  system,  by  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, and  carried  through  the  House  of  Representatives  by  a 
large  majority  of  the  republicans,  including  almost  every  one  of 
the  leading  men  who  carried  us  through  the  late  war." 

"  The  author  in  question,  not  content  with  denouncing  as 
federalists  General  Jackson,  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  a 
majority  of  the  South  Carolina  delegation  in  Congress,  modestly 
extends  the  denunciation  to  Mr.  Monroe  and  the  whole  republi- 


RIVER   AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS.  513 

can  party.  Here  are  his  words  :  '  Daring  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Monroe  much  has  passed  which  the  republican  party  would 
be  glad  to  approve  of,  if  they  could  ;  but  the  principal  feature, 
and  that  which  has  chiefly  elicited  these  observations,  is  the 
renewal  of  the  system  of  internal  improvements.'  Now,  this 
measure  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  115  to  86  of  a  Republican 
Congress,  and  sanctioned  by  a  Republican  President.  Who, 
then,  is  this  author,  who  assumes  the  high  prerogative  of  de- 
nouncing, in  the  name  of  the  Republican  party,  the  Republican 
administration  of  the  country  ?  A  denunciation  including, 
within  its  sweep,  Calhoun,  Lowndes,  and  Cheves ;  men  who 
will  be  regarded  as  the  brightest  ornaments  of  South  Carolina, 
and  the  strongest  pillars  of  the  Republican  party  as  long  as  the 
late  war  shall  be  remembered,  and  talents  and  patriotism  shall 
be  regarded  as  the  proper  objects  of  the  admiration  and  grati- 
tude of  a  free  people." 

I  should  hardly  have  ventured,  Sir,  to  address  to  the  honora- 
ble member,  on  my  own  account,  so  severe  an  admonition  as  to 
the  position  which  he  has  assumed,  as  he  will  find  in  these 
remarks  of  Mr.  McDuffie.  I  trust  that  he  will  lay  them  duly  to 
heart,  and  that  he  will  realize  the  truth  of  the  ancient  proverb, 
that  "  faithful  are  the  wounds  of  a  friend." 

Shall  I  add,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  the  list  which  these  paragraphs 
supply,  the  name  of  another  most  distinguished  South  Carolina 
statesman,  now  no  more,  whose  memory  demands  a  vindication 
from  the  charge,  of  having  violated  the  true  republican  faith  on 
this  subject  of  internal  improvements  ?  About  the  year  1823,  a 
bill  was  carried  through  Congress,  "  to  procure  the  necessary 
surveys,  plans,  and  estimates,  upon  the  subject  of  roads  and 
canals,"  and  authorizing  the  President  to  cause  such  surveys, 
plans,  and  estimates,  to  be  made,  of  the  routes  of  such  roads 
and  canals  as  he  might  deem  of  national  importance,  in  a  com- 
mercial or  military  point  of  view,  or  for  the  transportation  of 
the  mail.  In  the  progress  of  this  bill  through  the  Senate  a  pro- 
viso was  offered,  in  the  following  terms : 

"  Provided,  that  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed 
to  affirm  or  admit  a  power  in  Congress,  on  their  own  authority, 
to  make  roads  and  canals  within  any  of  the   States  of  the 


514  RIVER   AND    HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

Union."  Among  the  votes  against  this  proviso,  which  was 
rejected,  and  in  favor  of  the  bill,  which  was  passed,  was  that  of 
the  late  lamented  General  Hayne. 

If  ever  there  was  an  act  of  Congress  which  sanctioned,  to 
the  fullest  extent,  the  power  of  the  general  government  to  con- 
struct works  of  internal  improvement,  "  of  national  importance 
in  a  commercial  point  of  view,"  this  was  that  act.  And  now, 
Sir,  I  repeat,  that  until  Washington  and  the  first  Congress  shall 
have  been  convicted  of  having  misunderstood  the  meaning  of 
the  Constitution,  and  Lowndes,  Cheves,  Hayne,  McDuffie,  and 
Calhoun,  of  having  been  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  true  republi- 
canism, this  bill  will  be  in  no  danger  of  being  pronounced  by  the 
people,  either  unconstitutional  or  anti-republican. 

But  it  is  further  objected  to  the  bill  under  consideration,  that 
it  makes  provision  for  mere  local  improvements,  and  that  this 
government  can  appropriate  money  for  nothing  that  is  not 
national.  I  am  willing  to  concur  with  gentlemen  in  the  latter 
clause  of  this  objection,  and  to  confine  the  powers  of  the  govern- 
ment to  appropriations  for  national  works.  But  the  question  is, 
what  constitutes  a  national  work  ?  The  object  of  almost  every 
one  of  our  appropriations  must  have  a  local  habitation  and  a 
local  name ;  yet  this,  certainly,  will  not  be  inconsistent  with  its 
having  a  national  character  and  a  national  consequence.  Your 
navy  yards  are  local ;  your  fortifications  are  local ;  your  post- 
offices  and  post-roads  are  local ;  but  no  one  is  heard  objecting 
to  the  annual  appropriations  connected  with  any  of  these  sub- 
jects of  expenditure,  on  the  ground  that  they  are  not  of  national 
concern.  The  objection  is  reserved  exclusively,  and  most  un- 
reasonably, as  I  think,  for  the  precise  description  of  objects  for 
which  this  bill  provides. 

Let  us  then  examine,  for  a  moment,  some  one  of  the  items 
in  the  bill,  and  see  whether,  even  when  separately  considered,  it 
will  not  assert  its  title  to  be  regarded  as  a  work  of  national  im- 
portance. Here  is  a  provision  for  expending  forty  thousand 
dollars  in  improving  the  harbor  of  Boston  ;  and  I  take  this  item 
as  an  example,  because  the  subject  of  it  is  more  immediately 
within  the  range  both  of  my  personal  knowledge,  and  of  my 
official  responsibility.     The  appropriation  is  one  of  the  utmost 


RIVER   AND   HARBOR    IMPROVEMENTS.  515 

importance  to  the  safe  navigation  of  Boston  harbor,  and  I  am 
confident  that,  if  it  were  rightly  understood,  there  is  no  item  in 
the  bill  which  would  commend  itself  more  strongly  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  House.  There  is,  Sir,  but  a  single  channel  for  enter- 
ing the  harbor  of  Boston  by  vessels  of  the  largest  class,  and 
that,  in  some  parts,  a  very  narrow  channel,  and  by  no  means  a 
very  deep  one.  On  the  immediate  edge  of  this  channel,  there 
are  a  number  of  small  islands.  One  of  these  islands,  well 
known  to  navigators  by  the  name  of  the  Great  Brewster,  owing 
to  the  stone  which  formed  its  natural  protection  having  been 
taken  off  for  ballast,  has  been,  for  many  years  past,  exposed  to 
the  most  rapid  devastation.  It  appears  from  the  surveys  of  the 
Engineer  department  that,  between  the  years  1820  and  1840, 
nearly  six  acres,  or  about  one  fourth  of  the  whole,  had  been 
carried  away  from  this  island  by  the  action  of  the  waves  and 
winds.  The  ravages  committed  upon  it  by  the  same  elements, 
during  the  last  five  years,  are  believed  to  have  been  even  in  an 
accelerated  ratio.  Meantime,  the  preservation  of  the  island  has 
been  pronounced  by  the  Engineer  department,  to  be  "  indispen- 
sable both  as  a  cover  of  the  anchorages  and  roadsteads,  and 
also  to  the  maintenance  of  the  requisite  depths  in  the  channel." 
The  whole  detritus  of  this  and  the  other  adjacent  islands  is 
swept  directly  into  the  narrowest  part  of  the  channel,  and  the 
rapid  shallowing  which  has  resulted  from  the  operation,  is,  at 
this  moment,  the  cause  of  the  most  serious  apprehension  to  our 
mariners  and  pilots.  Of  the  urgent  necessity,  therefore,  of  a 
sea-wall  upon  this  island,  to  arrest  this  process  of  destruction, 
(and  this  is  the  specific  purpose  of  the  provision  under  conside- 
ration,) no  man  will  doubt. 

But  the  point  which  I  proposed  to  examine  is,  how  far  this 
item  is  one  of  national  importance,  and  what  are  the  obligations 
of  the  general  government  in  regard  to  it. 

Now,  Sir,  this  particular  provision  may,  I  am  aware,  be  vin- 
dicated upon  many  distinct  grounds.  In  the  first  place,  this 
same  channel,  whose  preservation  is  at  stake,  is  the  only  en- 
trance to  your  great  northern  naval  depot  at  Charlestown ;  and 
the  same  obstructions  which  would  endanger  the  passage  of  our 
full-freighted  packet-ships,  would  leave  your  full  armed  frigates 


516  RIVER   AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

hopelessly  aground.  It  may  be  matter  of  serious  doubt  whether, 
if  this  work  be  delayed  for  five  years  longer,  a  ship  of  the  line, 
with  its  armament  in  position,  could  make  its  way  out  from  the 
Charlestown  navy  yard. 

In  the  next  place,  all  your  fortifications  in  this  harbor  have 
been  arranged  and  constructed  with  a  view  to  command  the 
entrance  of  this  channel,  as  it  now  runs.  If  the  destruction  of 
these  islands  should  fall  short  of  filling  it  up  altogether,  and 
should  only  result  in  materially  changing  its  bearings,  these^ 
works  of  defence,  among  the  most  complete  and  costly  in  the 
country,  will  be  rendered  comparatively  worthless.  It  was  in 
this  view,  Sir,  that  I  pressed  so  earnestly  for  the  insertion  of  this 
provision  in  the  Fortification  bill  at  the  last  session  of  Congress. 

But  it  is  before  us  now  as  a  commercial  measure,  and  it  is  as 
such  that  I  now  claim  for  it  a  national  character  and  a  national 
importance.  What  part  of  the  country,  Sir,  less  than  the  whole, 
is  concerned  in  the  safe  and  easy  navigation  of  Boston  harbor  ? 
Look  to  its  foreign  commerce,  and  to  the  revenue  which  is  de- 
rived from  it.  During  the  last  year,  there  were  2,330  arrivals  at 
Boston  from  foreign  ports  —  more  than  six  for  every  day  in  the 
year  —  bringing  $21,591,917  worth  of  goods,  and  paying  into 
the  Treasury  $5,249,634  of  duties.  There  were  of  course,  not 
far  from  the  same  number  of  foreign  clearances.  Look  to  its 
coastwise  trade.  During  the  last  year  there  were  5,631  coastwise 
arrivals  in  Boston  —  about  sixteen  for  every  day  in  the  year. 
From  the  port  of  New  Orleans  alone,  as  we  have  been  told  in 
one  of  the  letters  of  "  a  certain  Abbott  Lawrence,"  (as  an  honor- 
able member  from  New  York  just  now  termed  him,  and  it  was 
no  bad  description  of  him,  for  a  most  certain  man  he  is  —  you 
always  know  where  to  find  him,  and  may  always  rely  confi- 
dently on  his  statements) — from  the  port  of  New  Orleans  alone, 
I  repeat,  there  were  165  arrivals,  many  of  them  of  vessels  of  the 
largest  class  —  ships  of  from  500  to  700  tons  burden  each  — 
bringing  corn,  flour,  cotton,  tobacco,  beef,  pork,  lard,  lead,  &c, 
amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars  in  value. 

Let  me  state,  Sir,  with  something  of  particularity,  the  quan- 
tity of  Southern  and  Western  produce  which  finds  its  way  into 
the  harbor  of  Boston  from  New  Orleans  and  other  parts  of  the 


RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 


517 


Union.  The  statement  may  be  of  interest  in  more  relations 
than  one,  and  will  not,  I  trust,  be  lost  sight  of,  when  the  worth- 
lessness  of  a  home  market  is  next  made  the  subject  of  remark. 

During  the  year  ending  on  the  1st  day  of  January  last,  there 
arrived  at  Boston  — 

74,120  bales  of  cotton  from  New  Orleans, 


37,268 

ti 

cc           (( 

Mobile, 

27,820 

(C 

cc            (( 

Florida, 

24,085 

II 

(C               (( 

Savannah, 

21,948 

M 

II               (C 

Charleston, 

2,378 

II 

(C               (( 

Other  places. 

Making  an  aggregate  of    187,619  bales. 

During  the  same  period  there  arrived  at  Boston 

110,160  barrels  of  flour  from  New  Orleans, 


170,501 

c;                  < 

(            (( 

New  York, 

103,736 

U 

1            cc 

Albany, 

40,824 

(( 

c            II 

Fredericksburg, 

32,266 

((                   ( 

{               (C 

Alexandria, 

23,494 

ti 

(             cc 

Georgetown, 

17,919 

(( 

c           cc 

Richmond, 

5,512 

cc 

c           cc 

Other  ports  in  Virginia 

19,207 

cc 

cc           cc 

Philadelphia, 

21,697 

u 

c           cc 

Baltimore, 

2,441 

K 

c           cc 

Other  places. 

All  this  by  sea-carriage.  All  this  through  the  harbor  which 
it  is  proposed  by  this  bill  to  improve.  You  must  add  to  this 
182,381  barrels  brought  over  the  Western  Railroad,  to  make  up 
the  grand  aggregate  of  730,138  barrels  of  flour,  which  have  found 
a  market  in  Boston  in  a  single  year. 

And  then  there  is  the  import  of  grain.  During  the  last  year 
there  have  been  brought  to  Boston  — 

257,657  bushels  of  corn  from  New  Orleans, 


25,400         ( 

c                 cc 

cc 

North  Carolina, 

326,345         ' 

C                           iC 

cc 

Norfolk, 

128,789 

c                  cc 

cc 

Fredericksburg, 

94,683 

1                    cc 

cc 

Rappahannock, 

110,322 

c                  «c 

cc 

Alexandria  and  Georgetown 

60,943 

c                  cc 

(C 

Other  ports  in  Virginia, 

638,620 

I                  c: 

cc 

Baltimore, 

470,049 

i                    cc 

cc 

Philadelphia, 

66,921 

c                  cc 

cc 

Delaware, 

62,250 

ic               u 

cc 

New  Jersey, 

122,719 

cc                    CC 

cc 

New  York. 

44 


518  RIVER  AND  HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 

Making,  with  some  5,000  or  6,000  bushels  from  other  places, 
the  vast  quantity  of  2,371,406  bushels  of  corn  imported  into 
Boston  in  a  single  year.  And  you  must  add  all  this  to  the  flour, 
and  548,  583  bushels  of  oats,  and  24,184  bushels  of  rye,  and 
65,530  bushels  of  shorts,  to  both,  in  order  to  form  any  just  esti- 
mate of  the  value  of  Boston  harbor  to  the  grain-growing  regions 
of  the  Union. 

I  might  go  on  with  an  account  of  the  importation  of  other 
articles;  as,  for  instance  — 

150,625  Southern  hides, 
16,597  barrels  of  tar, 
40,177  barrels  of  turpentine — most  of  it  brought  from  North  Carolina. 

But  enough  has  been  stated,  I  am  sure,  to  illustrate  the  nation- 
ality of  Boston  harbor ;  enough,  certainly,  to  dispel  the  idea,  that 
the  safe  and  easy  navigation  of  that  harbor  is  an  object  of  mere 
local  concern. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  me  repeat,  that  I  have  taken  this 
item  of  the  bill  as  an  illustration  of  my  argument,  only  because 
it  belongs  to  me,  more  especially,  to  explain  and  defend  it ;  and 
not  because  I  am  disposed  to  regard  it  as  more  important,  or 
more  national,  than  many  other  items  which  the  bill  contains. 
Indeed,  the  very  statistics  which  I  have  adduced,  go  far  beyond 
the  mere  proof  of  the  nationality  of  the  provision  to  which  they 
relate.  If  they  show  that  all  other  parts  of  the  country  have  an 
interest  in  Boston  harbor,  they  show,  no  less  clearly  and  conclu- 
sively, that  Boston  has  an  interest  in  all  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. And  Boston,  Sir,  and  the  ancient  Commonwealth  of  which 
Boston  is  the  metropolis,  have  always  realized  and  appreciated 
this  idea.  Rarely,  rarely,  if  ever,  has  a  Massachusetts  Senator, 
or  a  Massachusetts  Representative,  in  this  Capitol,  been  found 
drawing  fanciful  distinctions  between  external  and  internal  com- 
merce, or  instituting  nice  discriminations  between  salt  water 
and  fresh.  "We  disavow  and  repudiate  that  whole  school  of 
constitutional  construction,  which  would  regard  the  lakes  and 
rivers  of  the  interior  as  any  less  fit,  or  any  less  legitimate,  sub- 
jects of  national  supervision,  than  the  bays  and  harbors  of  the 
Atlantic.  We  read  of  one  and  the  same  power  in  the  general 
government  "to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and 


KIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS.  519 

among  the  several  States  ;  "  and  we  recognize  one  and  the  same 
obligation  as  to  all  the  appropriate  incidents  of  that  power. 
We  rejoice,  too,  that  the  great  West  is  waking  up  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  her  own  interests,  and  of  her  own  rights,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  exercise  of  this  power.  We  rejoice  that  she  is  rapidly- 
reaching  a  strength  and  a  maturity,  when  these  interests  must 
be  consulted,  and  these  rights  allowed.  We  hail  her  advent  to 
the  political  mastery  over  our  affairs  as  most  auspicious,  in  this 
respect  at  least,  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  nation.  We  will 
go  with  her  in  the  fulfilment  of  her  "  manifest  destiny  "  in  this 
way,  if  in  no  other.  We  look  to  her  mighty  and  majestic  voice, 
as  it  shall  come  up,  at  no  distant  day,  from  a  vast  majority  of 
the  whole  people  of  the  Union  inhabiting  her  rich  and  happy 
valleys,  to  command  the  resumption  of  a  policy  which  has  been 
too  long  suspended ;  to  overrule  both  the  votes  and  the  vetoes 
by  which  it  has  been  paralyzed ;  and,  by  its  potent  energy,  to  — 

"  Bid  harbors  open,  public  ways  extend ; 
Bid  the  broad  arch  the  dangerous  flood  contain, 
The  mole  projected  break  the  roaring  main ; 
Back  to  his  bounds  their  subject  sea  command, 
And  roll  obedient  rivers  through  the  land." 

But  where  is  this  system  to  end,  says  the  honorable  member 
from  Alabama,  (Mr.  Yancey.)  Sir,  I  hope  that  it  is  not  to  end  at 
all.  Why  should  it  have  any  end,  as  long  as  the  Republic  en- 
dures, and  as  long  as  any  thing  remains  to  be  done  to  render  its 
means  of  intercommunication  easier  and  safer?  Why  should 
it  not  go  on  ?  We  cannot  do  every  thing  at  a  stroke.  Our 
annual  appropriations  must  be  limited  to  the  standard  of  our 
annual  resources ;  but  why  should  not  one  or  two  millions  of 
dollars  be  annually  applied  to  the  prosecution  of  a  system  of 
improvement  coextensive  with  the  whole  country?  The  national 
government  is  not,  indeed,  called  upon  to  do  every  thing  of  this 
sort.  We  shall  all  concur  in  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  Mr. 
Calhoun,  at  the  late  Memphis  Convention,  "  that  whatever  can 
be  done  by  individuals,  they  ought  to  accomplish;  and  that 
whatever  is  peculiarly  within  the  province  of  the  States,  they 
should  effect."  But  we  shall  all,  I  trust,  concur  with  him,  also, 
in  his  third  position,  that  "  whatever  is  essentially  within  the 


520  RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 

control  of  the  general  government,  it  should  accomplish;"  and 
that  without  any  qualification,  either  as  to  time  or  cost.  Indi- 
viduals and  States  are  doing  their  share  of  these  great  works, 
according  to  their  ability.  Massachusetts  has  already  no  less 
than  seven  hundred  miles  of  railroad  in  successful  operation 
within  her  own  limits ;  and  her  capitalists  are,  at  this  moment, 
largely  engaged  in  extending  similar  facilities  of  transportation 
and  travel  into  far  distant  regions  of  the  Republic.  She  asks 
nothing  of  the  national  government  for  any  internal  improve- 
ment of  her  own.  But  in  the  newer  States  of  the  West  there 
is  more  to  be  done,  and  far  less  ability  for  doing  it;  and  it  is 
their  interest,  above  that  of  all  others,  to  hold  the  nation  to  the 
discharge  of  its  full  responsibility  on  the  subject.  It  is  a  dis- 
grace to  our  country,  that  their  magnificent  rivers  and  lakes  have 
been  so  long  neglected,  and  that  they  should  have  been  suffered  to 
be  the  scenes  of  such  vast  sacrifices  of  property  and  of  life,  from 
year  to  year,  for  want  of  a  little  seasonable  and  efficient  legisla- 
tion. Let  me  not  call  them  their  lakes  and  rivers ;  they  are 
ours,  as  much  as  theirs.  We  claim  an  equal  right,  and  an  equal 
interest,  in  them  all ;  and  we  unite  in  demanding  for  them  the 
prompt  attention  and  persevering  action  of  the  only  govern- 
ment, whose  powers,  and  whose  resources,  are  adequate  to  their 
improvement. 

But  we  are  told  that  the  measure  under  consideration  can 
only  be  carried  through  by  a  corrupt  system  of  log-rolling.  Gen- 
tlemen saw  no  corruption  in. the  log-rolling  which  was  avowedly 
resorted  to,  last  year,  between  the  friends'  of  the  "  reannexation 
of  Texas,"  and  of  the  "  reoccupation  of  Oregon."  They  descry 
nothing  but  patriotism  and  purity  in  the  log-rolling  which  seems 
about  to  be  employed  now,  between  our  own  administration 
and  that  of  Great  Britain,  for  breaking  down  our  American 
tariff.  But  when  a  large  majority  of  the  members  of  this  House 
are  found  abandoning  all  mere  party  considerations,  and  uniting 
together  in  the  support  of  measures  which  are  not  more  calcu- 
lated to  advance  the  special  interests  of  separate  localities,  than 
they  are  to  promote  the  general  advantage  of  the  whole  coun- 
try, why,  then,  forsooth,  they  can  see  nothing  but  corruption. 

Mr.  Chairman,  nothing  of  real  value  to  this  Republic  ever  has 


RIVER  AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS.  521 

been,  or  ever  will  be,  effected,  without  some  degree  of  that  sort 
of  combination  which  is  thus  stigmatized  as  log-rolling.  Mutual 
concessions,  reciprocal  benefits,  compensation  and  compromise, 
have  been  the  very  laws  of  our  existence  and  progress.  Wher- 
ever common  dangers  have  been  averted,  common  wrongs  re- 
dressed, common  interests  promoted,  or  common  principles  vin- 
dicated, it  has  been  by  a  system  of  log-rolling.  It  was  log- 
rolling which  achieved  our  independence.  It  was  log-rolling 
which  established  our  Constitution.  And  the  Union  itself  is 
nothing  but  systematic  log-rolling  under  a  more  stately  name. 

Doubtless  such  combinations  may  sometimes  proceed  from 
corrupt  or  unworthy  considerations;  but  when  the  objects  at 
which  they  aim  are  of  such  clear  and  unquestionable  import- 
ance, and  of  such  public  and  general  utility,  as  those  which  are 
now  before  us,  these  unmannerly  imputations  upon  motives  may, 
I  think,  well  be  spared.  For  myself,  certainly,  I  have  heard  of 
but  one  overture  which  would  seem  to  countenance  any  such 
imputations  in  the  present  instance ;  and  that  was  contained  in 
a  suggestion,  thrown  out  from  the  other  side  of  the  House,  some 
days  ago,  that  the  passage  of  this  bill  was  an  indispensable  con- 
dition for  securing  the  votes  of  the  Western  States,  for  the 
overthrow  of  a  protective  tariff.  Such  a  suggestion  would 
seem  to  imply,  that  votes  are  relied  upon  for  this  bill  upon  other 
grounds  besides  its  own  merits,  and  to  be  given  with  a  view  of 
promoting  the  success  of  a  policy  wholly  disconnected  with  it, 
both  in  form  and  in  substance.  This  is  a  species  of  log-rolling, 
Sir,  which  I  shall  leave  others  to  justify. 

The  overture  to  which  I  have  alluded  is,  however,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, obviously  susceptible  of  more  than  one  application.  It 
plainly  suggests  a  course  of  proceeding  for  saving,  as  well  as 
for  overthrowing,  the  existing  tariff.  It  says  to  our  side  of  the 
House,  "  defeat  this  bill  and  the  tariff  shall  be  preserved,"  as  dis- 
tinctly as  it  declares  to  the  other  side  of  the  House,  "  pass  this 
bill  and  the  tariff  shall  be  destroyed."  For  one,  I  will  act  upon 
no  such  idea.  Believing  this  measure  to  be  eminently  expedi- 
ent and  just,  it  shall  have  my  vote,  without  regard  to  the  proba- 
ble action  of  others  upon  other  and  independent  measures.  The 
Whig  members  of  this  House  occupy  a  proud  position  in  refer- 


522  RIVER   AND   HARBOR  IMPROVEMENTS. 

ence  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country  at  the  present  moment ; 
and  I  trust  we  shall  maintain  it  without  wavering.  The  friends 
of  the  Administration  are  in  a  state  of  manifest  distraction  and 
division.  One  portion  of  them  are  looking  to  us  to  unite  with 
them  in  preserving  the  peace  of  the  country.  *  Another  portion 
of  them  are  looking  to  us  to  aid  them  in  accomplishing  their 
cherished  plans  of  public  improvement.  Let  us  be  true  to  our- 
selves and  to  our  principles,  in  both  cases.  Let  us  join  hands 
with  the  South,  in  maintaining  an  honorable  peace  with  foreign 
nations ;  and  with  the  West,  in  carrying  out  these  great  mea- 
sures of  domestic  policy.  If  the  tariff,  in  the  end,  be  over- 
thrown ;  if  the  revenues  of  the  country,  under  existing  circum- 
stances of  public  debt  and  public  danger,  be  cut  off;  if  the  Labor 
of  the  country  be  deprived  of  its  wages  and  its  work ;  let  an 
unmixed  responsibility  rest  upon  those,  by  whom  a  step  so  fatal 
shall  have  been  taken. 


THE   WANTS   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT 


THE  WAGES  OF  LABOR 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OP  THE  UNI- 
TED STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF  THE 
UNION,  JUNE  25,  1846. 


Mr.  Chairman, — 

If  I  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  floor  at  an  earlier  hour 
yesterday,  I  should  have  been  tempted  to  reply  at  some  length 
to  the  honorable  member  from  Louisiana,  (Mr.  Harmanson,) 
who  addressed  the  committee  in  the  course  of  the  morning.  I 
confess  that  I  was  a  good  deal  astonished  to  hear  so  whole- 
sale an  attack  upon  the  existing  Tariff  from  that  particular 
quarter.  I  had  thought  that  if  there  were  any  product  of  our 
country  which  required  and  received  the  highest  measure  of 
protection,  it  was  the  staple  product  of  the  honorable  member's 
own  State.  I  had  thought  that  if  there  were  any  port  in  the 
Union,  which  had  profited  more  than  another,  of  the  vast  inter- 
nal trade  which  the  existing  Tariff  has  aided  in  building  up,  it 
was  the  port  of  his  own  proud  metropolis. 

But  the  honorable  member  founded  his  objections  to  the  exist- 
ing Tariff,  very  prudently,  on  certain  alleged  injurious  influences 
in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  not  on  any  which  had  come 
within  the  sphere  of  his  own  observation  and  experience.  And 
one  of  the  topics  of  his  severest  animadversion  was  the  enormous 
dividends  of  the  Eastern  manufacturers. 

Now,  I  will  not  weary  the  committee  with  details,  which  have 
often  been  recited,  to  prove  that  the  average  profits  of  the  East- 


524  THE   WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

em  manufacturers  have  been  as  low  as  those  of  persons  employed 
in  any  other  line  of  business,  and  probably  a  good  deal  lower 
than  those  of  the  Louisiana  sugar  planter.  But  I  do  desire  to 
present  to  those  who  are  continually  harping  on  this  string, — 
not  excepting  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  has  touched 
it  somewhat  rudely  in  his  annual  report,  —  a  plain  practical  test 
of  the  truth  and  justice  of  this  charge. 

The  manufacture  of  cotton  is  not,  like  the  culture  of  cotton, 
necessarily  a  local  business.  There  is  excellent  water-power, 
and  an  abundance  of  human  labor,  all  over  the  country.  Nume- 
rous cotton-mills  have  already  been  established  in  the  Southern 
States.  In  Virginia,  in  North  Carolina,  in  Georgia,  the  hum 
of  the  spindle  is  beginning  to  be  a  familiar  sound.  Even  in 
South  Carolina,  I  believe,  it  is  not  altogether  unheard.  My 
honorable  friend  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Holmes,)  smiles. 
Sir,  I  remember  seeing  in  a  newspaper,  for  which  I  was  indebted 
to  his  own  politeness,  a  call  for  a  meeting,  to  be  holden  on  the 
17th  of  June,  in  one  of  the  districts  of  South  Carolina,  last 
year,  for  the  double  purpose  of  celebrating  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill  and  taking  measures  for  building  a  cotton-mill !  The  per- 
sons who  called  that  meeting,  it  seems,  understood  the  patriotism, 
as  well  as  the  policy,  of  establishing  domestic  manufactures. 
They  had  not  forgotten  the  resolution  which  passed  the  British 
Parliament  a  few  years  before  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was 
fought,  "  That  the  erection  of  manufactories  in  the  colonies  doth 
tend  to  diminish  their  dependence  on  the  mother  country."  I 
heartily  hope  that  this  spirit  will  spread.  I  believe  it  is  spread- 
ing, and  that,  half  a  century  hence,  our  country  will  be  as  re- 
markable as  a  cotton-spinning  country,  as  it  is  now  as  a  cotton- 
growing  country. 

But  what  I  wished  particularly  to  say  was  this ;  —  that  if  it 
be  not  quite  convenient,  just  yet,  for  our  Southern  friends  to 
try  the  experiment  of  these  enormous  dividends  on  their  own 
ground,  they  can  easily  have  an  opportunity  elsewhere.  The 
stocks  of  these  New  England  factories,  which  are  so  much  com- 
plained of  for  doing  so  good  a  business,  can  be  had  on  the  Bos- 
ton Exchange  every  day  in  the  week.  They  may  be  purchased, 
either  at  public  auction  or  at  private  sale,  by  any  one  who 


AND   THE   WAGES   OF  LABOR.  525 

wishes  to  buy.  And,  what  is  more  remarkable,  Sir,  not  a  few 
of  them  may  be  bought  below  par.  I  have  here  a  price  current 
of  a  few  weeks  ago,  which  gives  the  rates  of  the  actual  sales  of 
the  day,  and  from  which  it  appears  that  almost  any  of  these 
stocks  may  be  had  at  a  small  advance,  many  of  them  at  par, 
and  not  a  few  below  it.  Here  they  are :  The  Appleton  mills, 
the  Lawrence  mills,  the  Thorn  dike  mills,  the  Lowell  mills ;  you 
may  take  shares  to  suit  yourselves,  and  come  in  for  scot  and 
lot  in  all  their  exorbitant  earnings. 

Before  you  determine  to  do  so,  however,  you  will,  perhaps,  be 
disposed  to  propound  to  yourselves  some  such  questions  as  these : 
—  Can  it  be  true,  that  stocks  which  can  be  purchased  at  such 
rates,  can  yield,  uniformly  and  certainly,  dividends  so  enormous  ? 
The  Yankees  are  sharp  enough,  Heaven  knows,  at  a  bargain  ; 
would  they  be  likely  to  sell,  for  a  thousand  dollars,  that  which 
would  give  them  a  regular  and  reliable  interest  on  two  or  three 
thousand  ?  Must  it  not  be,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  great 
profits  which  are  so  much  harped  upon,  are  only  the  exceptions 
to  the  general  rule ;  and  that  the  average  earnings  are,  after  all, 
only  a  fair  interest  on  the  investment?  And  is  there,  too,  any 
real  monopoly  about  a  business  which  any  one  can  take  a  share 
in,  who  pleases  ?  Can  we,  while  it  is  in  our  power  to  build  cot- 
ton-mills for  ourselves,  or  to  buy  into  those  which  are  already 
established,  complain  of  the  system  which  protects  them  from  a 
ruinous  foreign  competition,  as  so  very  grievous  and  grinding 
an  oppression  ? 

If  the  honorable  member  from  Louisiana  would  ponder  a 
little  upon  these  interrogatories,  I  am  sure  he  would  be  less  vio- 
lent in  his  denunciation  of  these  enormous  dividends. 

But  I  have  not  come  here,  this  morning,  to  reply  to  the  honor- 
able member  from  Louisiana,  or  any  one  else,  but  rather  to  say 
something  on  my  own  account.  It  is  well  understood  that  the 
bill  under  consideration  was  ordered  to  be  reported  to  the  House 
by  a  vote  of  five  to  four  in  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 
As  the  majority  of  the  Committee  did  not  think  fit  to  accom- 
pany the  bill  with  any  written  explanations  of  the  views  with 
which  it  was  prepared,  it  would,  of  course,  have  been  inappro- 
priate for  the  minority  to  make  any  report.     But  as  one  of  that 


526  THE  WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

minority,  I  desire  to  take  this  occasion  to  give  my  reasons  for 
opposing  the  bill  in  committee,  and  for  continuing  that  opposi- 
tion in  the  House. 

Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  first  great  object  of  all  our 
tariffs  should  be  to  provide  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment. There  are  no  terms  in  which  this  principle  can  be  as- 
serted, too  absolute  and  too  unqualified  to  meet  my  ready  and 
cordial  assent.  I  agree  to  the  proposition  in  the  form  in  which 
it  has  been  stated  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  his  annual 
report,  "  that  no  more  money  should  be  collected  from  duties  on 
imports  than  is  necessary  for  the  wants  of  the  government,  eco- 
nomically administered."  And  I  agree,  also,  to  the  converse  of 
the  proposition,  as  more  emphatically  pressed  upon  our  consi- 
deration by  the  existing  circumstances  of  the  country,  —  that  as 
much  money  as  may  be  necessary  for  those  wants  ought,  if  pos- 
sible, to  be  thus  collected. 

In  a  time  of  war,  like  the  present,  more  especially,  an  ample 
revenue  should  be  the  primary  aim  and  end  of  all  our  custom- 
house duties.  To  replenish  the  national  treasury,  to  sustain  the 
public  credit,  and  to  make  seasonable  and  sufficient  provision 
for  meeting  the  manifold  expenses  which  are  incident  to  a  state 
of  war,  is  as  essential  to  the  vigorous  and  successful  prosecution 
of  that  war,  as  the  mustering  of  fleets  and  armies.  And  that 
Administration  will  have  done  but  half  its  duty  to  the  country, 
in  the  present  condition  of  its  foreign  affairs,  which,  looking  only 
to  men  and  munitions,  shall  fail  to  advise,  — 

<:  How  War  may,  best  upheld, 
Move  by  her  two  main  nerves,  iron  and  gold, 
In  all  her  equipage." 

I  need  not  say,  that  I  deeply  deplore  the  occurrence  of  the 
war  in  which  the  country  is  involved,  I  have  had  neither  part 
nor  lot  in  the  policy  which  has  occasioned  it,  but  have  opposed 
that  policy,  from  beginning  to  end,  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  I 
voted  for  the  bill  recognizing  the  existence  of  the  war,  and  au- 
thorizing the  employment  of  men  and  money  for  its  prosecution, 
with  unfeigned  reluctance  and  pain.  The  day  can  never  be  when 
I  can  vote,  without  reluctance  and  without  pain,  for  any  bill, 


AND   THE  WAGES   OF  LABOR.  527 

under  any  circumstances,  which  looks  to  an  issue  of  battle  and 
of  blood.  I  feel  deeply  that  such  conflicts  are  unbecoming 
civilized  and  Christian  men.  Not  even  the  brilliant  exploits  of 
our  troops  at  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palm  a,  though  they 
may  fill  me  with  admiration  for  the  bravery  of  those  who 
achieved  them,  can  dazzle  me,  for  an  instant,  into  the  delusion, 
that  such  scenes  are  worthy  of  the  age  in  which  we  live. 

There  was  phraseology,  too,  in  the  bill  which  I  would  gladly 
have  stricken  out.  Indeed,  the  question  was  one  on  which  it 
was  impossible  to  give  an  altogether  satisfactory  vote,  and  I  have 
nothing  but  respect  for  the  motives,  and  sympathy  in  the  gene- 
ral views,  of  those  who  differed  from  me  on  the  occasion. 

But  I  believed  when  that  bill  was  before  us,  and  I  believe  still, 
that  the  policy  of  the  Administration  had  already  involved  us  in 
a  state  of  things  which  could  not  be  made  better,  which  could 
not  be  either  remedied  or  relieved,  by  withholding  supplies  or 
disguising  its  real  character.  And  I  will  say  further,  that  while 
I  condemned  that  policy  as  heartily  as  any  of  my  friends,  while 
I  condemned  both  the  policy  of  annexation  as  a  whole,  and  the 
movement  of  our  army  from  Corpus  Christi  as  a  most  unneces- 
sary and  unwarrantable  part,  I  was  not  one  of  those  who  con- 
sidered Mexico  as  entirely  without  fault. 

Sir,  I  will  do  the  Administration  the  justice  to  say,  that,  in 
my  judgment,  it  adopted  a  highly  honorable  and  conciliatory 
course,  in  proposing  to  send,  and  in  actually  sending,  a  minister 
to  Mexico.  I  said  this  privately,  when  the  fact  was  first  an- 
nounced in  the  President's  annual  message,  and  I  will  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  so  publicly  now.  And  I  do  not  think  that  Mexico 
stands  justified  upon  the  record,  for  the  rejection  of  that  minister. 
There  is  much  in  the  published  correspondence  to  warrant  the 
idea,  that  her  distinction  between  a  minister  and  a  commissioner 
was  a  mere  after-thought,  intended  only  to  cover  a  virtual  retreat 
from  her  agreement  to  enter  upon  negotiations;  and  while  I 
am  ready  to  make  large  allowances  for  her  conduct,  in  consider- 
ation both  of  the  provocation  which  she  had  received,  and  of 
the  distracted  state  of  her  domestic  affairs,  and  while  I  would 
by  no  means  be  understood  to  vindicate  the  justice  of  the  decla- 
ration, that  "  war  exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico,"  I  cannot  yet  hold 


528  THE   WANTS   OF  TIIE   GOVERNMENT 

her  discharged  from  some  share  of  the  responsibility  for  the  rup- 
ture which  has  ensued.  Still  less  can  she  be  acquitted  of  all 
responsibility  for  the  continuance  of  the  war,  in  case  she  shall 
persist  in  declining  the  overtures  which  have  again  been  distinctly 
held  out  to  her. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  plead  guilty  to  something  of  an  extreme 
jealousy  in  regard  to  the  faith,  and  even  the  forms,  of  diplo- 
matic intercourse.  Missions,  mediations,  arbitrations,  negotia- 
tions of  every  sort,  are  the  select  and  sacred  instruments  of 
peace.  They  are  the  only  instruments  upon  which  we  can  rely 
for  the  amicable  adjustment  of  international  disputes.  And,  as 
a  friend  of  peace,  I  am  for  holding  to  a  strict  accountability 
every  nation  which  shall  trifle  or  sport  with  those  instruments  ; 
much  more,  which  shall  discard  them  altogether.  I  will  hold 
my  own  country  to  that  accountability  as  soon  as  another.  I 
do  not  forget  the  bad  example  she  has  recently  exhibited  to  the 
world,  in  rejecting  the  proposition  of  Great  Britain  for  an  arbi- 
tration upon  the  Oregon  question.  Even  the  sincere  joy  which 
I  feel  at  the  honorable  and  peaceable  settlement  of  that  question, 
is  alloyed  by  the  remembrance,  that  this  unreasonable  rejection 
of  arbitration  must  remain,  an  indelible  fact,  on  the  pages  of 
our  history.  It  was  somewhere  said,  not  long  ago,  that  Oregon 
was  the  last  spot  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  of  which  the  original 
discovery  and  proprietorship  was  in  dispute.  The  map  of  the 
world  is  now  filled  up.  And  would  it  not  have  been  a  cheering 
circumstance  to  the  friends  of  humanity  and  peace,  if,  on  the 
deed  of  partition  of  that  one  last  spot  of  disputed  territory,  there 
could  have  been  inscribed,  in  characters  which  the  world  might 
read  forever,  the  concurrent  and  cordial  testimony  of  two  of  the 
most  powerful  and  civilized  nations  of  the  earth,  in  favor  of  a 
mode  of  settling  international  disputes,  so  reasonable  and  so 
righteous  as  arbitration  ?  There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  ■ 
imagine,  that  the  result  of  such  a  course  would  have  been  less 
favorable  to  our  pretensions  than  that  which  has  now  been 
accomplished.  But  even  if  it  had  been  so,  the  difference  of  a 
few  acres  of  land  would,  in  my  judgment,  have  been  unworthy 
of  consideration,  in  comparison  with  the  honor  of  such  a  pro- 
ceeding to  ourselves,  and  the  priceless  influence  of  such  an  ex- 
ample upon  the  world. 


AND   THE   WAGES   OF  LABOR.  529 

But  enough  of  Oregon,  and  enough  of  the  causes  of  the 
Mexican  war.  The  war  exists.  It  is  to  be  prosecuted,  as  the 
President  has  assured  us,  for  no  purpose  of  aggression  or  con- 
quest. He  stands  solemnly  pledged  to  the  country  and  to  the 
world,  by  reiterated  declarations,  that  he  will  be  "  prepared  to 
renew  negotiations  whenever  Mexico  shall  be  ready  to  receive 
propositions,  or  to  make  propositions  of  her  own ; "  and  that  he 
will  be  "  at  all  times  ready  to  conclude  an  honorable  peace,  when- 
ever the  Mexican  Government  shall  manifest  a  like  disposition." 
The  honor  of  the  Executive,  and  the  honor  of  the  nation,  are 
committed  to  the  fulfilment  of  these  pledges ;  and  as  long  as  I 
shall  perceive  nothing  in  the  conduct  of  the  Administration  in- 
consistent with  their  fulfilment,  I  shall  not  withhold  my  vote 
from  any  reasonable  supplies  which  may  be  called  for.  I  shall 
vote  for  them,  not  for  any  purpose  of  plunder  or  aggression  — 
not  to  enable  our  fleets  to  conquer  California,  or  our  armies  "  to 
revel  in  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas,"  but  to  enable  the  Presi- 
dent to  achieve  that  honorable  peace,  which  he  has  solemnly 
promised  to  bring  about  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  My 
motto  will  thus  be  that  of  my  own  honored  Commonwealth,  — 
"Ense  —  quietemP 

But  until  this  result  shall  be  accomplished,  Mr.  Chairman,  as 
God  grant  it  speedily  may  be,  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  the 
Administration  and  its  friends,  to  arrange  a  system  of  taxation 
commensurate  with  the  exigencies  which  they  have  created. 
And  if  this  bill  were  really  adapted  to  such  an  end;  if  it  held 
out  a  reasonable  assurance  of  increasing  the  revenues  and  sus- 
taining the  credit  of  the  country ;  if,  more  especially,  it  presented 
the  only,  or  even  the  easiest  and  most  obvious,  mode  of  supply- 
ing the  wants  of  the  Government,  I  should  hesitate  much  and 
long  before  interposing  any  objection  to  its  passage. 

The  bill  before  us,  however,  was  prepared  for  no  such  purpose, 
and  will  produce  no  such  result.  It  was  prepared,  as  everybody 
knows,  long  before  any  war  with  Mexico  was  heard  of,  and  while 
the  President  was  still  congratulating  the  country  that  the  annex- 
ation of  Texas  had  been  "  a  bloodless  achievement."  It  was 
prepared  originally,  I  fear,  with  no  higher  purpose  than  to  con- 
form to  those  party  pledges,  to  which  my  honorable  friend  from 

45 


530  THE   WANTS   OF   TIIE   GOVERNMENT 

Georgia,  (Mr.  Seaborn  Jones,)  who  opened  the  debate,  so  directly 
and  so  frankly  appealed  in  its  behalf.  It  will  be  carried  through, 
if  at  all,  by  the  mere  force  of  party  cohesion  and  allegiance. 
And  its  result,  if  it  ever  goes  into  operation,  will  be,  as  I  firmly 
believe,  to  deprive  the  Government  of  no  inconsiderable  part  of 
the  revenues  which  it  is  now  enjoying.  I  declare  to  you,  Sir, 
that  if  I  desired  to  cripple  the  Administration ;  if  I  saw  reason 
to  think  that  all  its  solemn  professions  of  moderation  in  relation 
to  Mexico  were  hypocritical  and  hollow,  and  that  it  was  bent  on 
a  campaign  of  ruthless  aggression  and  aggrandizement ;  and  if 
I  desired,  as  I  should  in  such  a  case  most  heartily  desire,  to  sever, 
at  a  blow,  the  very  sinews  of  so  abhorrent  and  monstrous  a  move- 
ment, I  would  do  all  in  my  power  to  speed  the  passage  of  such 
a  revenue  bill  as  this. 

My  first  and  leading  objection  to  this  bill,  therefore,  is,  that  it 
will  be  destructive  to  the  revenue.  My  first  and  strongest  com- 
plaint against  the  present  financial  movement  is,  that  at  a  time 
of  war  —  at  a  time  when  considerations  of  patriotism  call  for 
the  amplest  provision  for  replenishing  the  treasury  —  at  a  time 
when  it  is  peculiarly  incumbent  on  the  party,  by  whose  aggres- 
sive policy  war  has  been  brought  upon  us,  to  make  arrangements, 
at  any  sacrifice  of  mere  party  expediency,  for  meeting  its  expenses; 
that  it  is  proposed,  at  such  a  time,  to  break  up  a  system  of  duties 
upon  imports,  which  has  yielded,  and  is  yielding,  a  rich  and  reli- 
able income  to  the  treasury,  in  order  to  substitute  a  merely  ex- 
perimental tariff;  framed  in  defiance  of  all  the  best  example  of 
other  countries,  and  all  the  best  experience  of  our  own;  and 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  not  a  few  of  our  most  sagacious  and 
practical  financiers,  will  depress  our  industry,  derange  our  cur- 
rency, cut  off  the  revenues,  and  go  nigh  towards  involving  both 
the  Government  and  the  people  in  bankruptcy,  within  eighteen 
months  from  the  time  it  takes  effect. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood  or  misrepresented.  I  am  not 
here  to  maintain,  that  the  existing  tariff  is  yielding  enough  for 
all  the  present  wants  of  the  country.  I  do  not  forget  that  we 
have  a  debt  of  seventeen  millions  already  incurred,  and  that  there 
is  an  estimated  deficiency  of  nineteen  millions  more  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  approaching  fiscal  year.     I  am  quite  ready  to  admit. 


AND   THE  WAGES   OF  LABOR.  531 

that  it  is  incumbent  on  the  party  in  power,  to  make  some  pro- 
vision for  increasing  its  resources.  And  upon  them  must  rest 
the  responsibility  for  originating  such  a  provision.  But  any 
practical  economist  would  tell  you  in  ten  words  what  that  pro- 
vision should  be.  An  issue  of  eight  or  ten  millions  of  treasury 
notes,  and  a  moderate  specific  duty  upon  tea  and  coffee,  would 
answer  the  whole  purpose ;  and  they  are  the  only  measures  which 
can  do  so.  Not  a  twenty  per  cent,  ad  valorem  duty  on  tea  and 
coffee,  to  be  put  on  and  taken  off  at  the  discretion  of  the  President, 
or  to  be  levied  during  the  uncertain  period  of  the  war.  Nothing 
could  be  more  absurd  or  frivolous.  The  time  at  which  the  duty 
should  begin  and  end  should  be  fixed,  and  the  term  of  its  dura- 
tion should  be  long  enough  to  outlast  the  stock  of  these  articles 
now  on  hand,  or  the  duty  will  be  a  mere  nullity.  A  term  of 
less  than  two  years,  commencing  on  the  1st  of  September,  would 
not  be  sufficient  to  make  the  measure  effective.  The  duty,  too, 
must  be  specific,  or  it  will  hardly  be  worth  laying.  An  ad  valo- 
rem duty  of  twenty  per  cent,  upon  both  articles  would  scarcely 
yield  two  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  while  a  specific  duty  of  four 
cents  a  pound  upon  coffee,  twenty  cents  a  pound  upon  green  tea, 
and  fifteen  cents  a  pound  upon  black  tea,  (rates  less  than  those 
which  formed  a  part  of  our  permanent  revenue  system  a  few 
years  ago,)  would  insure  you  a  round  sum  of  seven  or  eight 
millions  a  year.  Ad  valorem  duties  upon  teas,  as  indeed  upon 
most  of  the  other  articles  to  which  they  are  applied  in  this  bill, 
will  be  attended  with  all  manner  of  inequalities  and  frauds  in 
their  collection,  and  will  be  injurious  alike  to  the  interests  of  the 
Government  and  the  honest  importer.  The  experience  of  the 
whole  commercial  world  condemns  them.  The  commerce  of 
our  own  country,  with  one  voice,  deprecates  them.  Even  the 
highest  free-trade  authority  of  England  testifies  against  them. 
Turn  to  the  celebrated  Parliamentary  Report  of  Mr.  Hume,  in 
1840,  and  read  what  is  said  of  them  by  two  of  the  principal 
witnesses. 

Dr.  Bowring  states,  (British  Report,  p.  61,)  that  the  German 
Commercial  League  or  Customs  Union  levy  all  duties  by  weight, 
except  on  four  articles,  —  corn,  seeds,  wool,  and  stone.  He  says 
the  principal  disadvantage  of  the  system  is,  that  it  imposes  the 


532  THE  WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

heaviest  duties  on  the  coarsest  articles.  But  when  asked  whe- 
ther he  would  abandon  the  system  on  this  account,  he  says 
"  No  ;  it  is  the  simplest  and  most  efficacious,  because  there  is  no 
officer,  however  uninstructed,  who  cannot  easily  apply  the  sys- 
tem ;  and  because  it  is  least  liable  to  evasion." 

John  Dillon  says,  (p.  221,)  "  The  fairest  mode  of  levying  a 
duty,  theoretically,  is  upon  the  value;  but  to  that,  very  great 
practical  objections  lie.  It  is  exposed  to  evasion,  and  is  con- 
stantly evaded.  It  is  admitted  almost  by  all,  and  few  attempt 
to  deny,  that  when  they  make  returns  of  value,  they  make  false 
returns;  it  is  done  in  the  most  open  and  undisguised  manner." 

Ad  valorem  duties  involve,  moreover,  this  hardship  both  on  the 
importer  and  on  the  consumer  of  the  articles  on  which  they  are 
levied,  that  they  increase  as  the  price  increases,  and  thus  render 
dear  articles  dearer.  In  this  way,  too,  they  aggravate  the  causes 
which  may  at  any  time  be  in  operation  to  diminish  importation 
and  revenue,  while  specific  duties  continue  the  same  in  all  fluc- 
tuations of  price. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  lays  great  stress  on  the  fact 
that  more  than  half  the  revenue  was  collected  last  year  from  ad 
valorem  duties.  Well,  Sir,  I  suppose  that  if  this  bill  takes  effect, 
the  whole  revenue  of  next  year  will  be  collected  from  ad  valorem 
duties,  and  for  the  conclusive  reason,  that  there  will  be  no 
specific  duties  in  operation.  But  neither  the  one  fact  nor  the 
other  can  prove  any  thing  to  the  Secretary's  purpose.  He  states, 
with  an  air  of  triumph,  that  the  revenue  from  ad  valorem  duties 
exceeds  that  realized  from  specific  duties,  although  the  average 
of  the  ad  valorem  was  only  23.57  per  cent.,  while  the  average  of 
the  specific  was  41.30  per  cent.  From  these  premises  he  draws 
two  conclusions ;  first,  that  ad  valorem  duties  are  better  than 
specific  ;  and,  second,  that  lower  duties  increase  the  revenue. 
Nothing  could  be  more  absurd  than  these  inferences.  Even  the 
premises  are  not  correct.  The  Secretary  has  included  among 
the  ad  valorem  duties  the  cotton  minimums,  which  are  virtually 
specific  duties.  He  has  omitted,  too,  all  allowance  for  the 
specific  duty  on  wool.  Transfer  the  duties  received  on  cotton 
goods  and  half  the  duties  on  wool  to  the  other  side  of  the 
account,  and  the  revenue  from  specific  duties  will  exceed  that 


AND   THE   WAGES   OF  LABOR.  533 

from  ad  valorem  duties.  But  even  if  the  premises  were  correct, 
the  conclusions  would  be  preposterous.  The  whole  amount  of 
the  matter  is,  that,  during  the  last  year,  the  importations  of 
articles  subjected  to  ad  valorem  duties  were  nearly  twice  as  large 
as  of  those  subjected  to  specific  duties.  According  to  the 
Secretary's  tables  the  value  of  the  former  was  $60,191,862,  and 
of  the  latter  $34,914,862.  And  the  fact  that  as  much  revenue 
was  derived  from  the  latter  amount  of  importations  under  high 
specific  duties,  as  from  the  former  under  low  ad  valorem  duties, 
—  instead  of  proving  that  ad  valorem  duties  are  better  than 
specific,  or  that  low  duties  increase  revenue,  —  would  seem,  to 
common  apprehensions,  to  prove  precisely  the  reverse.  Cer- 
tainly, Sir,  everybody  must  admit  that  the  duty  which  produces  a 
revenue  of  about  fifteen  millions  on  an  import  of  about  thirty- 
five  millions,  is  more  effective,  than  the  duty  which  requires  an 
import  of  sixty  millions  to  produce  the  same  result. 

But  let  me  return  from  this  digression.  I  have  said  that  an 
issue  of  Treasury  notes,  and  a  moderate  specific  duty  on  tea 
and  coffee,  are  the  only  measures  which  can  be  relied  on  for 
supplying  the  exigencies  of  the  present  moment.  Sir,  I  have  no 
fancy  for  these  measures  in  the  abstract.  A  tax  upon  tea  and 
coffee,  I  know,  will  be  odious.  But  I  greatly  prefer  such  a  duty 
to  that  scheme  of  direct  taxation  which  has  been  proposed  by 
one  of  the  friends  of  the  Administration  from  Tennessee,  (Mr. 
Andrew  Johnson.)  I  greatly  prefer  such  a  measure,  too,  either 
to  sacrificing  the  public  credit,  or  to  plunging  the  country  deeper 
and  deeper  into  debt.  And  if  the  tax  be  odious,  Sir,  upon  whom 
should  the  odium  rest,  but  upon  those  who  have  occasioned  the 
necessity  for  its  imposition  ? 

At  all  events,  believing,  as  I  do,  that  no  other  measures 
adequate  to  the  exigency  can  be  devised,  I  am  willing  to  say, 
that  if  the  friends  of  the  Administration  will  take  the  respon- 
sibility of  bringing  forward  such  measures  as  these,  to  be  of 
limited  duration,  and  for  the  single  purpose  of  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  war,  and  if  the  tariff  in  other  respects  shall  be 
left  undisturbed,  I,  for  one,  am  ready  to  vote  for  them  ;  but  not 
otherwise.  In  other  words,  I  will  vote  for  a  duty  on  tea  and 
coffee  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  Government,  but  not  to  eke 
45* 


534  THE   WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

out  the  insufficiencies  of  an  experimental  ad  valorem  tariff.  I 
will  vote  for  such  a  duty  to  enable  the  Government  to  prosecute 
to  an  honorable  conclusion  a  war  upon  a  foreign  enemy,  but  not 
to  enable  it  to  carry  on,  indefinitely  and  wantonly,  a  war  upon 
our  domestic  industry.  I  will  vote  for  such  a  duty  to  sustain 
the  doctrines  of  free  trade,  in  that  old,  original,  genuine,  patriotic 
sense,  in  which  it  was  associated  with  "  sailor's  rights;"  but  not 
to  sustain  that  spurious  free  trade  of  modern  years,  which  is 
never  destined  to  be  associated  with  any  thing  but  the  laboring 
landsmen's  wrongs ! 

But,  while  I  thus  admit  that  some  additional  provision  for 
supplying  the  wants  of  the  Government  at  the  present  moment 
is  necessary,  I  do,  at  the  same  time,  deny  that  there  is  any 
shadow  of  reason  for  changing  the  existing  duties,  on  articles 
now  dutiable,  for  that  purpose ;  or  that  this  purpose  can  possibly 
be  so  effected.  I  maintain,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  present 
tariff  has  yielded,  and  is  yielding,  as  much  as  any  tariff  can  be 
made  to  yield,  which  does  not  include  a  duty  on  tea  and  coffee, 
or  impose  higher  duties ;  and  that,  especially,  it  yields  far  more 
than  the  bill  before  us  is  likely  to  do  in  the  long  run,  even  with 
the  ten  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  tea  and  coffee  which  it  already 
contains. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  tariff*  of  1842  has  proved  itself  to  be  what 
its  framers  and  friends  originally  declared  that  it  was.  What- 
ever else  may  be  truly  or  falsely  said  in  relation  to  that  act,  it 
cannot  be  denied,  that  it  was  passed  in  the  year  1842  as  a 
revenue  measure,  and  that  it  has  practically  fulfilled,  from  the 
time  when  it  had  got  fairly  into  operation  to  the  present  moment, 
this  great  original  end  of  its  enactment. 

Nobody  can  have  forgotten  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  adopted.  The  net  revenues  of  the  country,  during  the  year 
ending  the  30th  of  September,  1842,  derived  from  the  duties  on 
imports,  as  arranged  previously  to  the  passage  of  the  existing 
tariff,  were  only  about  twelve  and  a  half  millions.  This  sum 
was,  by  all  confession,  utterly  inadequate  to  defray  even  the 
current  expenses  of  the  Government.  A  considerable  public 
debt  was  already  incurred.  The  credit  of  the  nation  was  seri- 
ously impaired.  Treasury  notes  were  at  a  discount,  and  loans 
could  neither  be  negotiated  at  home  nor  abroad. 


AND   THE   WAGES    OF   LABOR.  535 

Under  these  circumstances,  a  general  sense  of  the  necessity  of 
adopting  a  new  system  of  duties  for  raising  revenue  pervaded 
the  country,  and  the  tariff  of  1842  was  the  result.  It  was 
framed,  certainly,  not  without  distinct  reference  to  the  encourage- 
ment of  domestic  industry.  Nobody  will  deny  that.  If  the 
early  custom  of  prefixing  to  the  acts  of  the  national  legislature, 
preambles,  setting  forth  the  object  and  occasion  of  their  enact- 
ment, had  not  passed  away,  the  tariff  of  1842  might  justly  have 
been  introduced  to  the  country  by  the  same  memorable  pream- 
ble which  is  found  at  the  head  of  the  first  revenue  law  on  our 
statute-book.  Like  the  tariff  of  1789,  it  looked  to  the  trinoda 
necessitas  of  "  supporting  the  Government,  discharging  the  debts 
of  the  United  States,  and  encouraging  and  protecting  manufac- 
tures." 

Its  primary  purpose,  however,  was  revenue.  It  was  arranged 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  of  the  time  being,  with  that  particular  view.  Many 
of  the  duties  which  have  been  most  commonly  carped  at,  were 
adopted  with  no  other  view.  The  duties  on  silk  goods,  for 
instance,  were  fixed  in  conformity  with  the  wishes  of  the  import- 
ing merchants,  so  as  to  produce  the  largest  revenue  with  the 
least  liability  to  fraud.  The  duties  on  cotton  manufactures, 
also,  were  raised  above  the  standard  which  was  demanded  by 
the  manufacturers  for  their  protection,  with  the  single  view 
of  increasing  the  revenue. 

And  now,  Sir,  I  repeat,  that  this  much-abused  tariff  of  1842 
has  accomplished  its  great  revenue  purposes  with  the  most 
signal  success  and  certainty.  Like  all  other  new  systems  of  the 
sort,  it  required  some  little  time  for  getting  fairly  into  operation, 
and  for  developing  its  real  character  and  tendencies.  And  with- 
in the  first  twelve  months  of  its  operation,  its  opponents  were 
not  without  color  for  their  confident  predictions,  that  it  would 
fail  of  its  end  as  a  revenue  measure.  But  further  experience 
confounded  all  such  predictions  ;  and  those  who  had  at  first 
denounced  it  on  the  ground  that  it  would  produce  too  little 
revenue,  were  soon  heard  condemning  it,  with  equal  confidence 
and  increased  violence,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  producing  too 
much.     This  last  apprehension,  however,  soon  shared  the  fortune 


536  THE   WANTS   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT 

of  the  first,  and  the  act  has  gone  on,  fulfilling  every  promise  of 
its  friends,  and  falsifying  every  foreboding  of  its  foes,  and  yield- 
ing uniformly  just  about  enough,  and  neither  more  nor  less  than 
enough,  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  a  state  of  peace. 

The  net  revenue  which  it  produced  for  the  year  ending  June 
30th,  1844,  was  $26,183,570.94 ;  and  for  the  year  ending  June 
1845,  $27,528,112.70. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  whose  wish  has  evidently  been 
the  father  of  his  estimates,  has  indeed  predicted,  in  his  annual 
report,  a  large  falling  off  in  the  revenues  of  the  present  year. 
But  the  result  thus  far  has  shown  that  his  predictions  were 
unfounded.  Instead  of  $24,500,000  for  the  whole  year,  we  have 
an  ascertained  receipt  of  $20,411,915.42  for  the  three  first  quar- 
ters, with  an  estimate  of  $6,200,000  for  the  last  quarter,  ending 
on  the  approaching  30th  of  June,  making  an  aggregate  of 
$26,611,915.42  for  the  whole  year,  being  more  than  two  millions 
more  than  was  estimated  by  the  Secretary. 

And  here  I  cannot  but  remark  on  two  circumstances,  which 
speak  volumes  in  favor  of  the  skill  with  which  this  Tariff  was 
framed,  and  of  the  success  of  its  practical  operation.  The  one, 
the  uniformity  of  its  results  for  three  years  in  succession  ;  the 
other,  its  almost  exact  accomplishment  of  the  calculations  of  its 
friends.  It  was  estimated  by  Mr.  Appleton  in  this  House,  and 
by  Mr.  Evans  in  the  Senate,  —  gentlemen  to  whom  the  country 
has  often  since  been  indebted  for  the  clearest  exposition  and 
vindication  of  the  principles  on  which  it  was  framed,  —  that  it 
would  yield  an  average  annual  revenue  of  from  twenty-six  to 
twenty-seven  millions.     Its  actual  yield  has  been  — 

In  1844 $26,183,570.94 

1845  .     .     .     .     .       27,528,112.70 

1846  .....       26,611,915.42 

And  now,  who  shall  undertake  to  say  that  this  was  not  a 
revenue  measure  ?  What  other  definition  is  there  of  a  revenue 
measure,  than  "  one  which  shall  yield,  uniformly  and  certainly, 
the  revenue  required  ? "  May  we  not  demand  from  the  oppo- 
nents of  this  measure,  henceforth,  the  frank  acknowledgment, 
that  it  was  in  its  nature,  as  we  all  know  it  was  in  its  design,  a 
revenue  tariff  ?     Must  not  the  whole  people  of  the  country  here- 


AND    THE   WAGES    OF   LABOR.  537 

after  admit,  that  protection  and  revenue,  instead  of  the  "  one 
beginning  where  the  other  ends"  —  instead  of  being  in  a  state 
of  irreconcilable  and  eternal  conflict  with  each  other,  may  go 
along  hand  in  hand  together,  scattering  benefits  and  blessings  at 
once  upon  the  Government  and  upon  the  people  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  they  not  only  may,  but  they  must  go  along 
together,  or  no  such  beneficial  result  can  be  produed.  I  have 
proved  that  the  tariff  of  1842  was  emphatically  a  revenue 
measure.  I  have  admitted,  also,  that  it  was  a  protective  tariff. 
And  now  I  maintain,  further,  that  it  was  a  revenue  tariff,  for  the 
very  reason  that  it  was  a  protective  tariff.  You  may  talk  as 
much  as  you  please  about  your  revenue  standards.  You  may 
construct  your  ingenious  theories  to  your  heart's  content,  about 
the  abstract  incompatibility  between  revenue  and  protection. 
Such  things  may  sound  well  in  a  speech.  They  may  read  well 
in  a  report.  They  may  even  receive  some  shadow  of  support, 
or  color  of  confirmation,  from  the  operation  of  duties  upon  single 
and  selected  articles  of  import ;  or  from  the  experience  of  other 
countries  differently  situated.  But  the  moment  you  put  them 
in  practice  in  the  construction  of  an  entire  system  —  the  mo- 
ment you  apply  them  in  full  to  the  aggregate  imports  of  this 
young  America  of  ours,  they  will  prove  to  be  utterly  fallacious 
and  fanciful.  The  whole  experience  of  this  country  shows  that 
a  revenue  tariff,  in  the  free  trade  sense  of  the  term,  is  about  as 
fitly  named  as  lucus  a  non  lucendo.  It  will  yield  no  revenue,  or 
none  certainly,  either  adequate  to  the  wants  of  the  Government, 
or  correspondent  to  the  calculation  of  its  friends.  The  real 
revenue  tariff  is  the  reasonable  protective  tariff.  And  the  cause 
is  as  obvious  as  the  fact  is  undeniable. 

Sir,  the  productiveness  of  a  revenue  system  depends  not  on 
any  abstract  principles,  or  arbitrary  arrangement  of  duties,  but 
on  the  ability  of  the  people  to  import,  and  pay  for,  whatever  they 
want  from  abroad.  The  consuming  ability  of  the  people  is  what 
constitutes  or  causes  the  great  difference  between  the  operation 
of  one  tariff  and  another  tariff,  or  between  the  operation  of  the 
same  tariff  at  different  periods.  And  those  who  should  under- 
take, because  the  tariff  of  1842,  with  high  protective  duties, 
yields  an  average  income  of  $26,000,000,  to  lower  those  duties 


538  THE   WANTS  OP  THE  GOVERNMENT 

and  diminish  that  protection  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  larger 
importations  and  a  larger  revenue,  belong  to  the  same  school  of 
financial  wisdom  with  the  lad  in  the  fable,  who  ripped  open  the 
goose  that  was  laying  the  golden  eggs. 

Let  me  fortify  this  position  by  an  authority  from  a  source 
which  the  free  trade  gentlemen  of  the  House  ought  to  be  the 
last  to  undervalue.  They  are  accustomed  to  derive  most  of 
their  arguments  and  illustrations  from  the  mother  country. 
Whatever  jealousy  they  may  entertain  of  British  example  or 
British  doctrine  on  other  points,  —  on  the  subject  of  the  tariff, 
they  bow  implicitly  and  deferentially  to  both.  Even  the  Ameri- 
can Secretary  of  the  Treasury's  report  seems  to  lack  its  essential 
authentication  and  indorsement,  unless  it  has  been  printed  and 
praised  (like  that  of  Mr.  Walker)  in  the  two  Houses  of  the 
Imperial  Parliament. 

Now,  Sir,  I  have  here  an  extract  from  the  London  Banker's 
Circular,  of  the  year  1840,  which  expresses  the  doctrine  I  have 
asserted  in  the  best  possible  phraseology,  and  I  commend  it  to 
the  attentive  hearing  of  the  friends  of  the  present  bill : 

"  The  prevailing  delusion  and  mistake  of  all  alike,  is  a  desire  to  extend  exports, 
overlooking,  or  apparently  ignorant  of  the  fact,  that  whenever  the  export  exceeds  the 
value  which  the  import  will  realize,  the  excess  of  export  must  necessarily  resolve 
itself  into  minus  in  some  way  or  other 

"  It  is  the  amount  which  the  aggregate  imports  into  any  country  may  realize,  that 
constitutes  the  means  of  reciprocal  and  beneficial  exchange ;  and  the  amount  which 
the  imports  will  realize,  depends  entirely  on  the  condition  and  power  of  the  community 
at  large  to  consume.  The  primary  object  of  the  government  of  every  country  should 
be,  to  devise  means  of  enlarging  the  power  of  consumption  by  an  adequate  remunera- 
tion for  labor." 

Here  is  contained,  as  in  a  nutshell,  the  sum  and  substance  of 
the  whole  matter.  Here  is  touched,  as  with  a  needle,  "  the  pre- 
vailing delusion  and  mistake"  of  the  economists  whose  views 
are  represented  by  the  present  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Here 
are  contrasted,  as  in  a  picture,  the  sound  principle  on  which  the 
tariff  of  1842  was  constructed,  and  to  which  it  owes  its  success, 
—  the  principle  of  "  enlarging  the  power  of  consumption  by  an 
adequate  remuneration  of  labor,"  —  and  the  fallacy  on  which 
the  bill  before  us  is  founded,  —  "  the  desire  to  extend  exports." 

This  bill  is  based,  indeed,  upon  a  series  of  delusions, —  a 
perfect  stratification  of  fallacies.     The  foundation  fallacy  of  the 


AND    THE  WAGES   OF  LABOR.  539 

series  is  that  which  I  have  already  named  —  that  the  great  and 
only  desideratum  for  the  prosperity  of  this  country  is  to  increase 
its  exports.  As  if  domestic  consumption  and  domestic  ex- 
changes were  not  worth  thinking  about !  As  if  the  home  trade 
of  every  country  were  not  incomparably  more  important  than 
its  foreign  trade ! 

The  second  fallacy  in  the  ascending  scale,  is,  that  in  order  to 
increase  the  exports  of  the  country,  it  is  only  necessary  to  in- 
crease its  importations.  As  if  the  characteristic  feature  of 
American  trade,  from  1790  to  the  present  day,  had  not  been  an 
inordinate  excess  of  imports, —  an  excess  amounting  to  more 
than  766,000,000  of  dollars  in  a  term  of  fifty  years !  —  making  an 
average  of  more  than  fifteen  millions  a  year !  As  if  other  nations 
would  always  be  willing  to  take  their  pay  for  these  importations 
in  corn  and  cotton  at  remunerating  prices,  and  would  never  call 
upon  us  for  a  balance  in  specie ! 

The  third  and  fourth  fallacies  in  the  series,  are,  that  the  only 
thing  needed  to  secure  an  increase  of  importations  at  any  time, 
is  a  reduction  of  duties ;  and  that  the  consequent  increase  of 
importations  will  be  so  certain  and  so  great,  that  the  reduction 
of  the  duties  will  result  in  a  positive  enlargement  of  the  revenue. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  this  whole  concatenation  of  assumptions, 
the  great  laws  of  supply  and  demand,  and  the  essential  idea 
that  the  consuming  ability  of  other  countries  and  of  our  own, 
must  ultimately  be  the  measure  of  what  they  can  receive  from 
us,  and  of  what  we  can  take  from  them,  —  are  left  wholly  out 
of  view.  And  a  system  of  this  sort,  instead  of  "  enlarging  the 
power  of  consumption,  by  an  adequate  remuneration  of  labor," 
must  inevitably  diminish  that  power  of  consumption  by  depriv- 
ing labor  of  its  just  rewards. 

Look,  for  a  moment,  at  the  details  of  the  very  bill  under  con- 
sideration, and  see  if  it  be  not  so.  The  bill  aims  at  an  increase 
of  importations,  and  the  printed  estimates  of  Mr.  Walker  look 
to  an  aggregate  increase  to  the  amount  of  about  fifteen  millions 
of  dollars.  Now,  nobody  can  imagine  that  we  are  to  consume 
fifteen  millions  of  dollars'  worth  more  than  we  did  last  year  and 
the  year  before.  Those  were  years  of  the  greatest  prosperity 
and  of  the  largest  consumption,  and  we  shall  do  well  if  we  are 


540  THE   WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

able  to  consume  as  much,  for  many  years  to  come.  This  in- 
creased importation,  therefore,  can  only  find  a  market  by  inter- 
fering with  our  own  productions,  and  taking  the  place  of  similar 
fabrics  of  domestic  industry.  This,  indeed,  is  the  very  view  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  He  gives  as  a  reason,  in  his 
annual  report,  for  reducing  the  duties,  that  the  revenue  has  de- 
clined, owing  to  ¥  the  diminished  importation  of  many  highly 
protected  articles,  and  the  progressive  substitution  of  the  domes- 
tic rivals."  He  is  now  for  reversing  this  substitution.  He  is  for 
supplanting  these  domestic  rivals  in  our  own  market,  by  the 
reintroduction  of  the  foreign  fabrics.  And  what  must  be  the 
result?  Why,  clearly,  Sir,  that  the  capital  invested  in  them 
must  be  rendered  unproductive,  and  the  labor  employed  in  them 
thrown  out  of  work.  And  just  to  the  extent  that  this  is  accom- 
plished, the  general  prosperity  of  the  country  must  be  checked, 
and  its  consuming  ability  diminished. 

But  let  us  examine  some  of  the  items  of  which  this  aggre- 
gate increase  of  importations  is  made  up,  and  see  what  branches 
of  labor  are  to  be  thus  supplanted.  I  read  from  the  printed  esti- 
mates prepared  by  Mr.  Walker  himself.  In  the  first  place  we 
are  to  have,  under  the  bill  as  it  now  stands,  an  increased  import- 
ation of  brandies,  spirits,  and  cordials  of  all  sorts,  to  the  amount 
of  $365,000  a  year,  being  $1,000  worth  for  every  day  in  the 
year.  Since  the  bill  was  framed,  however,  the  Secretary  seems 
to  have  discovered  that  a  reduction  of  duties  will  not  always 
increase  the  revenue,  and  he  has  proposed  to  increase  the  duties 
on  brandy  and  spirits  to  provide  means  for  carrying  on  the  war. 
He  thus  first  lowers  and  then  raises  the  duties  on  the  same  arti- 
cles, and  all  for  increasing  the  revenue !  He  leaves  them  still, 
however,  much  lower  than  under  the  tariff  of  1842,  and  esti- 
mates an  increased  importation  of  $300,000  worth  of  brandy 
and  spirits.  But  he  has  proposed,  at  the  same  time,  to  reduce 
the  duties  on  cordials,  and  after  estimating  an  increased  import- 
ation of  them  to  the  amount  of  $25,000  as  the  result  of  raising 
the  duty  from  forty-one  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  he  now  esti- 
mates an  increased  importation  to  the  amount  of  $100,000  as 
the  result  of  reducing  the  duties  to  forty  per  cent !  A  change 
of  one  per  cent,  is  thus  to  produce  an  increased  importation  of 


AND   THE   WAGES    OP   LABOR.  541 

cordials  to  the  amount  of  $100,000!  Thus,  if  his  war  schedule 
shall  be  inserted  in  the  bill,  we  are  to  look  for  an  increased  im- 
portation of  all  these  articles  to  the  amount  of  $400,000  per 
annum.  Add  to  this  an  estimated  increase  of  importation  of 
wines  of  all  sorts,  to  the  amount  of  $500,000,  under  the  absurd 
system  of  ad  valorem  duties,  (never  more  absurd  than  when 
applied  to  articles  like  wines,)  and  the  temperance  view  of  this 
new  democratic  tariff  is  complete.  I  commend  this  to  the 
Washingtonians. 

Let  us  look,  however,  at  the  items  which  affect  the  labor  of 
the  country  more  directly. 

Here  is  an  estimated  increase  of  importation  of  $1,185,000 
worth  of  iron,  in  pigs,  sheets,  bars,  bands,  rods  and  hoops. 

Here  is  an  increased  importation  of  sugar  and  molasses  and 
syrup  of  molasses  of  $630,000. 

Here  is  an  estimated  increase  of  importation  of  $2,000,000  of 
the  various  manufactures  of  wool  and  worsted,  and  of  $200,000 
of  raw  wool. 

Here  is  an  estimated  increase  of  importation  of  cotton  manu- 
factures to  the  amount  of  $5,150,000! 

Here  is  an  estimated  increase  of  importation  of  $125,000 
of  coal  and  coke. 

Here  is  an  estimated  increase  of  importation  of  cordage  of 
$170,000,  and  of  various  kinds  of  unmanufactured  hemp  of 
$105,000. 

Here  is  an  increased  importation  of  salt  to  the  amount  of 
$1,000,000! 

Here  is  an  estimated  increase  of  the  different  kinds  of  cotton 
bagging  of  $300,000;  of  leather  of  all  sorts,  $100,000;  of  manu- 
factures of  iron,  $206,000,  including  anvils,  and  blacksmith's 
hammers  and  sledges,  and  sad-irons,  and  spikes,  and  wrought 
nails. 

Then  we  have  $100,000  of  earthern  and  stone  ware ;  $100,- 
000  of  paper-hangings;  $50,000  of  paper;  $50,000  of  pins; 
$30,000  of  buttons;  $100,000  of  window-glass;  $100,000  of 
glass  tumblers;  $110,000  of  straw  hats  and  bonnets;  $45,000 
of  silk  and  leather  boots  and  shoes ;  $100,000  of  linseed-oil : 
$200,000  of  potatoes:  $2,000  of  cheese;  and  an  increased  im- 

46 


542  THE   WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

portation  of  ready-made  clothing  and  wearing  apparel,  made  up 
or  manufactured,  in  whole  or  in  part,  by  the  tailor,  sempstress, 
or  manufacturer;  and  of  articles  worn  by  men,  women,  and 
children,  made  wholly  or  in  part  by  hand,  of  $200,000. 

Is  it  not  plain  that,  if  these  estimates  are  to  be  realized,  the 
American  labor  which  is  now  employed  in  these  various  branches 
of  manufacture  and  of  the  mechanic  arts  is  to  be  deprived  of  no 
inconsiderable  part  of  its  work  and  its  wages  ?  Is  it  not  plain 
that,  to  this  extent,  at  least,  it  is  to  be  sacrificed  to  foreign  labor? 
Yes,  Sir ;  supplanted  as  an  unworthy  rival !  that's  the  Secre- 
tary's word.  And  who  is  to  pay  for  these  increased  importa- 
tions, under  these  circumstances  ?  This  very  American  labor, 
which  you  propose  to  rob  of  its  birthright,  contributes  to  the 
revenue  of  the  government  by  consuming,  according  to  its 
ability,  some  portion  of  the  foreign  goods  now  imported.  These 
very  hatters,  and  shoemakers,  and  tailors,  and  sempstresses,  and 
iron-makers,  and  cotton-spinners,  and  glass-makers,  and  salt- 
makers,  and  all  the  rest,  whom  you  intend  to  deprive  of  a  part 
of  their  work  and  of  their  wages,  are  now  able  to  purchase,  with 
their  surplus  earnings,  some  humble  share  of  the  foreign  luxu- 
ries from  which  your  revenue  is  mainly  derived.  But  they  will 
be  able  to  do  so  no  longer.  How,  then,  is  your  revenue  to  be 
increased  ?  How  is  it  even  to  be  kept  up  at  the  point  which  it 
has  now  reached?  The  experience  of  the  second  and  third 
years,  if  not  of  the  first,  will  prove  that  the  thing  is  impossible. 
Revenue  and  protection  must  stand  or  fall  together.  The  inter- 
ests of  the  government  cannot  be  separated  from  the  interests  of 
the  people;  and  depend  upon  it,  Sir,  the  party  which  attempts 
such  a  thing,  will  find  that  it  has  only  separated  itself  from  the 
people  and  the  government  both. 

And  yet  this  proceeding  is  justified  on  the  idea  of  lightening 
the  burdens  of  the  poor,  and  reducing  the  price  of  the  necessa- 
ries of  life  to  the  laboring  classes ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  if  there  be  any  thing  against  which  the  Amer- 
ican laborer  ought  to  be  on  his  guard,  at  this  moment,  it  is  the 
false  sympathy,  the  hollow  friendship,  the  killing  kindness  of 
men  who  are  busying  themselves  about  the  cost  of  what  he 
consumes,  while  they  are  cutting  down  the  value  of  what  he 


AND    THE   WAGES   OF   LABOR.  543 

earns ;  of  men  who  amuse  him  with  delusive  schemes  for  redu- 
cing his  expenditures,  while  they  are  employed  in  diminishing 
his  receipts ;  of  men  who  dangle  the  vision  of  cheaper  food  and 
cheaper  clothing  before  his  eyes,  while  they  are  in  the  very  act 
of  rifling  his  pocketbook.  The  whole  art  and  part  of  certain 
gentlemen  seems  to  be,  to  convince  the  workingman  that  the 
price  of  this  or  that  article  of  his  consumption  is  raised  a  few 
cents  by  the  protecting  system.  As  if  the  only  subject  of  anx- 
iety with  the  free  American  laborer  was,  "  what  shall  I  eat,  or 
what  shall  I  drink,  or  wherewithal  shall  I  be  clothed  ?  "  As  if 
wages  in  this  county  were  to  be  brought  down  to  the  standard 
of  a  bare  and  scanty  subsistence !  As  if  nothing  was  wanted 
by  the  laborer  for  the  education  of  his  children ;  nothing  for  pay- 
ing his  share  of  the  support  of  religious  worship;  nothing  to  lay 
up,  I  do  not  say  merely  against  a  rainy  day,  but  against  that 
sunshiny  day,  which,  by  the  blessing  of  God  and  a  sound  pro- 
tecting tariff,  is  sure  to  beam  on  every  honest,  industrious  man 
among  us,  when  he  may  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  toil  in  a  condi- 
tion of  comparative  rest  and  recreation ! 

Reduce  the  wages  of  labor  to  the  standard  of  mere  subsist- 
ence, and  the  laborer  must  be  a  laborer  always.  The  noble 
spectacle  which  is  so  often  exhibited  in  this  country,  and  so 
rarely  in  any  other,  and  which,  let  me  say  to  the  honorable 
member  from  Louisiana,  is  quite  as  often  exhibited  in  the  region 
of  the  Eastern  manufacturers  as  in  any  other  part  of  the  Union, 
of  what  are  called  self-made  men,  the  printer's  boys,  or  plough- 
boys,  or  mill-boys  of  a  few  years  back,  elevating  themselves  to 
the  highest  stations  of  social  or  of  public  life,  will  be  seen  no 
more.  You  have  cut  off  that  hope  of  bettering  his  condition, 
which  is  the  sweetest  cordial  to  the  heart  of  man,  and  the  surest 
stimulus  to  industry,  economy,  and  virtue.  The  one  thing 
needful  to  the  welfare  of  the  laboring  man,  (temporally  speaking, 
yet  not  without  an  incidental  reference  to  things  eternal,)  is,  that 
he  should  be  able  to  lay  up  something.  Ask  any  laborer  what 
he  thinks  about  the  matter,  and  he  will  tell  you  that  he  cares 
not  whether  he  pays  a  little  more  or  a  little  less  for  his  clothes ; 
that  he  is  quite  willing,  if  need  be,  to  pay  his  brother  laborer  or 
his  sister  laborer  a  little  more  for  making  his  shoes  or  making 


448,190  dollars 

478,365 

(C 

462,650 

M 

591,910 

« 

730,890 

(( 

544  THE   WANTS   OF   THE    GOVERNMENT 

his  shirt,  if  you  will  secure  to  them  both,  not  merely  the  means 
of  paying  for  such  things,  but  the  means  of  making  a  little 
deposit,  once  in  a  week,  or  once  in  a  month,  or  once  in  a  quar- 
ter, in  that  most  excellent  of  all  institutions  —  the  Savings 
Bank. 

Now,  this  is  what  the  protective  policy  aims  at ;  and  this,  too, 
in  spite  of  all  assertions  to  the  contrary,  is  what  it  accomplishes. 
Look  at  this  table  of  the  amount  of  deposits  in  the  Savings 
Bank  at  Lowell. 

In  1841 
1842 
1843 

1844     .     .     . 
1845 

I  have  here  similar  tables,  showing  an  increase  of  wages  in 
the  manufacturing  establishments  of  New  Hampshire  and  Mas- 
sachusetts, to  the  amount  of  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  and  even  sixty 
per  cent,  in  some  cases,  during  the  last  three  years.  I  have  au- 
thentic information,  too,  that  there  has  been  a  similar  increase 
in  some  of  the  Maryland  mills.  And  I  have  no  doubt  that 
other  gentlemen  will  furnish  similar  testimony  from  other  parts 
of  the  Union.  And  yet  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has 
declared,  that  there  has  been  no  increase  of  wages  at  all,  but 
rather  a  diminution,  under  the  tariff  of  1842! 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  repeat,  is  what  the  policy  of  protection 
aims  at.  It  looks  at  the  workingman,  not  in  his  mere  brute 
capacity  of  a  consumer,  but  in  his  higher  nature  of  a  producer. 
It  looks  not  to  reducing  the  price  of  what  he  eats  or  what  he 
wears,  but  to  keeping  up  the  price  of  his  own  labor.  It  looks, 
in  short,  to  wages  first,  wages  last,  wages  altogether.  Shall  the 
wages  of  the  whole  civilized  commercial  world  be  equalized  and 
levelled  off?  This  is  the  briefest,  truest,  most  concise  and  most 
comprehensive  statement  of  the  question  between  free  trade  and 
protection.  The  wages  of  labor — by  which  is  to  be  understood 
not  merely  the  wages  which  are  paid  by  the  capitalist  to  the 
hired  hand,  but  the  wages  also  which  are  earned  by  labor  of  any 
kind  working  on  its  own  account — are  now  higher  in  this  coun- 
try than  in  any  other  beneath  the  sun.     If  any  body  doubts  this, 


AND   THE   WAGES   OF  LABOR.  545 

let  him  stop  the  first  emigrant  whom  he  meets  in  the  street,  and 
ask  him  why  he  came  over  here,  what  condition  he  left  behind 
him,  and  in  what  circumstances  he  finds  himself  within  six 
months  after  his  arrival  ?  If  any  body  doubts  this,  let  him  turn 
to  the  Parliamentary  debaters,  the  economical  essayists,  or  even 
the  corn-law  rhymers  of  England,  and  see  what  they  say  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  British  operatives.  Listen 
to  Charles  Buller,  in  his  admirable  speech  on  systematic  emi- 
gration as  the  only  relief  for  the  pauper  labor  of  his  country, 
while  he  tells  you  "  of  human  beings  huddled  together  in  defi- 
ance of  comfort,  of  shame,  and  of  health,  in  garrets  and  in  cel- 
lars, and  in  the  same  hovels  with  their  pigs  ;  of  workhouses 
crowded  ;  of  even  the  gaol  resorted  to  for  shelter  and  mainte- 
nance ;  of  human  beings  prevented  from  actually  dying  of  star- 
vation in  the  open  streets,  or  of  others  allowed  to  expire  from 
inanition  in  the  obscurity  of  their  own  dwelling-places."  Listen 
to  him,  again,  while  he  gives  you  an  account  "  of  thousands  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  congregated  together  without  any 
regard  to  decency  or  comfort  in  noisome  sites  and  wretched 
hovels  —  of  those  who  wear  out  their  lives  in  the  darkness  of 
coal  and  iron  mines,  doing  what  is  commonly  considered  the 
work  of  brutes,  in  a  moral  and  intellectual  state  hardly  raised 
above  that  of  the  mere  animal  —  of  the  shirt-makers,  who  get 
tenpence  for  making  a  dozen  shirts — and  of  the  fifteen  thou- 
sand milliners  in  this  metropolis,  (London,)  habitually  working 
for  the  scantiest  wages  in  close  rooms,  always  for  thirteen  or 
fourteen  hours  a  day,  sometimes  for  days  and  nights  together ; 
nine  out  of  ten  losing  their  health  in  the  occupation,  and  scores 
of  them  falling  victims  to  consumption,  or  rendered  incurably 
blind  whenever  a  court  mourning,  or  any  festivity  of  particular 
magnitude,  tasks  *their  powers  more  than  usual." 

Listen  to  Samuel  Laing,  in  his  prize  essay  on  the  causes  and 
remedies  of  the  national  distress,  while  he  describes  to  you  those 
eight  thousand  inhabited  cellars  in  Liverpool,  whose  occupants 
are  estimated  at  from  thirty-five  to  forty  thousand  persons : 

"  These  cellars  are  dwellings  under  ground,  in  many  cases  having  no  windows,  and 
no  communication  with  the  external  air,  excepting  by  the  door,  the  top  of  which  is 
sometimes  not  higher  than  the  level  of  the  street.     When  the  door  of  such  a  cellar  is 
46* 


546  THE  WANTS   OF  THE   COVERNMENT 

closed,  therefore,  light  and  air  are  both  excluded.  The  access  to  the  door  is  often  so 
low  as  not  to  admit  of  a  person  of  moderate  height  standing  upright,  and  there  is  fre- 
quently no  floor  of  any  kind  except  the  bare  earth." 

Go  with  him  from  the  commercial  to  the  manufacturing 
towns  —  to  Manchester,  Birmingham,  and  Leeds  —  and  follow 
him  from  thence  through  the  agricultural  districts,  and  hear  him 
conclude,  as  the  sum  of  the  whole  survey,  "  that  there  is  a  large 
proportion  of  the  laboring  class  who  are  unable  to  secure  a  toler- 
ably comfortable  and  stable  existence  in  return  for  their  labor, 
and  are  approximating  towards  the  gulf  of  pauperism." 

It  may  be,  Sir,  that  the  wages  of  the  skilled  labor  of  England 
will  be  found  to  approach  pretty  nearly  to  those  of  the  same 
class  of  labor  in  our  own  country  ;  though  I  remember  finding 
an  anecdote  in  the  speech  of  a  member  of  Parliament,  not  long 
ago,  which  conflicted  even  with  this  idea.  In  a  debate  on  the 
corn-laws,  a  year  or  two  since,  Mr.  P.  Scrope  is  reported  to  have 
said,  "  that  he  had  that  evening  met  a  manufacturer,  who  told 
him  that  he  had  last  year  discharged  his  foreman  in  consequence 
of  not  being  able  to  pay  him  sufficient  wages  for  the  support  of 
his  family.  That  foreman  had  gone  to  America,  and  had  writ- 
ten over  to  say  that  he  was  prosperous,  that  he  was  receiving 
double  the  wages  he  had  had  in  England,  while  his  expenditures 
and  the  price  of  provisions  were  two  thirds  less." 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  fact  is  indisputable.  The  low  price  of 
land  and  its  vast  extent  compared  with  the  population,  the  vast 
amount  of  work  to  be  done  compared  with  the  number  of  hands 
which  can  be  commanded  on  our  own  soil  to  perform  it,  —  these 
and  other  influences,  secure  now  to  American  labor  a  remunera- 
tion which  no  other  in  the  world  receives.  Shall  this  state  of 
things,  so  fruitful  of  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number, 
be  continued  ;  or  shall  we,  in  a  fit  of  universal  benevolence,  go 
in  for  a  horizontal  scale  of  wages,  and  an  average  condition  of 
labor,  the  wide  world  over?  Equality  of  earnings,  equality  of 
encouragements,  equality  of  opportunities,  privileges,  and  wages, 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  own  land,  no  man 
would  disturb.  We  desire  the  establishment  of  no  system 
which  shall  benefit  or  build  up  one  class  of  our  industry,  or  one 
section  of  our  country,  at  the  expense  of  another.     But  cannot 


•      AND   THE   WAGES    OF  LABOR.  547 

our  democracy  be  content  with  equality  at  home?  Is  it  anti- 
republican  or  anti- American,  to  maintain  and  protect  the  supe- 
rior condition  of  our  own  people?  Cannot  the  frenzy  of  our 
philanthropy  be  appeased,  until  it  has  accomplished  that  univer- 
sal level  of  labor,  which  can  only  be  reached  by  the  prostration 
of  our  own  ?  Free  trade  says  —  no,  to  this  question.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  says  —  no.  The  bill  before  us  says  — 
no.  Or  if  they  do  not  dare  to  say  so  in  terms,  they  propose 
and  pursue  a  policy  which  leads  to  such  a  result,  with  the  speed 
and  the  directness  of  a  railroad.  The  policy  of  protection,  on  the 
other  hand,  says  "  yes,  yes;  it  shall  not  be  in  vain  to  the  work- 
ing-men of  America,  that  their  fathers  threw  off  the  colonial 
yoke,  and  secured  for  them  a  country  and  a  government  of  their 
own.  Other  nations  may  well  afford  to  enter  into  a  free  trade 
copartnership  with  us,  for  their  labor  has  already  reached  that 
lowest  depth  to  which  there  is  no  lower  deep,  and  from  which 
every  change  must  be  for  the  better.  Other  governments  may 
afford  to  institute  a  free  trade  experiment  on  their  own  account, 
for  they  look  to  the  intelligence,  the  education,  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  few.  But  our  institutions  rest  on  the  intelli- 
gence, education,  and  independence  of  the  many.  Our  institu- 
tions rely  on  a  condition  of  society,  which  nothing  but  a  high 
rate  of  wages  can  maintain.  If  our  labor  be  levelled  off  to  the 
grade  of  European  labor,  our  liberty  must  be  cut  down  to  the 
standard  of  European  liberty.  The  government  which  looks  to 
the  laboring  masses  for  support,  must  support  the  laboring 
masses." 

I  may  seem  to  have  admitted,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  this  view, 
that  a  protective  tariff  may  raise  the  value  of  other  things  beside 
labor.  Indeed,  I  expressly  maintain,  that  it  tends  to  secure  a 
better  price  for  agricultural  produce,  and  that  it  is  the  only  sys- 
tem which,  in  this  country,  can  secure  to  that  produce  any  price 
or  market  whatever.  If  gentlemen  have  any  objection  to  this, 
let  them  tell  it  to  the  farmers.  But  as  to  the  idea  that  it  raises 
the  price  of  the  laboring  man's  clothes  —  it  is  utterly  untrue. 
It  has  been  proved  again  and  again,  by  a  hundred  price-currents, 
that  the  effect  of  the  protecting  system  has  been  to  reduce,  a 
hundredfold,  the  cost  of  the  coarse   articles  of  common  wear. 


548  THE  WANTS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

This  whole  hue-and-cry  about  higher  duties  on  coarse  goods  is 
theoretic.  It  leaves  out  of  consideration  that  domestic  produc- 
tion which  is  not  merely  supplying  our  own  market,  but  is  send- 
ing thousands  of  bales  of  cotton  cloth  to  Calcutta,  in  the  face  of 
a  discriminating  duty  in  favor  of  its  British  rival,  and  is  exhibit- 
ing the  truly  oriental  spectacle  of  British  drills  in  American 
drillings!  It  is  a  fact,  that  the  troops  of  the  greatest  cotton- 
manufacturing  country  in  the  world  are  wearing,  on  the  plains 
of  what  was  once  the  greatest  cotton -growing  country  of  the 
world,  pantaloons  and  jackets  made  of  American  cotton  and  in 
American  mills !  Indeed,  it  is  the  exportation  of  these  articles 
to  Calcutta  and  China  which  has  enabled  some  of  the  manu- 
facturers to  make  those  great  dividends  of  which  we  have  heard 
so  much.  Now,  every  schoolboy  must  understand,  that  this 
export  trade  could  not  go  on  for  an  instant,  unless  the  American 
drillings  were  cheaper  and  better  than  the  British. 

Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  rest  all  their  arguments  on  the 
hypothesis  that  our  laboring  classes  actually  wear  foreign  cloth- 
ing. They  seem  to  entertain  the  idea  that  the  American  laborer 
goes  out  to  his  work  in  the  morning  in  a  Manchester  shirt,  a 
London  hat,  and  a  Paris  boot!  And  if  he  does  not  now,  they 
are  for  making  him  do  so  at  the  earliest  moment.  What  a 
picture!  Why,  an  American  working-man  would  not  know 
himself  in  a  looking-glass,  in  such  an  attire.  Every  body  knows 
that  we  supply  these  things  ourselves,  and  supply  them  at  a 
cheaper  rate,  and  of  a  better  quality,  than  others  would  supply 
them  if  there  were  no  duty.  And  we  can  continue  to  do  so,  if 
we  can  only  keep  our  own  market  to  ourselves.  But  even  if  it 
were  not  so,  even  if  the  foreign  fabrics  of  this  sort  could  be  pro- 
cured a  few  cents  cheaper,  I  believe  in  my  soul  that  the  Ameri- 
can laborer  would  scorn  such  economy.  The  independent  yeo- 
manry of  this  country  will  never  again  be  content  to  be  depend- 
ent on  any  other  country  for  the  manufacture  and  making  up 
of  their  daily  dress.  They  do  not  understand  the  democracy, 
the  Americanism,  of  such  wear.  The  farmers  and  mechanics 
are  yet  to  declare  themselves,  who  would  not  be  willing  to  pay 
a  cent  or  two  more,  either  for  their  weekday  jackets,  or  their 
Sunday  suits,  for  the  sake  of  having  them  homemade.     Such 


AND    THE   WAGES    OF   LABOR.  549 

clothes,  if  they  were  dearer  at  all,  would  be  dearer  in  more 
senses  of  the  word  than  one.  They  would  be  associated  with 
that  National  Pride,  of  which,  even  the  coldest  abstractionist  in 
these  halls  could  not  fail  to  have  felt  some  touches,  as  he  visited 
the  late  National  Fair ;  and  which,  though  it  may  be  derided  by 
politicians  and  economists,  is  to  the  common  heart  above  all 
calculations  of  moneyed  value.  They  would  be  associated,  too, 
with  that  National  Independence,  which  was  but  half  achieved 
by  the  arms  of  our  Fathers,  and  which  remains  to  be  consum- 
mated by  the  arts  of  their  sons.  The  workingmen  of  this  coun- 
try, I  verily  believe,  if  interrogated  upon  such  a  point,  would 
answer,  as  Benjamin  Franklin  answered  at  the  bar  of  the  Bri- 
tish House  of  Commons  in  the  days  of  the  Stamp- Act: 

"  What  used  to  be  the  pride  of  Americans  ?  " 

"  To  indulge  in  the  fashions  and  manufactures  of  Great 
Britain." 

"  What  is  now  their  pride  ?  " 

"  To  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again,  until  they  can  make 
new  ones  for  themselves." 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  many  other  points  which  I  had  pro- 
posed to  touch,  but  I  have  only  time  to  conclude  with  the  fol- 
lowing propositions,  which  briefly  embody  all  that  I  have  said, 
and  much  that  I  would  have  said. 

I  maintain,  then : 

1.  That  provision  ought  promptly  to  be  made  for  furnishing  the  government  with 
whatever  additional  revenues  and  resources  may  be  necessary  for  bringing  the  existing 
war  with  Mexico  to  a  just  and  speedy  conclusion,  and  establishing  an  honorable  peace. 

2.  That  no  additional  revenue  can  be  relied  on  from  the  bill  now  under  considera- 
tion, cither  as  originally  reported,  or  with  the  modifications  which  have  been  proposed 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  whole  experience  of 
the  country  shows  that  the  operation  of  such  a  bill  would  be  materially  to  diminish 
the  revenue. 

3.  That  this  bill  is,  at  best,  a  mere  experiment,  and  one  which,  there  is  great  reason 
to  fear,  would  result  in  both  curtailing  the  resources  of  the  government,  and  crippling 
the  industry  of  the  people ;  and  that  in  adopting  an  entire  system  of  ad  valorem  duties, 
it  would  open  the  door  to  all  manner  of  inequalities  and  frauds,  and  would  be  espe- 
cially oppressive  to  the  honest  American  merchant. 

4.  That  the  tariff  of  1 842  has  proved  itself  for  three  years  past  emphatically  a  reve- 
nue tariff;  yielding,  with  signal  uniformity,  and  in  precise  correspondence  with  the 
calculations  of  its  framers,  a  net  average  annual  revenue  of  nearly  twenty-seven  mil 
lions  of  dollars,  and  at  once  protecting  the  labor  and  enriching  the  treasury  of  the 


550   THE  WANTS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  WAGES  OP  LABOR. 

nation;  and  that  no  substantial  modification — certainly  no  material  reduction  —  of 
the  duties  which  it  imposes,  would  be  likely  to  yield  any  thing  like  an  equal  amount  to 
the  government. 

5.  That  an  issue  of  eight  or  ten  millions  of  treasury  notes,  and  the  imposition  of 
moderate  specific  duties  on  tea  and  coffee,  for  a  short  term  of  years,  and  for  the  single 
purpose  of  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  war,  are  the  only  measures  for  increasing  the 
resources  and  revenues  of  the  nation  which  can  be  adopted  with  any  reasonable  pros- 
pect of  success  ;  and  that,  unless  the  administration  and  its  friends  intend  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  resorting  to  direct  taxation,  or  of  incurring  a  large  national  debt, 
these  measures  ought  to  be  adopted  by  them  without  delay. 


WHIG  PREDICTIONS  AND  WHIG  POLICY. 


A    SPEECH   DELIVERED    AT    THE     STATE    CONVENTION    OF    THE    WHIGS    OF 
MASSACHUSETTS,   IN   FANEUIL   HALL,   SEPTEMBER  23,   1846. 


I  should  have  preferred  on  many  accounts,  Mr.  President,  to 
remain  still  longer  a  listener  on  this  occasion,  and  to  postpone 
until  a  later  hour,  if  not  altogether,  any  remarks  of  my  own. 
But  I  cannot  hesitate  to  respond,  without  further  delay,  to  the 
unequivocal  and  cordial  summons  which  has  now  been  made 
upon  me.  Indeed,  Sir,  I  am  proud  to  participate,  at  any  time, 
and  in  ever  so  humble  a  way,  in  the  proceedings  of  such  a  meet- 
ing as  I  see  before  me.  The  mere  presence  at  it,  to  those  who 
have  been  so  lately  and  so  long  confined  to  far  other  company, 
is  a  privilege  which  you  and  I,  at  least,  know  how  to  appreciate.* 
I  rejoice  to  see  once  more  the  faces  of  so  many  true-hearted 
Whigs  of  Massachusetts;  —  faces,  not  a  few  of  wThich  have  been 
familiar  to  me  in  other  years,  and  in  other  fields  of  public  or 
political  service ;  —  faces,  all  of  which  I  may  greet  as  the  faces 
of  friends,  if  there  be  any  thing  of  truth  in  the  saying  of  the 
great  Roman  orator,  that  one  of  the  strongest  bonds  of  human 
friendship  is,  "  to  think  alike  concerning  the  Republic." 

Nor,  Sir,  can  I  find  it  in  my  heart  to  regret  that  this  Conven- 
tion is  assembled  here,  in  this  city,  covered  with  memorials  of 
the  patriotism  of  the  fathers,  and  of  the  philanthropy  and  muni- 
ficence of  their  sons ;  and  in  this  hall,  devoted,  from  the  first,  to 
human  liberty,  and  whose  echoes  are  ever  true  to  the  cause  to 
which  it  was  consecrated.     And  not  of  liberty  alone,  much  less 

*  Hon.  Charles  Hudson  was  in  the  Chair,  having  just  returned  with  Mr.  Winthrop 
from  a  protracted  session  of  Congress. 


/ 


552  WHIG    PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG   POLICY. 

of  Boston  alone,  or  of  Massachusetts  alone,  do  these  venerated 
columns,  or  yonder  votive  canvas,  speak  to  us,  but  of  "  Liberty 
and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable." 

We  meet  this  day,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  under  cir- 
cumstances of  more  than  ordinary  interest.  Rarely,  if  ever,  have 
so  many  momentous  issues  been  presented  at  once  to  our  con- 
sideration. When  we  were  assembled  in  this  hall  last  year,  the 
administration,  against  whose  accession  to  power  we  had  so 
vigorously  but  so  vainly  struggled,  had  but  just  entered  on  the 
threshold  of  their  career.  Their  principles  and  purposes  had  only 
found  expression  on  paper  or  in  words,  —  in  the  resolutions  of 
some  Baltimore  convention,  in  the  manifestoes  of  some  mass 
meeting,  or  in  the  hardly  more  dignified  phrases  of  an  inaugural 
message. '  We  had,  then,  some  reason,  or  at  least  some  room,  for 
hoping,  that  their  practice  might  fall  short  of  their  professions  ; 
that  their  bite  might  be  less  bad  than  their  bark;  that  they  might 
not  be  quite  willing,  or  if  willing,  not  quite  able,  to  carry  out  to 
their  full  consummation  the  plans  they  had  so  boldly  avowed. 

A  year  of  action  has  since  ensued ;  a  year  of  busy,  earnest, 
varied,  crowded,  action.  Their  whole  policy  has  now  been  prac- 
tically disclosed  and  developed.  There  is  scarcely  a  subject  in 
the  whole  wide  field  of  national  legislation,  which  has  failed  to 
receive  the  impression,  the  deep  and  strong  impression,  of  their 
ruling  hand.  Questions  foreign  and  questions  domestic,  ques- 
tions of  currency  and  questions  of  commerce,  questions  moral 
and  questions  material,  questions  of  peace  and  questions  of 
war,  questions  of  labor  and  questions  of  liberty,  have  been 
drawn,  with  startling  rapidity,  within  the  sphere  of  their  delibe- 
ration, and  have  received  the  unequivocal  stamp  of  their  deci- 
sion. 

Their  acts  are  now  before  us.  We  now  know  them  by  their 
fruits.  And  it  well  becomes  us  to  examine  those  fruits,  and  to 
see  for  whom  they  are  meat,  and  for  whom  they  are  poison. 

In  pursuing  such  an  examination  ever  so  cursorily,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, no  man  who  hears  me  can  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  com- 
plete coincidence  which  is  found,  between  the  predictions  which 
were  pronounced  by  the  Whig  presses  and  the  Whig  speakers, 
two  years  ago,  as  to  the  consequences  of  Mr.  Polk's  election  to 


WHIG  PKEDICTIONS   AND   WHIG  POLICY.  553 

the  Presidency,  and  the  facts  as  they  have  now  occurred.     A 
great  poet  tells  us  of — 

"  Some  juggling  fiend,  who  never  spoke  before, 
But  cries,  '  I  warned  thee.'  when  the  deed  is  o'er." 

Not  such  are  the  cries,  "we  warned  you,"  "we  warned  you," 
which  the  Whigs  are  now  everywhere  ringing  through  the  land. 
In  the  columns  of  a  hundred  newspapers,  at  the  corners  of  a 
hundred  streets,  the  precise  results  which  are  now  before  us  and 
upon  us,  were  read  or  heard  two  years  ago,  in  the  language  of 
prophecy,  but,  as  it  now  appears,  with  the  literal  exactness  of 
history.  "We  may,  indeed,  say  with  him  of  old,  not  a  little  of 
whose  patience  we  are  called  upon  to  exercise,  "the  things  which 
we  greatly  feared  are  come  upon  us,  and  that  which  we  were 
afraid  of  is  come  unto  us." 

I  know,  Mr.  President,  of  but  a  single  catastrophe,  which  was 
foreboded  as  the  consequence  of  the  defeat  of  our  party  at  the 
last  Presidential  election,  which  has  been  in  any  degree  averted. 
I  mean,  a  war  with  Great  Britain  for  the  Territory  of  Oregon. 
And  certainly,  certainly,  I  do  not  underrate  the  importance  of 
this  exception  to  the  general  assertion  I  have  made.  Nor  would 
I  withhold  from  the  administration  any  measure  of  credit,  which 
it  may  deserve,  for  having  saved  the  country  from  so  unspeakable 
a  calamity.  But  what  degree  of  credit  does  it  deserve  ?  Who 
can  say,  this  day,  upon  his  conscience,  that  it  was  by  the  states- 
manship, by  the  moderation,  by  the  wisdom,  by  the  civilized 
policy  and  Christian  principle  of  the  President,  or  his  cabinet, 
or  the  general  mass  of  his  supporters,  that  this  result  was  accom- 
plished? Who,  on  the  other  hand,  can  forget  the  intemperate 
and  braggart  counsels,  which  brought  the  two  countries  to  the 
perilous  edge  of  such  a  war  as  never  raged  before,  and  which 
were  only  restrained,  (under  God,)  by  the  patriotic  firmness  and 
independence  of  half  a  dozen  of  the  nominal  friends  of  the  ad- 
ministration, seconded  and  sustained  by  the  great  body  of  the 
Whigs  in  Congress  ?  Yes,  Sir,  the  Whigs  in  Congress,  and 
more  particularly  the  Whigs  of  the  Senate,  with  our  own  ever- 
honored  and  illustrious  Daniel  Webster  in  their  front  ranks, 
may  claim  the  true  glory  of  having  saved  the  peace  of  the 
country  and  of  the  world,  in  this  case ;  and  of  having  brought 

47 


554  WHIG   PREDICTIONS  AND   WHIG   POLICY. 

the  administration  to  the  necessity,  (I  will  not  call  it  the  humili- 
ating necessity,  —  there  is  nothing  humiliating  in  abandoning  a 
false  course,  —  it  is  the  highest  honor,  rather,  to  any  man  or  any 
party,)  of  submitting  to  an  arrangement,  to  which  it  had  rashly 
and  recklessly  declared  that  it  never  would  submit ! 

Peace,  lasting,  and,  I  hope,  eternal  peace,  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain,  by  the  settlement  of  the  only  remain- 
ing disputed  boundary  between  them,  —  that  very  peace,  which 
Shakspeare  would  seem  to  have  prefigured,  when  he  said, "  Our 
peace  shall  stand  as  firm  as  Rocky  Mountains"  —  this  has  been 
secured  to  us ;  and,  for  this,  the  Whigs  in  Congress,  in  a  hope- 
less minority  though  they  seemed,  may  claim  no  second  or  sub- 
ordinate share  of  distinction.  Had  they  looked  only  to  party 
ends ;  had  they  been  willing  to  embroil  the  country,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  embarrassing  the  administration ;  had  they  acted  in  the 
spirit,  which  so  many  of  their  adversaries  have  more  than  once 
exhibited  in  regard  to  the  Ashburton  Treaty,  I  honestly  believe 
that  war  would  have  been  as  inevitable,  even  as  General  Cass 
so  often  pronounced  it.  But  the  policy  of  the  Whigs  was  Peace ; 
peace  in  this  case,  and  peace  in  every  other  case.  And  I  may 
add,  that  they  would  have  preserved  it  in  every  other  case,  also, 
had  it  ever  depended  on  their  voices  or  on  their  votes. 

But,  with  this  one  exception,  the  whole  catalogue  of  disas- 
trous consequences,  predicted  from  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk,  has 
been  fulfilled  to  the  letter. 

1.  The  Sub-Treasury  scheme,  upon  which  the  people  of  this 
country  passed  sentence  of  condemnation,  in  tones  so  emphatic 
and  unequivocal,  in  1840,  has  been  reestablished.  That  credit 
system,  upon  which  the  young  and  enterprising  must  ever 
depend  so  much  for  getting  a  start  in  life,  and  which,  under 
wholesome  regulations,  is  of  incalculable  importance  to  the 
honest  industry  of  the  people,  has  again  been  placed  under  the 
ban  of  the  national  government.  From  this  ctay  forth,  every 
bank-note  in  the  land,  without  discrimination  between  the 
redeemable  and  the  irredeemable,  bears  a  government  protest  on 
its  face.  It  may  be  good  enough  for  the  people,  but  it  is  not 
good  enough  for  the  office-holders.  A  new  divorce  has  been 
proclaimed  between   the  people  and  the  government,  and  the 


WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND    WHIG   POLICY.  555 

decree  does  not  contain  even  an  allowance  for  alimony.  "  Let 
the  government  take  care  of  itself,  and  let  the  people  take  care 
of  themselves,"  is  again  practically  avowed  as  the  maxim  of  a 
self-styled  Democratic  administration. 

It  is  true,  that  the  administration  has,  at  present,  the  hard- 
est part  of  this  bargain.  It  is  clear  that  the  government  has 
not  yet  made  much  headway  in  taking  care  of  number  one, 
upon  this  hard  money  principle.  Not  only  has  the  Sub-Trea- 
sury system  been  again  ushered  into  existence  under  the  salute  of 
an  issue  often  millions  of  treasury  notes,  but  the  Executive  has 
notoriously  been  at  work  in  manufacturing  another  variety  of 
paper  money,  through  the  medium  of  paymasters'  drafts,  which 
is  a  deliberate  and  intentional  fraud  upon  the  whole  design  and 
object  of  the  act.  But  the  principle  is  none  the  better,  whatever 
the  practice  may  be.  This  government  was  not  made  to  take 
care  of  itself  alone  ;  and  as  to  the  people,  the  best  and  only  way 
in  which  they  can  take  care  of  themselves  —  as  I  trust  they  will 
soon  understand  and  signify  —  is  by  placing  always  in  offices  of 
authority  and  trust,  men  who  will  watch  over  their  interests, 
provide  for  their  wants,  regulate  their  commerce,  protect  their 
labor,  and  carry  out  those  great  ends  of  common  defence  and 
general  welfare,  for  which  the  Constitution  was  at  first  created. 

2.  In  fit  companionship  with  this  act,  may  be  placed  the 
refusal  of  the  administration,  through  a  most  odious  exercise  of 
the  veto  power,  to  cooperate  with  large  majorities  of  Congress, 
in  making  provision  for  removing  obstructions  and  improving 
channels  in  the  various  harbors  and  rivers  of  the  Union.  We  of 
Massachusetts,  had  a  particular  interest  in  the  bill  which  was 
thus  wantonly  defeated.  The  harbor,  on  whose  borders  we 
are  at  this  moment  assembled,  was  deprived,  by  the  imperious 
will  of  Mr.  Polk,  of  an  appropriation,  essential,  not  so  much 
to  its  improvement,  as  to  its  preservation,  and  almost  to  its  ex- 
istence. Mr.  President,  the  day  was,  when  no  man  would  have 
dared  to  deny  that  the  condition  of  Boston  harbor  was  a  mat- 
ter of  national  concern.  When  the  British  government  shut  up 
Boston  port  by  a  tyrannical  edict,  the  whole  Union  was  roused 
to  reopen  it.  When  the  Liberty  Boys  choked  up  the  channel 
with  British  tea,  that,  too,  was  an  obstruction  which  was  not 


556  WHIG  PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG  POLICY. 

counted  altogether  local.  Nor  did  it  ever  enter  into  the  head  of 
any  of  our  Revolutionary  or  Constitutional  fathers,  to  deny  the 
nationality  of  so  important  a  thoroughfare  of  commerce.  But 
other  counsels  have  come  over  our  government,  and  Boston  and 
Massachusetts  are  almost  ruled  out  of  the  national  regard. 

Not,  however,  for  ourselves  alone,  or  even  most  deeply,  do  we 
deplore  the  veto  of  the  Harbor  and  River  bill.  We  realize  every 
day,  more  and  more,  that  we  have  a  common  interest. and  a 
common  destiny  with  the  dwellers  on  the  great  lakes  and  rivers 
of  the  West  and  Southwest,  and  our  hearts  are  with  them,  in 
this  fresh  and  cruel  postponement  of  their  long-deferred  hopes.  I 
know  of  few  things  more  justly  calculated  to  rouse  the  West 
and  North  to  vigorous  and  united  political  action,  than  their 
common  want  of  a  systematic  prosecution  of.  these  river  and 
harbor  improvements.  The  newspapers  informed  us  that  the 
flags  on  the  shipping  of  Lake  Erie  were  displayed  at  half-mast, 
when  the  news  of  the  veto  reached  Buffalo.  ;  And  well  might 
they  be  so  displayed.  Not  a  few  valuable  lives  are  to  be  sacri- 
ficed, not  a  few  hardy  mariners  are  doomed  to  a  watery  grave, 
by  that  arbitrary  act.  It  would  be  but  a  fit  mark  of  the. national 
mourning  and  indignation,  if  all  the  commercial  flags  of  the 
Union,  in  all  our  ports,  on  all  our  rivers,  and  on  all  our  lakes, 
should  be  displayed  at  half-mast,  with  the  cause  of  such  a  pro- 
ceeding briefly  labelled  on  their  folds,  from  this  time  forth,  until 
a  President  shall  be  elected,  who  will  sign  the  very  bill  which 
has  now,  for  the  third  time,  been  rejected. 

3.  But  a  heavier  blow  still  has  fallen  on  the  trade  and  indus- 
try of  the  country.  In  conformity  with  our  predictions,  the 
tariff  of  1842  has  been  repealed,  and  a  new  one  enacted 
in  its  stead.  The  character  of  this  new  tariff  has  been  so  ably 
and  clearly  exposed  elsewhere,  by  those  whose  words  are 
never  lost  on  the  country,  that  it  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to 
enter  here  upon  any  elaborate  analysis  of  its  elements.  This 
much,  however,  should  be  everywhere,  and  on  all  occasions, 
asserted  of  it.  Its  passage  constitutes  a  complete  revolution  in 
our  whole  revenue  and  financial  system.  It  is  a  measure  which 
has  no  precedent  in  our  own  history,  or  in  the  history  of  civilized 
commercial   countries.     Its   exclusive   adoption  of   ad  valorem 


WHIG  PREDICTIONS  AND   WHIG  POLICY.  557 

duties  is  in  direct  defiance  of"  all  the  example  and  authority  of 
other  nations,  and  of  all  our  own  experience.  It  is  in  this 
respect  a  mere  experiment,  and  one  which  is  to  be  wantonly 
tried,  at  the  expense  of  the  interests  of  morality,  as  well  as  of 
trade.  And  in  other  respects,  even  more  important,  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  whole  policy  of  our  government,  from  the  earliest 
day  of  its  establishment. 

Sir,  the  professed  aim  and  object  of  this  new  tariff,  is  to  elim- 
inate from  our  revenue  system  that  element  of  discrimination  in 
favor  of  American  labor,  which  has  been  intertwined  with  it  from 
the  4th  day  of  July,  1789,  to  the  4th  day  of  August,  1846. 
Henceforth  the  workingman  of  America  is  to  have  no  protection 
from  his  own  government.  Henceforth  (if  these  counsels  hold, 
as  I  rejoice  to  believe  they  cannot,)  he  is  to  be  doomed  to  an 
unaided  struggle  for  bread,  and  almost  for  breath,  with  the 
operatives  of  the  old  world.  The  great  free  trade  doctrine,  that 
we  are  to  "  buy  where  we  can  buy  cheapest,"  is  to  be  rigorously 
applied  to  human  labor,  and  wages  are  to  be  conformed  to  the 
standard  of  the  cheapest  markets  of  England,  France  and  Ger- 
many. Such  a  system  as  this  might  naturally  receive  some 
countenance  among  those,  with  whom  labor  is  associated  only 
with  the  idea  of  degradation  and  bondage,  and  with  whom 
the  laborer  himself  is  a  thing  to  be  bought  and  sold  in  the 
shambles.  Though,  let  me  do  the  justice  to  acknowledge, 
there  are  large  and  rapidly  increasing  numbers  of  intelligent- 
Southern  Whigs,  who  scorn  such  views  as  much  as  we  do,  and 
who  appreciate,  as  highly  as  ourselves,  the  demands  of  the  free 
labor  of  the  country.  But  how  such  a  system  should  receive  the 
support  of  Northern  and  Western  men,  except  upon  the  merest 
and  most  unworthy  political  and  party  grounds,  is  a  matter 
past  all  comprehension.  Yet  so  it  is ;  and  New  York,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Ohio,  Indiana,  and  other  free  States,  are  jointly  responsible 
with  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  for  the 
passage  of  the  tariff  of  1846.  Sir,  I  will  extenuate  nothing  of 
the  bad  influences  of  Southern  institutions.  If  railing  against 
them  would  annihilate  them,  I  would  touch  no  other  theme,  even 
to  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  But  neither  will  I  set  down 
aught  in  malice.     And  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  not  a  few  of 

47* 


558  WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG   POLICY. 

the  Northern,  Eastern  and  Western  States  must  be  regenerated, 
before  we  can  justly  lay  the  whole  abomination  of  this  system 
at  the  doors  of  slavery. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  Party  which  has  done  this  work.  The  self- 
styled  Democracy  of  the  country  pledged  itself  long  ago  to  its 
accomplishment,  and  has  now  fulfilled  its  pledges,  in  spite  of  all 
personal  convictions.  Where  was  there  a  voice  raised  in  full, 
cordial,  unequivocal  approbation  of  this  new  tariff?  Nowhere  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Nowhere  within  the  wide-spread  limits 
of  our  own  Republic.  When  Senators  were  called  on  to  explain 
and  defend  the  details  of  the  new  system,  they  all  with  one  con- 
sent began  to  make  excuses,  or  else  stood  mute.  One  resigned, 
rather  than  vote  for  it.  Another  was  gazetted  as  having  at- 
tempted to  run  away,  rather  than  vote  for  it.  Mr.  Benton 
admitted  that  he  dared  not  look  at  what  he  was  doing.  Mr. 
Calhoun,  even,  was  understood  to  have  expressed  the  strongest 
misgivings  as  to  its  present  policy.  The  casting  vote  was  given 
at  one  stage  by  a  Vice-President,  and  at  another  by  an  instructed 
Whig,  (I  wish  he  had  been  better  instructed,)  who  both  acknow- 
ledged their  personal  judgments  to  be  against  the  measure. 
No,  Sir,  the  voices  that  hail  the  passage  of  this  Democratic 
Tariff  come  all  from  beyond  the  seas.  The  only  indorsement 
of  the  Report  on  which  it  was  based,  was  from  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain,  and  almost  the  only  rejoicings  at  its  passage 
are  from  the  people  of  Great  Britain.  And  well  may  it  be  so. 
So  far  as  commerce  and  trade  are  concerned,  it  goes  far  to 
reestablish  the  old  colonial  relations  between  us.  They  are 
henceforth,  as  in  the  days  before  the  Revolution,  to  take  our  raw 
materials,  or  such  of  them  as  they  cannot  get  cheaper  elsewhere, 
and  to  send  them  back  to  us  with  their  own  skill  and  industry 
added  to  them.  As  for  our  own  labor,  it  may  hew  wood  and 
draw  water,  and  whistle  for  a  living. 

There  are  other  views  of  this  measure,  of  deep  national  con- 
cern. It  may  be  destructive  of  revenue.  It  will  involve  us  in  a 
national  debt.  It  will  bring  upon  us  the  necessity  of  direct 
taxation.  But  these,  in  my  judgment,  are  trifles  light  as  air, 
compared  with  its  influence  on  the  destinies  of  American  labor. 

Read,  Mr.  President,  the  account  of  English  labor  recently 


WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND   WIIIG  POLICY.  559 

furnished  us  by  your  own  amiable  and  excellent  fellow-citizen, 
of  Worcester  county,  Elihu  Burritt.  Go  with  him  into  the 
work-shop  of  the  British  blacksmith.  See  the  father  working 
"  from  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  ten  o'clock  at  night  to  earn 
eighteen  pence  "  —  "  his  wages  averaging  only  about  seven  shil- 
lings a  week,"  and  that  to  support  a  "  family  of  five."  See  his 
eldest  boy  of  only  nine  years  of  age,  cut  off  from  all  opportunity, 
alike  of  intellectual  or  physical  expansion,  with  no  food  for  the 
mind,  and  not  enough  for  the  body,  working  wearily  by  his  side, 
to  eke  out  the  number  of  nails  per  diem,  which  is  to  secure  them 
all  from  starvation.  Hear  the  father  lamenting,  that  he  had  no 
time  or  means  to  teach  his  children  to  read  the  Testament,  the 
only  book  which  he  had  ever  seen  himself,  or  which  he  seemed 
to  care  to  have  them  see ! 

And  this  is  the  sort  of  labor,  with  which  (according  to  the 
resolutions  of  the  Democratic  Convention  held  in  this  Hall  last 
week)  it  is  an  insult  to  suggest,  that  the  American  operative  is 
not  able  and  ready  to  compete  successfully!  Is  it  not  plain,  that 
if  the  American  operative  is  to  compete  with  it  successfully  and 
without  protection,  it  must  be  by  submitting  to  these  same 
deprivations  and  hardships  ?  And  are  our  laborers  to  work 
eighteen  hours  for  eighteen  pence?  Is  seven  shillings  a  week 
the  Democratic  standard  of  sufficiency,  for  a  laborer's  family  of 
five?  And  are  the  children  of  our  American  laborers  to  be 
doomed  to  toil  by  their  father's  side,  from  nine  years  old  and 
upwards,  shut  out  from  all  opportunity  of  being  taught  even  to 
read  the  Testament  ?  , 

What  is  to  become  of  the  Manhood,  the  Education,  the 
Morality,  the  Religion,  the  Liberty  of  this  Country  —  for  they 
are  all  bound  up  in  one  bundle  of  life  together — when  such  a 
state  of  things  shall  exist  among  us  ?  Where  would  have  been 
our  blacksmiths'  boys,  if  it  had  existed  heretofore?  Not  travel- 
ling in  Europe,  like  Elihu  Burritt,  able  to  read  the  Testament  in 
a  hundred  tongues.  Not  governing  Massachusetts,  with  admi- 
rable ability  and  discretion,  like  George  N.  Briggs.  Sir,  in  every 
view  of  Philanthropy,  Morality,  Humanity,  Republicanism,  Li- 
berty, it  is  of  an  importance  which  cannot  be  over-stated,  that 
the  wages  of  labor  should  be  kept  from  falling  to  the  English 


560  WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG  POLICY. 

or  the  European  standard.  And  to  this  end,  there  must  be  pro- 
tection, discrimination,  or  whatever  else  you  choose  to  call  it. 
We  care  not  about  words,  but  things.  We  do  not  stickle  about 
the  precise  provisions  of  the  Tariff  of  '42.  But  the  Whigs  of 
the  Union  will,  I  trust,  leave  no  step  untaken,  and  no  stone 
unturned,  to  restore  to  our  Revenue  system  that  great  principle 
of  discrimination  in  favor  of  American  labor,  which  our  fathers 
established,  as  among  the  first  and  best  fruits  of  their  revolution- 
ary success ;  and  which  has  now,  for  the  first  time  in  our  history, 
been  totally  discarded. 

4.  I  come,  Mr.  President,  to  a  brief  notice  of  the  last,  but  by 
no  means  the  least  momentous,  fulfilment  of  the  Whig  predic- 
tions of  1844.  It  was  the  distinct  declaration  of  all  the  Whig 
organs,  during  the  last  Presidential  canvass,  that  the  annexation 
of  Texas  would  involve  this  nation  in  war  with  Mexico.  And 
it  has  done  so. 

I  do  not  forget  that,  in  regard  to  some  incidental  questions 
connected  with  this  war,  there  have  been  differences  of  opinion 
among  friends  at  home,  and  differences  of  votes  among  friends  at 
Washington.  Upon  these  topics  of  controversy,  however,  I  do 
not  intend  to  touch.  If  anybody  has  come  here,  either  by  direct 
expression  or  by  covert  allusion,  to  cast  imputations,  to  provoke 
collisions,  or  to  stir  up  strife,  I  pass  him  by,  with  whatever 
respect  other  people  may  think  him  entitled  to.*  We  are  assem- 
bled, Sir,  to  remember  our  agreements  and  not  our  differences. 
We  have  come  here  to  reconcile  all  differences,  and  to  do  what 
we  can  to  sustain  and  advance  our  common  principles  and  our 
common  objects.  Let  me  only  say,  that,  if  the  differences 
among  Whigs  here,  be  no  wider  than  those  among  Whigs  at 
Washington,  on  this  subject,  a  reconciliation  will  require  but  little 
expenditure  either  of  time  or  words.  You  and  I,  Sir,  certainly, 
when  we  came  to  different  conclusions  as  to  our  duty,  on  a 
memorable  occasion,  never  imagined  that  we  were  parting  com- 
pany for  an  instant,  either  as  true  Whigs,  or  as  true  friends  of 
peace  on  the  one  side,  or  true  defenders  of  the  country  on  the 
other.     Much  less  did  we  dream,  that  we  were  forfeiting  any 

*  See  Note  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG  POLICY.  561 

thing  of  our  mutual  respect  and  confidence.  Nor  have  we 
done  so. 

Sir,  upon  all  the  great  points  of  this  question,  there  is  no  dif- 
ference of  opinion  whatever.  All  agree,  that  this  war  ought 
never  to  have  been  commenced.  ,  All  agree,  that  it  ought  to  be 
brought  to  a  close,  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment.  No  man 
present  denies  that  it  originated,  primarily,  in  the  annexation  of 
Texas  ;  and,  secondarily,  in  the  marching  of  the  American  army 
into  the  disputed  territory  beyond  the  Nueces.  And  no  man 
present  fails  to  deplore,  and  to  condemn,  both  of  these  measures. 
Nor  is  there  a  Whig  in  this  assembly,  nor,  in  my  opinion,  a 
Whig  throughout  the  Union,  who  does  not ; deprecate,  from  the 
bottom  of  his  heart,  any  prosecution  of  this  war,  for  the  purpose 
of  aggression,  invasion,  or  conquest. 

This,  this  is  the  matter  in  which  we  take  the  deepest  con- 
cern this  day.  Where,  when,  is  this  war  to  end,  and  what  are 
to  be  its  fruits  ?  Unquestionably,  we  are  not  to  forget  that 
it  takes  two  to  make  a  bargain.  Unquestionably,  we  are  not  to 
forget  that  Mexico  must  be  willing  to  negotiate,  before  our  own 
government  can  be  held  wholly  responsible  for  the  failure  of  a 
treaty  of  peace.  I  rejoice,  for  one,  that  the  administration  have 
shown  what  little  readiness  they  have  shown,  for  bringing  the 
war  to  a  conclusion.  I  have  given  them  credit  elsewhere,  for 
their  original  overtures  last  autumn;  and  I  shall  not  deny  them 
whatever  credit  they  deserve  for  their  renewed  overtures  now. 
But,  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  every  thing  which  takes  the  name 
or  the  form  of  an  overture  of  peace,  which  is  entitled  to  respect 
as  such.  If  it  proposes  unjust  and  unreasonable  terms ;  if  it 
manifests  an  overbearing  and  oppressive  spirit;  if  it  presumes 
on  the  power  of  those  who  make  it,  or  on  the  weakness  of  those 
to  whom  it  is  offered,  to  exact  hard  and  heartless  conditions;  if, 
especially,  it  be  of  a  character  at  once  offensive  and  injurious  to 
the  rights  of  one  of  the  nations  concerned,  and  to  the  principles 
of  a  large  majority  of  the  other;  —  then  it  prostitutes  the  name 
of  peace,  and  its  authors  are  only  entitled  to  the  contempt 
which  belongs  to  those  who  add  hypocrisy  to  injustice. 

When  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on  a  sudden  and 
serious  emergency,  demanded  of    Congress  the  means  of  meet- 


562  WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG  POLICY. 

ing  a  war,  into  which  he  had  already  plunged  the  country,  he 
pledged  himself,  in  thrice  repeated  terms,  to  be  ready  at  all 
times  to  settle  the  existing  disputes  between  us  and  Mexico, 
whenever  Mexico  should  be  willing  to  make,  or  to  receive 
propositions  to  that  end.  To  that  pledge  he  stands  solemnly 
recorded  in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  men.  Now,  Sir,  it  was  no 
part  of  our  existing  disputes,  at  that  time,  whether  we  should 
have  possession  of  California,  or  of  any  other  territory  beyond 
the  Rio  Grande.  And  the  President,  in  prosecuting  plans  of 
invasion  and  conquest,  which  look  to  the  permanent  acquisition 
of  any  such  territories,  will  be  as  false  to  his  own  pledges,  as  he 
is  to  the  honor  and  interests  of  his  country. 

I  believe  that  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  people  of 
Massachusetts  —  I  know  I  speak  my  own  —  in  saying  that  we 
want  no  more  territorial  possessions,  to  become  the  nurseries  of 
new  slave  States.  It  goes  hard  enough  with  us,  that  the  men 
and  money  of  the  nation  should  be  employed  for  the  defence  of 
such  acquisitions,  already  made  ;  but  to  originate  new  enterprises 
for  extending  the  area  of  slavery  by  force  of  arms,  is  revolting 
to  the  moral  sense  of  every  American  freeman. 

Sir,  I  trust  there  is  no  man  here,  who  is  not  ready  to  stand  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  country.  I  trust  there  is  no  man  here 
who  is  not  willing  to  hold  fast  to  the  Union  of  the  States,  be  its 
limits  ultimately  fixed  a  little  on  one  side,  or  a  little  on  the  other 
side,  of  the  line  of  his  own  choice.  For  myself,  I  will  not  con- 
template the  idea  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  in  any 
conceivable  event.  There  are  no  boundaries  of  sea  or  land,  of 
rock  or  river,  of  desert  or  mountain,  to  which  I  will  not  try,  at 
least,  to  carry  out  my  love  of  country,  whenever  they  shall  really 
be  the  boundaries  of  my  country.  If  the  day  of  dissolution 
ever  comes,  it  shall  bring  the  evidence  of  its  own  irresistible 
necessity  with  it.  I  avert  my  eyes  from  all  recognition  of  such 
a  necessity  in  the  distance.  Nor  am  I  ready  for  any  political 
organizations  or  platforms,  less  broad  and  comprehensive  than 
those  which  may  include  and  uphold  the  whole  Whig  party  of 
the  United  States.  But  all  this  is  consistent,  and  shall,  in  my 
own  case,  practically  consist,  with  a  just  sense  of  the  evils  of 
slavery ;  with  an  earnest  opposition  to  every  thing  designed  to 


WHIG   PREDICTIONS   AND   WHIG  POLICY.  563 

prolong  or  extend  it ;  with  a  firm  resistance  to  all  its  encroach- 
ments on  Northern  rights  ;  and  above  all,  with  an  uncompro- 
mising hostility  to  all  measures  for  introducing  new  slave  States 
and  new  slave  territories  into  our  Union. 

To  this,  then,  let  us  pledge  our  united  and  cordial  efforts.  Let 
us  call  on  the  Executive  to  conform  strictly  to  his  pledges  as  to 
the  present  war.  Let  us  demand  of  him  to  desist  from  all 
schemes  of  aggression  and  conquest.  Let  us  demand  of  him 
not  inconsiderately  to  reject  the  proffered  mediation  of  Great 
Britain,  and  at  any  rate  to  confine  all  his  military  movements  to 
the  one  great  end  of  securing  the  restoration  of  peace.  Let  us, 
above  all  things,  protest,  in  language  not  to  be  mistaken,  against, 
all  measures  which  shall  add  another  inch  of  slave-holding  terri- 
tory to  the  Union.  In  the  vote  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States,  on  the  8th  of  August  last,  we  have  a  sign 
of  the  times,  and  of  the  spirit  of  the  times,  full  of  encourage- 
ment.    In  that  sign,  let  us  go  on  and  conquer. 

Massachusetts  Whigs  cannot  fail  to  conquer,  Mr.  President, 
with  this  and  the  other  great  issues  to  which  I  have  alluded,  in 
fit  conjunction  before  them.  "With  good  candidates,  and  in  a 
good  cause,  they  have  shown  themselves  to  be  all  but  invincible. 
Never  had  they  better  candidates,  —  never  a  better  cause,  than 
now ;  and  nothing  is  wanting  to  their  entire  and  triumphant 
success,  but  those  united,  vigorous,  determined  efforts,  which  the 
spirit  of  this  meeting  assures  me  will  be  made. 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IX  TIIE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF 
•THE   UNION,   JANUARY   8,   1847. 


If  I  could  have  selected  my  own  time  for  addressing  the 
committee,  I  would  not  have  followed  so  closely  in  the  wake  of 
my  honorable  and  excellent  friend  from  Georgia,  (Mr.  Toombs,) 
who  has  just  taken  his  seat.  But,  after  watching  and  strug- 
gling for  the  floor  for  three  or  four  days,  I  cannot  forego  the 
opportunity  of  saying  what  I  have  to  say  now,  even  to  avoid 
the  disadvantage  of  placing  my  remarks  in  immediate  contrast 
with  a  speech,  which  has  attracted  so  large  a  measure  of  atten- 
tion and  admiration. 

I  am  not  prepared  to  vote  for  the  bill  now  under  considera- 
tion. I  certainly  cannot  vote  for  it  in  its  present  shape.  I 
doubt  whether  I  can  be  brought  to  vote  for  it  in  any  shape, 
under  the  present  circumstances  of  the  country.  But,  before 
dealing  with  its  particular  provisions,  or  with  the  principles  and 
policy  which  it  involves,  I  desire  to  submit  a  few  considerations 
of  a  more  general  and  comprehensive  character. 

I  am  not  one  of  those,  Mr.  Chairman  —  if,  indeed,  there  be 
any  such  in  this  House  —  who  think  it  incumbent  on  them  to 
vote  against  all  supplies  in  a  time  of  war,  because  they  do  not 
approve  the  manner  in  which  the  war  was  commenced,  or  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  conducted.  Regarding  war  as  an  evil  which 
no  language  can  exaggerate ;  deprecating  nothing  more  earn- 
estly than  a  necessity  of  rendering  myself  in  any  degree  respon- 
sible for  its  existence  or  continuance  ;  desiring  nothing  so  sin- 
cerely as  an  opportunity  of  contributing  in  any  way  to  the  peace 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  565 

of  my  country  and  of  the  world ;  I  yet  acknowledge  that  there 
are  many  cases  in  which  I  should  feel  constrained  to  vote  men 
and  money  for  prosecuting  hostilities,  even  though  they  had 
originated  in  measures  which  I  utterly  condemned.  I  may  say, 
in  a  word,  and  without  further  specification,  that  I  am  ready  to 
vote  for  the  defence  of  my  country,  now  and  always ;  and,  when 
a  foreign  army  is  on  our  borders,  or  a  foreign  squadron  in  our 
bays,  I  shall  never  be  for  stopping  to  inquire  into  the  merits  of 
the  quarrel,  or  to  ascertain  who  struck,  or  who  provoked,  the  first 
blow,  before  doing  whatever  it  may  be  in  my  power  to  do,  to 
drive  back  the  invaders,  and  to  vindicate  the  inviolability  of  our 
soil.  Nor  do  I  forget  that  it  may  be  sometimes  necessary  for 
our  defence  to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country,  and  to 
cripple  the  resources,  and  crush  the  power,  of  those  who  may 
insist  on  disturbing  our  peace.  When  such  a  necessity  exists, 
and  is  clearly  manifested,  I  shall  not  shrink  from  meeting  its 
responsibilities. 

And  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  me  say  to  the  honorable  mem- 
ber from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Giddings,)  that  I  cannot  acknowledge  the 
entire  applicability  to  the  present  issue,  of  those  British  prece- 
dents which  he  held  up  for  our  imitation  a  few  days  ago.  I  am 
not  ready  to  admit  that  there  is  any  very  close  analogy  between 
the  struggle  of  the  American  colonies  in  1776,  and  that  of  the 
Mexicans  now.  Still  less  analogy  is  there  between  a  vote  of 
the  British  House  of  Commons,  and  a  vote  of  the  American 
House  of  Representatives.  A  refusal  of  supplies  in  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Great  Britain  is,  generally  speaking,  equivalent  to  a 
change  of  administration.  No  British  Ministry  can  hold  their 
places  in  defiance  of  such  a  vote.  A  successful  opposition  to 
supplies  in  time  of  war,  is  thus  almost  certain  to  result  in  bring- 
ing forthwith  into  power  a  Ministry  opposed  to  its  further  prose- 
cution ;  and  the  kingdom  is  not  left  to  encounter  the  dangers 
which  might  result  from  a  conflict,  upon  such  a  subject,  between 
the  executive  and  the  legislative  authorities.  It  is  not  so  here. 
No  vote  of  Congress  can  change  our  administration.  If  it  could, 
the  present  administration  would  have  expired  on  Saturday  last, 
when  a  tax,  which  they  had  solemnly  declared  was  essential  to 
furnish  them  with  the  sinews  of  war,  was  so  emphatically  de- 
48 


566  THE   WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 

nied.  If  it  could,  the  present  administration  would  have  gone 
out  on  Tuesday  last,  when  their  demand  for  a  Lieutenant-Gene- 
ral,  was  so  unceremoniously  laid  on  the  table.  No  British  Min- 
istry, in  these  days,  could  have  survived  for  an  hour  two  such 
signal  defeats. 

But  our  Executive  is  elected  for  a  term  of  years,  and  his 
Cabinet  are  quite  independent  of  our  votes.  A  refusal  of  all 
supplies  might  hamper  and  embarrass  an  Executive,  and  give 
an  enemy  the  advantage  of  divided  counsels,  but  could  hardly 
enforce  a  change  of  policy,  or  secure  a  concerted  action  in  favor 
of  peace.  Certainly,  it  does  not  seem  to  be  the  mode  contem- 
plated by  our  Constitution  for  putting  an  end  to  a  war,  when  it 
has  once  been  commenced.  The  people  alone  can  apply  the 
potent  styptic,  the  magical  Brocchicri,  for  stopping  the  effusion  of 
blood,  if  it  be  the  Executive  will  that  blood  shall  continue  to  flow. 
It  is  their  prerogative  to  change  the  administration,  and  the  day 
is  coming,  though  farther  off  than  some  of  us  might  wish,  when 
they  will  have  the  opportunity  of  exercising  it. 

While,  therefore,  Sir,  I  yield  to  no  one  in  admiration  of  the 
illustrious  statesmen  of  Old  England,  whose  names  have  been 
introduced  into  this  debate  —  Burke,  Barre,  Fox,  and  Chatham 
—  and  honor  them  especially  for  their  noble  efforts  in  behalf  of 
American  rights,  I  do  not  see  my  way  clear  to  making  their 
conduct  in  the  British  Parliament  in  1776,  the  exact  model  of 
my  own  conduct  here  and  now.  I  turn  rather  to  the  example 
and  authority  of  American  statesmen,  hardly  less  distinguished, 
and  no  less  worthy  of  admiration  and  imitation.  If  ever  there 
was  a  man  of  pure  life,  of  stern  integrity,  of  exalted  patriotism 
in  our  country,  it  was  John  Jay;  a  member  of  the  first  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  author  of  one  of  those  masterly 
papers,  emanating  from  that  body,  which  called  forth  the  well- 
remembered  commendation  of  Lord  Chatham  himself;  the  first 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  of  whom  it  has  been 
beautifully  said,  that  "  when  the  spotless  ermine  of  the  judicial 
robe  fell  on  John  Jay,  it  touched  nothing  not  as  spotless  as 
itself."  He  was  no  friend  to  war  in  general,  or  to  the  last  war 
in  which  this  country  was  involved  in  particular.  But  in  writ- 
ing to  a  kindred  spirit  during  the  existence  of  that  war,  he  ex- 


THE   WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  567 

pressed  sentiments  in  which  I  so  heartily  concur,  that  I  cannot 
forbear  reading  them  to  the  committee : 

JOHN  JAY   TO    TIMOTHY  PICKERING. 

••  Bedford,  November  1,  1814. 

"  It  is  not  clear  to  me  that  Britain  did  then  expect  or  desire  to  conclude  the  war 
quite  so  soon.  As  to  her  present  or  future  disposition  to  peace,  or  how  far  it  has  been, 
or  may  be  affected  by  a  settled  or  by  a  still  fluctuating  state  of  things  in  Europe,  or 
by  calculations  of  our  becoming  more  united  or  more  divided,  cannot  now  be  known. 
If  we  should  change  our  rulers,  and  fill  their  places  with  men  free  from  blame,  the 
restoration  of  peace  might  doubtless  be  more  easily  accomplished.  Such  a  change 
will  come ;  but  not  while  the  prevailing  popular  delusion  continues  to  deceive  and 
mislead  so  great  a  portion  of  our  citizens. 

"  Things  being  as  they  are,  I  think  we  cannot  be  too  perfectly  united  in  a  determi- 
nation to  defend  our  country,  nor  be  too  vigilant  in  watching  and  resolutely  examin- 
ing the  conduct  of  the  administration  in  all  its  departments,  candidly  and  openly 
giving  decided  approbation  or  decided  censure,  according  as  it  may  deserve  the  one  or 
the  other." 

Mr.  Giddings.  Will  my  friend  from  Massachusetts  permit 
me  to  offer  one  word  of  explanation? 

The  Speaker.  Does  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  yield 
the  floor? 

Mr.  Winthrop.     Certainly,  Sir. 

Mr.  Giddings.  The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  will  dis- 
tinctly understand  that,  in  so  many  words,  I  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that,  if  the  army  should  be  withdrawn  within  the  legiti- 
mate limits  of  the  United  States,  there  would  be  but  one  voice 
in  the  country  in  favor  of  a  war  to  repel  invasion. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  I  cheerfully  give  the  gentleman  from  Ohio 
the  benefit  of  the  explanation,  and  had  not  the  slightest  inten- 
tion of  casting  any  reflection  upon  his  conduct. 

Sir,  I  concur  entirely  in  both  the  propositions  contained  in 
this  paragraph  which  I  have  just  read  from  the  correspondence 
of  Mr.  Jay.  I  think  "  we  cannot  be  too  perfectly  united  in  a 
determination  to  defend  our  country,"  wherever  that  defence 
may  be  involved,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  this  war  and  in  all 
other  wars ;  and  I  think  that  "  we  cannot  be  too  vigilant  either 
in  watching  and  resolutely  examining  the  conduct  of  the  Ad- 
ministration in  all  its  departments,  candidly  and  openly  giving 
decided  approbation  or  decided  censure,  according  as  it  may 
deserve  the  one  or  the  other."    For,  while  I  am  not  willing  to  class^ 


568  THE   WAR   WITII  MEXICO. 

myself  with  those  who  are  for  refusing  all  supplies,  even  under 
the  present  circumstances  of  the  war  in  which  we  are  engaged ; 
while  I  maintain  that  some  provision  must  be  made  for  the 
support  of  our  armies  and  the  defence  of  our  country,  as  long 
as  a  foreign  nation  is  in  arms  against  us,  declining  all  overtures 
of  peace ;  I  must  also  disavow  all  sympathy  with  those  who 
proclaim  their  intention  to  sanction  all  the  measures  of  the 
Administration,  blindly  and  implicitly,  and  to  vote  for  whatever 
amount  of  money,  and  whatever  number  of  men,  they  may  see 
fit  to  demand.  I  cannot  regard  such  a  course  as  either  called 
for  by  patriotism  or  consistent  with  principle.  Still  less  do  I 
acquiesce  in  the  doctrine,  which  would  impose  silence  upon  all 
who  cannot  approve  the  conduct  and  policy  of  the  Administra- 
tion. I  have  no  faith  in  the  idea  that  it  is  necessary  for  us  to 
hold  our  peace,  in  order  that  the  Executive  may  make  peace 
with  Mexico.  I  believe,  on  the  contrary,  that,  if  this  war  is  ever 
to  be  brought  to  an  end,  it  is  time  for  those  who  desire  that  con- 
summation, to  speak  out  in  language  not  to  be  misunderstood. 

Indeed,  Sir,  I  know  of  nothing  of  less  favorable  augury  for 
the  destinies  of  our  country,  than  the  disposition  which  has 
been  manifested  by  the  Administration  and  its  friends  to  stifle 
inquiry,  to  suppress  discussion,  to  overawe  every  thing  like  free 
comment  and  criticism,  in  regard  to  the  war  in  which  we  are 
now  involved. 

When  any  one  of  the  vessels  of  our  Navy  meets  with  a  dis- 
aster at  sea,  is  wrecked  in  a  gale,  or  stranded  on  a  lee-shore,  a 
court  of  inquiry  is  forthwith  instituted  as  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  catastrophe.  Her  officers  demand  it.  The  Government 
exact  it.  It  is  considered  due  to  the  country,  as  well  as  to  all 
concerned,  that  it  should  be  clearly  seen  whether  there  has  been 
any  carelessness,  or  any  culpableness,  on  the  part  of  any  of  those 
to  whom  she  has  been  intrusted ;  and,  if  so,  who  is  the  guilty 
party. 

But  now,  when  the  ship  of  State  has  been  involved  in  the 
deepest  disaster  which  can  befall  her,  when  she  has  been  ar- 
rested on  that  track  of  tranquil  liberty  for  which  she  was  de- 
signed, and  has  been  plunged  into  the  vortex  of  foreign  war,  we 
find  her  commander  and  his  officers  and  pilots  all  denouncing 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  569. 

any  investigation  of  their  conduct,  and  imperiously  demanding 
of  the  people  and  their  representatives  that  they  shall  rest  satis- 
fied with  a  one-sided,  ex  parte  vindication  of  their  acts  and 
motives.  All  denial,  all  doubt,  of  the  supreme  wisdom  and  con- 
summate justice  of  their  conduct  is  boldly  condemned  from  the 
very  quarter-deck  itself,  not  without  ominous  glances  at  the  yard- 
arm  ;  and  those  who  honestly  entertain  misgivings  as  to  their 
course,  are  called  upon  to  close  their  lips,  or  to  submit  to  the 
base  imputation  of  "giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy." 

Sir,  if  this  be  an  evidence  of  the  progress  of  Democracy,  it 
can  only  be  of  that  sort  of  Democracy  which  is  to  find  its  legiti- 
mate goal  in  despotism.  If  such  a  doctrine  is  to  receive  the 
sanction  of  this  House,  we  had  better  resort  to  the  old  custom 
of  the  British  Parliament,  and  send  our  Speaker,  at  the  opening 
of  every  Congress,  to  the  President,  to  beg  that  he  will  graciously 
grant  to  his  most  faithful  Commons  the  privilege  of  free  debate. 
Nay,  we  might  as  well  resort  at  once  to  the  old  Roman  practice, 
in  time  of  war,  and  invest  our  Chief  Magistrate  with  the  irre- 
sponsible prerogative  of  the  Dictatorship,  and  leave  him  alone  to 
take  care  that  the  Republic  receives  no  detriment. 

We  are  gravely  told  that  we  may  question  the  policy  and 
justice  of  an  administration  in  time  of  peace  as  much  as  we 
please;  but  that  when  we  are  engaged  in  war,  all  such  ques- 
tioning is  unpatriotic  and  treasonable.  So,  then,  Mr.  Chairman, 
if  the  rulers  of  our  Republic  shall  content  themselves  with  some 
ordinary  measure  of  misconduct,  with  some  cheap  and  vulgar 
misdemeanor,  the  people  may  arraign  and  impeach  them  to 
their  heart's  content.  But  let  them  only  lift  themselves  boldly 
to  the  perpetration  of  a  flagrant  crime,  let  them  only  dare  to 
commit  the  very  worst  act  of  which  they  are  capable,  and  they 
are  to  find  their  impunity  in  the  very  enormity  of  their  conduct, 
and  are  to  be  safely  screened  behind  the  mountain  of  their  own 
misdoing  I 

This,  Sir,  is  the  length  to  which  the  President  has  gone  in  his 
message.  This  is  the  length  to  which  gentlemen  have  followed 
him  on  this  floor.  Be  it,  say  they,  that  this  war  is,  in  your 
judgment,  wholly  unjustifiable ;  be  it,  that  it  has  been  commenced 
by  Executive  assumption  and  usurpation ;  be  it,  that  it  is  prose- 

48* 


%/FOE^ 


570  THE   WAK  WITH  MEXICO. 

cuted  in  a  manner  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution  of 
our  country ;  yet,  as  it  is  a  war,  and  for  the  very  reason  that  it 
is  this  monstrous  wrong,  you  must  not  open  your  lips ;  you  must 
not  express  or  intimate  opposition  or  discontent;  you  must  not 
inquire,  discuss,  or  do  any  thing  but  vote  supplies  for  its  vigor- 
ous prosecution.  The  enemy  will  hear  you,  and  will  derive 
"  aid  and  comfort "  from  your  conduct,  and  you  yourselves  will 
be  guilty  of  treason. 

Sir,  I  say,  let  the  enemy  hear  —  let  the  enemy  hear,  and  let 
the  world  hear,  all  that  we  say  and  all  that  we  think  on  this 
subject,  rather  than  our  rights  of  free  discussion  shall  be  thus 
wrenched  from  us,  and  rather  than  the  principles  of  our  Consti- 
tution and  the  spirit  of  our  government  shall  thus  be  subverted 
and  crushed. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  can  find  no  words  strong  enough  to  express 
my  utter  reprobation  and  condemnation  of  this  abhorrent  doc- 
trine. The  doctrine  that,  whenever  war  exists,  whether  pro- 
duced by  the  acts  of  others  or  by  our  own  act,  the  Representa- 
tives of  the  people  are  to  resign  all  discretion  and  discrimination 
as  to  the  measures  by  which,  and  the  objects  for  which,  it  is  to 
be  carried  on  !  The  doctrine  that,  in  time  of  war,  we  are  bound 
by  the  obligations  of  patriotism  to  throw  the  reins  on  the  neck 
of  Executive  power,  and  let  it  prance  and  plunge  according  to 
its  own  wild  and  ungoverned  impulses !  I  have  heard  before  of 
standing  by  one's  country  right  or  wrong,  and  much  as  we  may 
scorn  such  a  sentiment  as  a  general  principle,  there  is  at  least 
one  sense  in  which  no  man  is  at  liberty  to  revolt  from  it.  As  a 
maxim  of  defence,  in  time  of  danger,  its  propriety  cannot  be 
disputed.  But  whence  came  this  doctrine  that  we  are  to  stand 
by  the  Executive,  right  or  wrong  ?  From  what  soil  of  Democracy 
has  it  sprung?  In  what  part  of  our  Republican  history  do  you 
find  the  germ  from  which  it  has  now  so  suddenly  burst  forth? 

Sir,  the  Democracy  of  other  days  is  not  without  a  voice  on 
this  subject ;  a  voice  of  warning,  a  voice  of  rebuke,  which  I 
trust  will  not  be  heard  in  vain.  Every  body  will  remember  a 
celebrated  controversy  which  occurred  between  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton and  James  Madison  in  the  year  1793,  on  the  subject  of  the 
Proclamation  of  Neutrality.      But  every  one  is  not  familiar, 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  571 

perhaps,  with  the  principles  brought  under  consideration  in  that 
masterly  discussion.  I  beg  leave  to  refresh  the  memories  of 
gentlemen  with  a  few  paragraphs  from  the  papers  of  James 
Madison  on  that  occasion  : 

"  Every  just  view  that  can  be  taken  of  this  subject  admonishes  the  public  of  the 
necessity  of  a  rigid  adherence  to  the  simple,  the  received,  and  the  fundamental  doctrine 
of  the  Constitution,  that  the  power  to  declare  war,  including  the  power  of  judging  of 
the  causes  oY  war,  is  fully  and  exclusively  vested  in  the  Legislature ;  that  the  Execu- 
tive has  no  right,  in  any  case,  to  decide  the  question  whether  there  is  or  is  not  cause 
for  declaring  war ;  that  the  right  of  convening  and  informing  Congress,  whenever  such 
a  question  seems  to  call  for  a  decision,  is  all  the  right  which  the  Constitution  has 
deemed  requisite  or  proper ;  and  that  for  such,  more  than  for  any  other  contingency, 
this  right  was  specially  given  to  the  Executive. 

"  In  no  part  of  the  Constitution  is  more  wisdom  to  be  found  than  in  the  clause 
which  confides  the  question  of  war  or  peace  to  the  legislative,  and  not  to  the  Execu- 
tive department.  Besides  the  objection  to  such  a  mixture  of  heterogeneous  powers, 
the  trust  and  the  temptation  would  be  too  great  for  any  one  man ;  not  such  as  nature 
may  offer  as  the  prodigy  of  many  centuries,  but  such  as  may  be  expected  in  the  ordi- 
nary successions  of  magistracy.  War  is  in  fact  the  true  nurse  of  Executive  aggran- 
dizement. In  war,  a  physical  force  is  to  be  created,  and  it  is  the  Executive  will  which 
is  to  direct  it.  In  war,  the  public  treasures  are  to  be  unlocked,  and  it  is  the  Executive 
hand  which  is  to  dispense  them.  In  war,  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  office  are  to 
be  multiplied,  and  it  is  the  Executive  patronage  under  which  they  are  to  be  enjoyed. 
It  is  in  war,  finally,  that  laurels  are  to  be  gathered,  and  it  is  the  Executive  brow  they 
are  to  encircle.  The  strongest  passions  and  most  dangerous  weaknesses  of  the  human 
breast  —  ambition,  avarice,  vanity,  the  honorable  or  venial  love  of  fame  —  are  all  in 
conspiracy  against  the  desire  and  duty  of  peace. 

"  Hence  it  has  grown  into  an  axiom,  that  the  Executive  is  the  department  of  power 
most  distinguished  by  its  propensity  to  war ;  hence  it  is  the  practice  of  all  States,  in 
proportion  as  they  are  free,  to  disarm  this  propensity  of  its  influence. 

"  As  the  best  praise,  then,  that  can  be  pronounced  on  an  Executive  magistrate  is, 
that  he  is  the  friend  of  peace  —  a  praise  that  rises  in  its  value  as  there  may  be  a  known 
capacity  to  shine  in  war  —  so  it  must  be  one  of  the  most  sacred  duties  of  a  free  people 
to  mark  the  first  omen  in  the  society  of  principles  that  may  stimulate  the  hopes  of 
other  magistrates  of  another  propensity,  to  intrude  into  questions  on  which  its  gratifi- 
cation depends.  If  a  free  people  be  a  wise  people  also,  they  will  not  forget  that  the 
danger  of  surprise  can  never  be  so  great  as  when  the  advocates  for  the  prerogative  of 
war  can  sheathe  it  in  a  symbol  of  peace. 

"The  Constitution  has  manifested  a  similar  prudence  in  refusing  to  the  Executive 
the  sole  power  of  making  peace.  The  trust,  in  this  instance,  also,  would  be  too  great 
for  the  wisdom,  and  the  temptations  too  strong  for  the  virtue,  of  a  single  citizen." 

And  there  is  another  paragraph  in  one  of  the  same  papers  of 
infinitely  more  significant  import: 

"  Those  who  are  to  conduct  a  war,  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  proper  or 
safe  judges,  whether  a  war  ought  to  be  commenced,  continued  or  concluded.    They 


572  THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO. 

are  barred  from  the  latter  functions  by  a  great  principle  in  free  government,  analogous 
to  that  which  separates  the  sword  from  the  purse,  or  the  power  of  executing  from  the 
power  of  enacting  laws." 

Much  has  been  said,  in  the  course  of  this  debate,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, about  the  doctrines  of  old-fashioned  Federalism.  Now 
here,  Sir,  are  the  doctrines  of  old-fashioned  Democracy,  in  the 
very  language  of  one  of  its  ablest  and  most  honored  masters. 
And  how  strangely  do  they  contrast  with  the  manifestoes  of 
that  modern  brood,  which  boast  themselves  so  vaingloriously  of 
their  borrowed  plumes  !  In  which  one  of  these  golden  sentences 
of  James  Madison  do  you  find  any  justification  of  the  idea,  that 
the  Executive  department  of  the  government  is  to  be  implicitly 
trusted  in  time  of  war,  and  that  the  vigilance  of  Congress  is  to 
suffer  itself  to  be  lulled  asleep  by  the  insipid  opiate  of  a  Presi- 
dent's message  ?  What  can  be  more  emphatic  than  the  declara- 
tion, that  "  those  who  are  to  conduct  a  war  cannot,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  be  proper  or  safe  judges  whether  a  war  ought  to  be 
commenced,  continued,  or  concluded  ?  "  Who  can  read  these 
paragraphs  without  being  deeply  impressed  with  the  sentiment 
which  pervades  them,  that  if  the  true  spirit  of  Democracy  calls 
upon  us  ever  to  be  jealous,  with  an  exceeding  jealousy,  of  Exe- 
cutive power,  it  is  when  that  power  has  been  armed  with  the 
fearful  prerogative  of  war,  and  when,  as  now,  that  prerogative 
is  masked  behind  "  a  symbol  of  peace  ?  "  If  the  democratic 
sensibilities  of  James  Madison  were  startled  and  shocked,  when 
George  Washington,  that  "  prodigy  of  many  centuries,"  as  he 
well  entitled  him,  thought  fit  to  forestall  the  deliberations  of 
Congress  by  issuing  a  proclamation  of  neutrality,  what  would 
he  have  said  had  he  lived  to  see  a  President,  "  such  as  may  be 
expected  in  the  ordinary  successions  of  magistracy,"  not  merely 
involving  the  country  in  war  by  his  own  acts,  but  proceeding  to 
stigmatize  as  traitors  all  who  may  think  fit  to  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  the  war,  or  to  judge  for  themselves  whether  it  ought 
to  be  continued  or  concluded  ? 

But  we  have  been  told,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  whoever  else  may 
undertake  to  cavil  at  the  course  of  the  administration  in  rela- 
tion to  this  war,  it  does  not  belong  to  those  who  voted  for  it  to 
do  so.     We  were  elegantly  and  courteously  informed,  some 


A 


THE  WAR   WITH  MEXICO.  573 

days  ago,  that  the  man  who  voted  for  the  war,  (meaning,  of 
course,  for  the  bill  of  May  13,)  and  who  now  complains  of  the 
Executive,  must  be  little  better  than  a  knave. 

Now,  Sir,  I  voted  for  the  bill  of  May  13,  and  I  complain  of 
the  Executive  ;  and  I  stand  here  to  vindicate  the  character  and 
the  consistency  of  those  to  whom  this  foul  epithet  has  been  so 
flippantly  applied.  And  let  me  say  at  once,  that  it  is  from  the 
very  fact  that  I  voted  for  that  bill,  that  I  feel  all  the  greater  right, 
and  all  the  greater  obligation,  to  complain  of  the  course  of  the 
administration. 

What,  Sir,  was  the  bill  of  May  13th?  I  deny  totally  that  a 
vote  for  that  bill  was,  in  any  just  sense  of  the  term,  a  vote  for 
the  war.  It  certainly  does  not  lie  in  the  mouth  of  the  President, 
or  any  of  his  friends,  to  call  it  so.  The  President  told  us  on  the 
eleventh  day  of  May  that  the  war  existed.  It  existed,  as  he 
said,  and  as  the  preamble  of  the  bill  repeated,  "  by  the  act  of 
Mexico."  It  existed,  as  many  of  us  thought,  who  protested  at 
the  time  against  the  justice  of  the  preamble,  and  have  never 
ceased  protesting  against  it  from  that  day  to  this,  by  his  own 
act.  At  any  rate,  the  war  existed,  as  the  President  said,  as  the 
bill  said,  as  I  thought  then,  and  as  I  think  still.  For  I  have 
never  doubted  for  a  moment,  that  a  state  of  things  had  at  that 
time  been  brought  about,  between  this  country  and  Mexico, 
which  called  for  a  recognition,  on  both  sides,  of  the  existence  of 
war. 

What,  then,  was  the  bill  of  May  13th  ?  It  was  a  bill  to  give 
to  the  Executive  the  war  power,  to  meet  an  exigency  of  exist- 
ing war,  and  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  accomplish  the 
great  purpose,  which  he  so  solemnly  professed  to  have  at  heart, 
of  reestablishing  an  honorable  peace.  This^Sir,  is  what  we  on 
this  side  of  the  House  voted  for. 

Doubtless,  our  action  was  in  some  degree  influenced  by  the 
condition  of  General  Taylor's  army ;  nor  can  I  fail  to  protest 
against  the  assertion  of  an  honorable  member,  that  we  must 
have  known  that  the  army  would  have  extricated  itself  before 
the  succors  authorized  by  the  bill  could  reach  them.  We  could 
not,  by  any  possibility,  have  known  any  such  thing.  It  might 
have  been  regarded  as  probable  that  General  Taylor  would  either 


574  THE   WAR  WITH  MEXICO. 

have  been  victorious,  or  have  been  vanquished,  before  that  time. 
But  not  few  nor  feeble  were  the  apprehensions  that  he  might 
have  been  vanquished.  And  if  such  a  result  had  occurred  —  if 
our  army  had  been  conquered,  and  the  captives  had  been  marched 
off  to  the  mines,  I  leave  it  to  others  to  take  the  responsibility  of 
saying,  that  there  would  then  have  been  no  occasion  for  men  and 
money  to  rescue  and  redeem  them. 

The  exigency,  however,  was  not  one  for  calculating  chances, 
or  speculating  on  probabilities.  The  war  existed  ;  and  I  know 
of  no  mode  of  meeting  an  existing  war  but  by  a  prompt  exer- 
cise of  the  war  power.  This  is  one  of  the  cases  to  which  the 
Irish  maxim  may  be  well  applied,  that  "the  best  way  to  avoid  a 
difficulty  is  to  meet  it  plump."  And  so  far,  while  I  entertain 
the  most  perfect  respect  for  those  who  differed  from  me,  and 
freely  admit  that  the  preamble  of  the  bill  furnished  ample  ground 
for  honest  and  patriotic  disagreement,  I  have  nothing  to  regret 
in  the  vote  which  I  gave  for  the  substantial  provisions  of  that 
bill. 

But  now,  Sir,  comes  the  question,  suggested  by  the  remarks 
of  more  than  one  gentleman  in  this  debate.  Because  we  have 
voted,  six  months  ago,  under  these  circumstances,  or  under  any 
other  circumstances,  to  confer  the  war  power  upon  the  Presi- 
dent, are  we  therefore  bound  to  acquiesce  in  any  and  every 
measure  for  which  he  may  see  fit  to  employ  that  power  ?  Be- 
cause for  these  reasons,  or  for  any  reasons,  we  have  intrusted 
that  fearful  prerogative  to  the  officer  to  whom  the  Constitution 
assigns  it,  when  it  is  to  be  wielded  at  all,  are  we  therefore 
responsible  for  his  whole  exercise  of  it,  and  absolutely  estopped 
from  complaining  of  any  perversion  or  abuse  of  it? 

This  is  an  extraordinary  doctrine,  indeed  !  Suppose,  Sir,  that 
the  President  had  been  found  exercising  this  power  with  tame- 
ness,  or  with  downright  treachery ;  suppose  he  had  suffered  our 
armies  to  be  taken  captive,  and  our  strongholds  to  be  surren- 
dered ;  suppose  he  had  invited  an  invasion  of  our  undisputed 
national  soil  on  this  side  of  the  Nueces,  or  on  this  side  of  the 
Sabine  ;  suppose  he  had  been  discovered  entering  into  traitorous 
agreement  with  the  enemy,  and  admitting  their  chosen  leader  not 
merely  into  their  own  territory,  but  into  ours,  —  should  we  have 


THE   WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  575 

had  no  right  of  arraigning  him  before  the  country  ?  No  man 
will  put  forth  so  preposterous  an  idea.  And  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  is  found  perverting  the  authority,  asked  by  him  and 
given  to  him  as  an  instrument  of  peace,  to  the  purposes  of  in- 
vasion and  conquest,  and  embarking  the  nation  in  a  mad  crusade 
of  aggression  and  aggrandizement,  is  it  not  equally  our  right  and 
our  bounden  duty  to  call  him  to  account  ?  Is  it  not  especially 
the  right,  and  preeminently  the  duty,  of  those  who  have  aided 
in  giving  him  that  power,  upon  far  other  pretexts,  and  for  far 
other  objects,  to  hold  him  to  his  responsibility  ? 

Sir,  I  repeat,  it  is  because  the  President  holds  this  tremendous 
instrument  partly  by  my  vote,  that  I  feel  constrained  to  examine 
well  into  his  course,  and  to  demand  of  him,  vainly  perhaps,  but 
audibly  and  earnestly,  to  remember  his  pledges,  and  to  pause 
from  the  prosecution  of  a  policy,  at  total  variance  with  the  origi- 
nal intentions  of  Congress,  and  with  all  the  institutions  and 
interests  of  our  country. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  any  remarks  which  I  may  see  fit  to  make, 
now  or  hereafter,  in  relation  to  the  existing  war,  I  do  not  intend 
to  justify  the  conduct  of  Mexico.  I  do  not  deny,  I  never  have 
denied,  that  we  have  just  cause  of  complaint  against  the  Mexi- 
can Government.  Grossly  exaggerated  as  I  regard  many  of  the 
representations  of  the  President,  and  of  his  supporters  on  this 
floor,  in  relation  to  the  claims  of  our  citizens  for  spoliations  upon 
our  commerce,  I  yet  freely  admit  that  Mexico  has  been  much  at 
fault  in  all  this  matter.  Nor  am  I  disposed  to  deny  that  she  has 
been  at  fault  in  many  other  matters  of  more  recent  occurrence. 
She  was  wrong  in  not  acknowledging  the  independence  of  Texas 
many  years  ago.  She  was  wrong,  when  she  at  last  proposed  to 
make  that  acknowledgment,  in  affixing  to  it  a  condition  which 
could  do  her  no  manner  of  good,  and  which  was  sure  to  be  con- 
strued into  an  ■  offence  to  others.  She  was  wrong  in  breaking 
off  so  abruptly  all  diplomatic  intercourse  with  the  United  States, 
when  the  act  of  annexation  had  passed  the  two  Houses  of  Con- 
gress. She  was  wrong  in  not  receiving  Mr.  Slidell  agreeably  to 
the  understanding  between  the  two  Governments,  as  I  conceive, 
when  he  was  sent  on  a  mission  of  peace  more  than  a  year  ago. 
She  was  wrong  in  not  returning  a  more  conciliatory  reply  to  the 


576  THE   WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 

renewed  overtures  of  the  Administration  in  July  last.  And  she 
will  again  have  been  wrong  if  she  shall  have  persisted,  (as  I 
fear,)  on  the  assembling  of  her  new  Congress,  in  a  final  and 
unqualified  rejection  of  all  proffers  of  negotiation. 

I  do  not  say  that  any,  or  all,  of  these  acts  have  furnished  the 
Administration  with  reasonable  grounds  for  making  war  upon 
her.  Far  from  it.  Nor  can  I  say  that  I  am  altogether  aston- 
ished that  Mexico  has  pursued  such  a  course.  No  man  can 
wonder  that  the  Mexican  blood  should  have  been  roused  by  the 
policy  which  has  been  manifested  by  some  portions  of  the 
American  people.  She  has  had  quite  too  much  reason  for 
apprehending  that  there  was  a  settled  purpose  in  this  country  of 
ultimately  despoiling  her  of  some  of  her  most  valuable  domains. 
And  unless  we  can  discover  some  ethereal  vapor,  like  that  recent- 
ly invented  for  preventing  the  pain  of  surgical  operations,  and 
which  will  render  nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  insensible  to 
their  own  dismemberment,  we  could  hardly  expect  her  to  be 
entirely  cool  in  the  contemplation  of  such  a  process. 

Still,  I  hold  her  to  have  been  wrong.  Her  pride  has  outrun 
her  prudence  ;  her  blood  has  got  the  better  of  her  judgment ;  and 
she  has  done  much  to  bring  upon  herself  the  worst  evils  she  has 
apprehended,  by  a  precipitate  and  passionate  attempt  to  prevent 
them.  Sir,  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  would  be  understood  to 
say  to  Mexico,  that  if  I  were  a  Mexican,  as  I  am  an  American, 
I  would  not  lay  down  my  arms  while  an  American  soldier  was 
on  the  soil  of  my  country.  Glad  as  I  should  be  to  see  every 
American  soldier  withdrawn  from  her  soil ;  sincere  as  I  am  in 
believing  that  our  own  Administration  could  not  adopt  a  wiser 
or  more  honorable  course ;  strong  as  I  am  in  the  hope,  that  if, 
through  mutual  suggestions  to  a  third  Power,  or  in  any  other 
way,  it  could  be  clearly  understood  that,  in  such  an  event,  satis- 
factory terms  of  accommodation  could  be  agreed  upon,  the 
Administration  would  not  hesitate,  as  it  ought  not  to  hesitate, 
to  make  the  movement ;  I  still  cannot  counsel  Mexico  to  insist 
on  such  a  preliminary. 

No,  Sir ;  if  I  had  a  voice  which  I  believed  would  reach  beyond 
the  little  circle  of  this  hall ;  if  it  were  possible  for  me  to  do  what 
an  honorable  member  from  Georgia  —  unintentionally,  I  am 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  577 

sure  —  was  disposed  to  charge  upon  some  of  us  a  few  days  ago, 
"circulate  a  speech  among  the  enemy;"  if  I  could  reach  the  ear 
of  the  Mexican  rulers  or  the  Mexican  people,  or  could  address  a 
word  to  that  intelligent  and  accomplished  gentleman  who  was 
known  to  us  all  so  favorably  little  more  than  a  year  ago — Gen- 
eral Almonte  —  and  who  seems  now  to  be  about  to  assume  the 
very  lead  in  the  conduct  of  his  country's  affairs,  I  would  say  to 
him,  I  would  say  to  them,  as  one  who  has  been  uniformly 
opposed  to  the  annexation  of  Texas,  —  as  one  who  at  this 
moment  desires  no  peace  but  such  as  shall  be  honorable  to  both 
countries,  to  Mexico  as  well  as  to  the  United  States, —  as  one 
who  does  not  desire  to  see  one  acre  of  territory  taken  from  Mex- 
ico as  the  result  of  this  war,  —  I  would  say  to  them  and  to  him : 
"  Abandon  something  of  this  haughty  spirit ;  abate  something  of 
this  false  pride,  which  is  hurrying  you  to  your  ruin ;  reconsider, 
renounce,  these  resolutions  of  unyielding  defiance  which  you 
seem  rashly  to  have  adopted;  and  proclaim,  without  further 
delay,  some  terms  upon  which  you  are  ready  to  meet  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  for  an  amicable  settlement  of 
all  matters  in  dispute."  I  would  say  to  them,  that  they  had 
done  enough  to  exhibit  their  courage,  and  to  signalize  their 
chivalrous  sensibility  to  the  national  honor.  I  would  tell  them, 
that  Palo  Alto,  and  the  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  and  the  heights  of 
Monterey,  had  already  placed  their  reputation  for  spirit  and  valor 
quite  above  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  I  would  tell  them,  too, 
that  they  had  nothing,  nothing  whatever,  to  expect  from  any 
differences  of  opinion  or  dissensions  of  parties  here ;  that,  how- 
ever anxious  some  of  us  might  be  to  put  an  end  to  the  war,  and 
however  earnest  we  might  be  in  rebuking  the  measures  by 
which  it  was  commenced,  and  in  condemning  any  unnecessary 
prosecution  of  it,  there  was  yet  no  party  and  no  person  in  the 
country  from  whom  they  could  expect  either  "  aid  or  comfort ; " 
and  that  all  such  imputations,  whether  coming  from  the  White 
House  or  from  any  other  quarter,  were  as  baseless  as  they  were 
base.  I  would  tell  them,  on  the  contrary,  that,  in  my  judgment, 
and  in  the  opinion  of  all  parties,  it  would  be  the  truest  policy 
and  the  highest  honor  of  Mexico  to  specify  some  terms,  at  the 
earliest  moment,  on  which  she  would  meet  the  United  States 
for  the  purpose  of  an  amicable  arrangement. 
49 


578  THE   WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  would  be  my  speech  to  Mexico ;  and  if 
there  be  any  thing  treasonable  in  it,  I  submit  myself  to  all  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  the  third  article  of  the  Constitution. 

But,  while  these  are  the  views  which  I  entertain  sincerely  and 
strongly  in  relation  to  the  Mexican  side  of  this  question,  do  I 
therefore  justify  the  war  upon  our  side  ?  Because  Mexico  has 
not  acted  in  many  particulars  according  to  my  ideas  of  right  and 
justice,  am  I  therefore  for  pressing  her  to  the  wall  with  fire  and 
sword  ?  Because  she  obstinately  resists  all  overtures  for  nego- 
tiation, must  I  therefore  sanction  the  policy  of  the  Administra- 
tion in  overrunning  her  territory  and  seizing  her  dominions  ? 
No  such  thing.  I  utterly  condemn  the  manner  in  which  the 
war  was  commenced,  and  the  spirit  in  which  it  seems  now  about 
to  be  prosecuted,  and  I  shall  never  hesitate  to  say  so. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  war,  I  shall  say  but  few  words.  It 
should  never  be  forgotten  that  its  primary  cause  was  the  annex- 
ation of  Texas;  a  measure  pressed  upon  the  country,  by  its 
peculiar  advocates,  with  the  view  of  strengthening,  extending, 
and  perpetuating  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery. 

Sir,  I  cherish  no  feelings  of  ill-will  towards  Texas.  Now  that 
she  is  a  member  of  our  Union,  I  would  speak  of  her  in  the 
terms  which  belong  to  the  intercourse  of  sister  States.  But  I 
cannot  fail  to  speak  plainly  in  regard  to  the  unconstitutional  act 
of  her  annexation,  and  the  disastrous  consequences  which  have 
thus  far  attended  it.  Who  forgets  the  glowing  terms  in  which 
the  addition  of  that  lone  star  to  our  American  constellation  was 
heralded !  How  much  of  prosperity  and  of  peace,  of  protection 
to  our  labor  and  of  defence  to  our  land,  was  augured  from  it ! 
Who  now  can  reflect  on  its  consequences  as  already  developed ; 
who  can  think  of  the  deep  wound  which,  in  the  judgment  of 
many,  it  has  inflicted  on  our  Constitution ;  of  the  alienations  and 
heart-burnings  which  it  has  produced  among  different  members 
of  the  Union ;  of  the  fearful  looking-for  of  disunion  which  it 
has  excited  ;  of  the  treasure  it  has  cost,  and  the  precious  lives  it 
has  wasted,  in  the  war  now  in  progress ;  of  the  poison  it  has  in 
so  many  ways  mingled  with  the  previously  healthful  current  of 
our  national  career ;  —  who  can  reflect  on  all  this  without  being 
reminded  of  another  lone  star,  which  "  fell  from  heaven,  burning 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  579 

as  it  were  a  lamp,  and  it  fell  upon  the  third  part  of  the  rivers, 
and  upon  the  fountains  of  waters,  and  the  name  of  the  star  is 
called  Wormwood,  and  the  third  part  of  the  waters  became 
wormwood,  and  many  men  died  of  the  waters  because  they 
were  bitter ! " 

The  more  immediate  cause  of  the  war  was  the  Executive 
mode  of  consummating  this  measure  of  annexation.  Without 
entering  at  all  into  the  question  of  the  rightful  boundaries  of 
Texas,  this  is  certain,  that  Congress,  in  the  very  resolution  of 
annexation,  recognized  the  fact  of  a  disputed  boundary,  and 
declared  that  it  should  be  settled  by  negotiation.  The  President 
so  interpreted  the  resolution,  and  proceeded  to  proffer  negotia- 
tion. I  give  him  all  due  credit  for  that.  But  when  he  found 
that  resort  likely  to  fail,  instead  of  coming  to  Congress  for  new 
advice  and  new  instructions,  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  as  James 
Madison  would  have  done  in  conformity  with  those  views  of  his 
which  I  have  already  cited,  Mr.  Polk  determined,  on  his  own 
responsibility,  to  resort  to  the  sword,  and  marched  his  armies  to 
the  outmost  verge  of  Texan  pretensions.  And  no  man  can  deny  . 
that  this  unwarrantable  act  of  the  Executive  gave  immediate 
occasion  and  origin  to  the  war  with  Mexico. 

But,  without  another  word  as  to  its  origin,  I  turn  to  a  consi- 
deration of  its  progress  and  prosecution  ;  and  would  that  we  all, 
of  all  parties,  and  I  will  add  of  both  countries,  instead  of  con- 
tenting ourselves  with  mutual  criminations  as  to  who  began  the 
war,  could  enter  heartily  into  the  far  nobler  competition,  who 
should  be  the  first,  and  who  do  the  most,  in  bringing  it  to  a  close! 

For  what  end,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  vigorous  prosecution  of 
this  war  now  proposed  ?  For  what  purpose  are  we  now  called 
upon  to  give  the  Executive  these  ten  new  regiments  of  regular 
troops  ?  I  will  do  the  President  the  justice  to  take  his  own  an- 
swer to  these  questions.  I  quote  two  paragraphs  from  his  late 
annual  message,  which  admit  of  no  misinterpretation  : 

"The  war  has  not  been  waged  with  a  view  to  conquest;  but,  having  been  com- 
menced by  Mexico,  it  has  been  carried  into  the  enemy's  country,  and  will  be  vigor- 
ously prosecuted  there,  with  a  view  to  obtain  an  honorable  peace,  and  thereby  secure 
ample  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  as  well  as  to  our  much-injured  citizens, 
who  hold  large  pecuniary  demands  against  Mexico."  — Message,  p.  22. 

"  Among  our  just  causes  of  complaint  against  Mexico,  arising  out  of  her  refusal  to 


580  THE  WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 

treat  for  peace,  as  well  before  as  since  the  war  so  unjustly  commenced  on  her  part,  are 
the  extraordinary  expenditures  in  which  we  have  been  involved.  Justice  to  our  own 
people  will  make  it  proper  that  Mexico  should  be  held  responsible  for  these  expendi- 
tures."— lb.  p.  26. 

The  object  of  the  war  is  thus  described  to  be  "  an  honorable 
peace."  I  go  heartily  for  that.  I  am  ready  to  vote  any  supplies 
which  can  really  contribute  to  such  a  result.  But  now  comes 
the  President's  definition  of  this  honorable  peace :  "  and  thereby 
to  secure  ample  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  as  well 
as  to  our  much-injured  citizens,  who  hold  large  pecuniary  claims 
against  Mexico." 

This,  then,  is  the  authentic  account  of  the  objects  for  which 
this  war  is  to  be  prosecuted :  not  to  settle  the  boundaries  of 
Texas ;  not  to  defend  any  thing  which  by  the  largest  construc- 
tion can  be  called  our  country  ;  not  even  "to  conquer  a  peace" 
in  the  simple  sense  of  that  phrase ;  but  to  secure  indemnity  for 
the  claims  of  our  citizens,  and  for  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

Now,  Sir,  to  such  a  war,  prosecuted  in  this  spirit  and  for  these 
ends,  I  am  utterly  opposed.  I  maintain,  in  the  first  place,  that 
it  is  not  the  war  which  Congress  ever  intended  should  be  prose* 
cuted,  or  to  which  it  has  ever  yet  given  its  sanction.  I  know 
not  how  far  party  discipline  may  go  in  bringing  up  majorities  of 
the  two  branches  to  sustain  such  a  policy  ;  but  I  hazard  nothing 
in  saying  that  had  it  been  disclosed  at  the  outset,  it  would  have 
met  no  sanction  in  any  quarter.  Why,  does  any  one  for  a 
moment  believe  that  if  Mexico  had  refrained  from  all  hostile 
opposition  to  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  had  given  even  the 
assent  of  a  dogged  silence  to  our  extending  our  jurisdiction  over 
that  territory,  we  should  have  ever  heard  of  these  claims  as  the 
ground  of  war  ?  The  President  would  not  have  ventured  his 
character  upon  such  a  suggestion,  and  Congress  would  have 
scorned  it,  had  it  been  made  to  them. 

But  I  maintain,  in  the  second  place,  that  such  a  policy  is 
unworthy  of  the  land,  and  of  the  age,  in  which  we  live.  Is  this 
a  day,  is  this  a  country,  in  which  war,  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
recovering  money  from  a  nation  unable  to  pay  it,  is  to  be  tole- 
rated ?  I  do  not  underrate  the  importance  of  securing  to  our 
citizens  a  just  indemnity  for  injuries  committed  upon  them  in 
any  quarter;  and  wherever  there  is  the  ability  to  make  that 


THE   WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  581 

indemnity,  it  ought  to  be  exacted,  sometimes,  perhaps,  even  to 
the  extent  of  force.  And  where  it  is  exacted,  and  where  it  is 
secured,  the  Government  ought  to  pay  it  over  to  those  to  whom  it 
belongs,  as  Mr.  Polk  has  refused  to  do  in  the  case  of  the  French 
spoliations  prior  to  1800.  But  a  war  for  extorting  payment  from 
a  poor  debtor  !  Why,  Sir,  the  day  has  gone  by  when  we  endure 
the  practice  of  coercing  individuals  who  are  unable  to  meet  their 
obligations.  The  imprisonment  of  poor  debtors  is  rapidly  dis- 
appearing from  the  refined  codes  of  civilized  society.  The 
abolition  of  that  system  is  among  the  highest  triumphs  of  mo- 
dern civilization.  But  this  policy  of  the  Administration  would 
seem  to  carry  us  back  to  the  barbarous  provisions  of  the  laws  of 
the  Twelve  Tables  of  ancient  Rome,  which,  according  to  some 
constructions,  allowed  the  creditors  to  dismember  their  debtors, 
and  distribute  among  themselves  the  severed  limbs  and  muti- 
lated trunks ! 

Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  dismemberment  of  Mexico  for  debts 
which  she  cannot  pay,  is  the  humane  and  Christian  policy  pro- 
posed to  us  by  the  Executive.  Money,  we  all  know,  cannot  be 
wrung  from  her  in  any  large  sums.  What  little  she  might  have 
had  to  pay  to  "  our  much-injured  citizens,"  we  are  daily  exhaust- 
ing by  compelling  her  to  employ  it  in  defending  her  own  soil. 
Why,  Sir,  this  attempt  to  extort  indemnities  from  Mexico  by 
force  of  arms,  reminds  one  of  an  old  story  of  ancient  Greece. 
Themistocles,  it  seems,  besieged  the  island  of  Andros,  and  called 
upon  the  inhabitants  to  pay  tribute.  He  told  them  that  the  Athe- 
nians had  two  great  gods,  to  whom  they  ought  to  yield  immediate 
submission.  One  of  these  gods  was  Persuasion,  and  the  other 
Compulsion.  But  the  Andrians  answered  that  they,  also,  had 
two  gods — that  one  of  them  was  Poverty,  and  the  other  Imprac- 
ticability ;  and  that  they  could  not  and  would  not  pay  him  any 
tribute-money.  They  added  that  his  power  could  never  surpass 
their  powerlessness. 

Now,  this  seems  to  be  about  the  state  of  things  between  us 
and  Mexico,  so  far,  at  least,  as  money  is  concerned.  I  do  not 
know  but  that  we  might  regard  her  as  having  at  least  three  of 
these  heathen  deities,  and  add  the  Fever — el  Vomito  —to  Poverty, 
and  Impracticability. 
49* 


582  THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO. 

But  she  has  territory,  and  this  is  the  sort  of  indemnity  which 
is  sought.  This,  indeed,  it  is  now  quite  too  evident,  has  been 
the  one  great  object  of  the  whole  Executive  movement.  Nobody 
can  read  the  documents  connected  with  this  war,  and  especially 
those  transmitted  to  us  in  answer  to  the  call  of  my  honorable 
friend  from  Kentucky,  (Mr.  Davis,)  without  seeing  that,  from 
first  to  last,  before  the  war  and  since,  Mexican  territory  has  been 
the  great  object  of  the  Administration.  It  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that,  had  there  been  no  California,  there  would  have  been 
no  war.  As  far  back  as  June  24,  1845,  we  find  the  purpose  of 
securing  this  possession,  as  the  result  of  a  possible  war,  plainly 
disclosed  in  the  confidential  correspondence  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment. After  the  war  had  once  commenced,  it  is  thus  boldly 
avowed  in  a  despatch  of  July  12,  1846 : 

"  The  object  of  the  United  States  is,  under  its  rights  as  a  belligerent  nation,  to  possess 
itself  entirely  of  Upper  California." 

And  again : 

"  The  object  of  the  United  States  has  reference  to  ultimate  peace  with  Mexico ;  and 
if,  at  that  peace,  the  basis  of  the  uti  possidetis  shall  be  established,  the  Government  ex- 
pects, through  your  forces,  to  be  found  in  actual  possession  of  Upper  California." 

Now,  Sir,  I  am  not  about  to  depreciate  the  desirableness  to 
the  commerce  of  our  country  of  a  good  harbor  or  two  on  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  If  a  strip  of  California  could  be  added  to  our 
Oregon  possessions,  under  proper  circumstances,  and  with  the 
general  consent  of  the  country,  I  should  be  one  of  the  last  per- 
sons to  object  to  it.  But  the  idea  that  it  is  worthy  of  us  to  take 
advantage  of  this  war  to  wrest  it  from  Mexico  by  force  of  arms, 
and  to  protract  the  war  until  she  will  consent  to  cede  it  to  us  by 
a  treaty  of  peace,  I  utterly  repudiate. 

It  is  this  lust  of  territory,  Mr.  Chairman,  which  has  given 
occasion  to  this  war,  and  which  now  proposes  to  prosecute  hostili- 
ties with  renewed  vigor.  It  is  an  appetite  which  grows  by  what 
it  feeds  on.  Texas  seems  only  to  have  furnished  a  whet  for  our 
voracity.  It  was  but  the  stimulating  lunch  to  prepare  us  for  a 
more  substantial  meal.  Sheridan,  in  the  Rivals,  I  think  —  my 
classical  friend  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  I.  E.  Holmes)  will  cor- 
rect me  if  I  am  wrong — thought  it  a  very  good  joke  to  make 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  583 

Mrs.  Malaprop  say,  that  "  she  would  have  the  young  lady  in- 
structed in  geometry,  in  order  that  she  might  know  something  of 
the  contagious  countries."  Ah,  Sir,  the  joke  has  lost  its  point  for 
us.  It  seems  as  if  all  contiguous  countries  were  going  to  be  con- 
tagious to  us,  and  as  if  we  should  soon  be  ready  to  adopt  the  lan- 
guage of  another  character  in  the  same  celebrated  play,  who  said 
to  his  son,  "  Don't  enter  the  same  hemisphere  with  me ;  don't 
dare  to  breathe  the  same  air  or  use  the  same  light;  but  get  an 
atmosphere  and  a  sun  of  your  own ! " 

Meantime,  while  we  are  pursuing  this  wild  career  of  national 
extension  and  aggrandizement,  what  has  become  of  that  peace 
which  we  were  to  have  "  conquered  "  three  months  ago  !  Sir,  it 
seems  to  be  further  off  from  us  at  this  moment  thafn  ever  before. 
Whatever  gallant  arms  and  brave  generals  could  do  to  secure  it, 
has  been  done  already.  Cities  have  been  captured ;  fortresses 
have  been  stormed ;  plains  have  been  strewed  with  the  dying 
and  the  dead ;  rivers  have  been  reddened  with  blood !  But 
where  is  peace  ?  At  the  end  of  what  vista,  however  distant,  do 
we  see  that  promised  and  precious  blessing  ?  If  I  believed  that 
any  amount  of  military  force  were  necessary  to  establish  peace 
at  this  moment,  I  should  be  half  inclined  to  give  the  Executive 
all,  and  more  than  all,  that  he  could  ask.  But,  in  my  judgment, 
no  peace  is  to  be  acquired  in  the  way  this  bill  proposes  to  acquire 
it.  We  may  conquer  more  armies ;  we  may  overrun  more  terri* 
tory ;  we  may  "  make  a  solitude  and  call  it  peace ; "  but  peace, 
in  any  true  sense  of  that  term,  will  still  elude  our  pursuit.  We 
shall  find  no  government  to  make  peace  with,  and  no  people 
who  will  conform  to  the  stipulations  of  any  government.  The 
peace  which  such  bills  as  this  will  give  us,  will  be  like  that  which 
France  has  conquered  in  Algiers.  That  war  commenced  in 
1829,  and  France  has  now  a  hundred  thousand  soldiers  on  the 
Algerine  soil  to  secure  her  barren  conquest.  This  may  do  very 
well  for  France,  who  desires  a  training-field  for  her  standing 
armies ;  but  it  will  never,  never,  do  for  this  Republic. 

And  where,  too,  is  to  be  our  domestic  peace,  if  this  policy  is 
to  be  pursued  ?  According  to  the  President's  plan  of  obtaining 
"ample  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,"  the  longer  the 
war  lasts,  and  the  more  expensive  it  is  made,  the  more  territory 


584  THE   WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 

we  shall  require  to  indemnify  us.  Every  dollar  of  appropriation 
for  this  war  is  thus  the  purchase-money  of  more  acres  of  Mexican 
soil.  Who  knows  how  much  of  Chihuahua,  and  Coahuila,  and 
New  Leon,  and  Durango,  it  will  take  to  remunerate  us  for  the 
expenses  of  these  ten  regiments  of  regulars,  who  are  to  be 
enlisted  for  five  years?  And  to  what  end  are  we  thus  about  to 
add  acre  to  acre  and  field  to  field  ?  To  furnish  the  subject  of 
that  great  domestic  struggle,  which  has  already  been  fore- 
shadowed in  this  debate ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  no  time  to  discuss  the  subject  of  slavery 
on  this  occasion,  nor  should  I  desire  to  discuss  it  in  this  connec- 
tion, if  I  had  more  time.  But  I  must  not  omit  a  few  plain 
words  on  the  momentous  issue  which  has  now  been  raised.  I 
speak  for  Massachusetts  —  I  believe  I  speak  the  sentiments  of 
all  New  England,  and  of  many  other  States  out  of  New  Eng- 
land —  when  I  say,  that,  upon  this  question,  our  minds  are  made 
up.  So  far  as  we  have  power — constitutional  or  moral  power — 
to  control  political  events,  we  are  resolved  that  there  shall  be  no 
further  extension  of  the  territory  of  this  Union,  subject  to  the 
institutions  of  slavery.  This  is  not  a  matter  to  argue  about  with 
us.  My  honorable  friend  from  Georgia  (Mr.  Toombs)  must 
pardon  me  if  I  do  not  enter  into  any  question  with  him  whether 
such  a  policy  be  equal  or  just.  It  may  be  that  the  North  does 
not  consider  the  institution  of  slavery  a  fit  thing  to  be  the  subject 
of  equal  distribution  or  nice  weighing  in  the  balances.  I  cannot 
agree  with  him  that  the  South  gains  nothing  by  the  Constitution 
but  the  right  to  reclaim  fugitives.  Surely  he  has  forgotten  that 
slavery  is  the  basis  of  representation  in  this  House. 

But  I  do  not  intend  to  argue  the  case.  I  wish  to  deal  with  it 
calmly,  but  explicitly.  I  believe  the  North  is  ready  to  stand  by 
the  Constitution,  with  all  its  compromises,  as  it  now  is.  I  do 
not  intend,  moreover,  to  throw  out  any  threats  of  disunion,  what- 
ever may  be  the  result.  I  do  not  intend,  now  or  ever,  to  contem- 
plate disunion  as  a  cure  for  any  imaginable  evil.  At  the  same 
time  I  do  not  intend  to  be  driven  from  a  firm  expression  of  pur- 
pose, and  a  steadfast  adherence  to  principle,  by  any  threats  of 
disunion  from  any  other  quarter.  The  people  of  New  England, 
whom  I  have  any  privilege  to  speak  for,  do  not  desire,  as  I  under- 


THE  WAR   WITH  MEXICO.  585 

stand  their  views  —  I  know  my  own  heart  and  ray  own  principles, 
and  can  at  least  speak  for  them — to  gain  one  foot  of  territory 
by  conquest,  and  as  the  result  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war  with 
Mexico.  I  do  not  believe  that  even  the  abolitionists  of  the 
North — though  I  am  one  of  the  last  persons  who  would  be 
entitled  to  speak  their  sentiments  —  would  be  unwilling  to  be 
found  in  combination  with  Southern  gentlemen,  who  may  see 
fit  to  espouse  this  doctrine.  We  desire  peace.  We  believe  that 
this  war  ought  never  to  have  been  commenced,  and  we  do  not 
wish  to  have  it  made  the  pretext  for  plundering  Mexico  of  one 
foot  of  her  lands.  But  if  the  war  is  to  be  prosecuted,  and  if 
territories  are  to  be  conquered  and  annexed,  we  shall  stand  fast 
and  forever  to  the  principle  that,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned, 
these  territories  shall  be  the  exclusive  abode  of  freemen. 

Mr.  Chairman,  peace,  peace  is  the  grand  compromise  of  this 
question  between  the  North  and  the  South.  Let  the  President 
abandon  all  schemes  of  further  conquest.  Let  him  abandon  his 
plans  of  pushing  his  forces  to  the  heart  of  Mexico.  Now,  before 
any  reverses  have  been  experienced  by  the  American  arms,  he 
can  do  so  with  the  highest  honor.  Let  him  exhibit  a  spirit  of 
magnanimity  towards  a  weak  and  distracted  neighbor.  Let 
him  make  distinct  proclamation  of  the  terms  on  which  he  is 
ready  to  negotiate  ;  and  let  those  terms  be  such  as  shall  involve 
no  injustice  towards  Mexico,  and  engender  no  sectional  strife 
among  ourselves.  But,  at  all  events,  let  him  tell  us  what  those 
terms  are  to  be.  A  proclamation  of  Executive  purposes  is  essen- 
tial to  any  legislative  or  any  national  harmony.  The  North 
ought  to  know  them;  the  South  ought  to  know  them;  the 
whole  country  ought  to  understand  for  what  ends  its  blood  and 
treasure  are  to  be  expended.  It  is  high  time  that  some  specific 
terms  of  accommodation  were  proclaimed  to  Congress,  to 
Mexico,  and  to  the  world.  If  they  be  reasonable,  no  man  will 
hesitate  to  unite  in  supplying  whatever  means  may  be  necessary 
for  enforcing  them. 

And  now,  Sir,  what  is  the  precise  bill  before  us  ?  It  is  a  bill 
to  increase  the  standing  army  of  the  country  by  the  addition  of 
ten  new  regiments  of  a  thousand  men  each.  It  has  no  relation 
to  the  present  support  or  relief  of  our  army  and  volunteers  now 


586  TIIE   WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 

in  Mexico.  These  regiments  cannot,  by  any  possibility,  be 
recruited  under  a  year,  or  a  year  and  a  half.  The  report  of  the 
Adjutant-General,  dated  5th  December  last,  distinctly  shows 
this.  He  states  that  "  the  recruiting  service  has  been  pushed 
with  vigor,"  and  then  proceeds  to  give  us  the  results.  He  says : 
"  The  whole  number  of  men  enlisted  from  the  1st  of  October, 
1845,  to  the  30th  of  September,  1846,  is  5,945 ;  being  an  excess 
of  2,388  over  the  previous  year.  The  number  enlisted  in  Octo- 
ber and  November,  and  to  be  enlisted  in  December,  may  be  put 
down  at  1,500." 

If  only  1,500  can  be  enlisted  in  three  months,  with  this 
"  vigorous  pushing,"  it  is  plain  that  it  will  take  a  year  to  enlist 
6,000,  and  another  half  year  to  complete  the  ten  regiments.  But 
it  will  take  a  much  longer  time  than  this. 

The  authorized  regular  force,  at  this  moment,  is  16,998 ;  or 
deducting  the  commissioned  officers,  16,218.  But  the  whole 
rank  and  file  of  the  army,  notwithstanding  the  "  vigorous 
pushing"  of  the  recruiting  service,  could  only  be  computed  at 
10,000  on  the  31st  of  December  last. 

There  are  thus  more  than  6,000  men  still  to  be  enlisted  under 
existing  authority,  which,  according  to  the  estimates  of  the 
Adjutant-General,  will  require  a  full  year,  and  thus  postpone 
the  completion  of  these  new  regiments  to  two  years  and  a  half 
from  the  present  time. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  these  new  regiments  are  called  for 
with  no  reference  to  any  immediate  exigencies,  but  only  in  con- 
templation of  future  distant  service  and  a  protracted  war. 

The  President  has  already  in  the  field  24,984  men.  Of  these 
8,473  are  regulars,  and  16,511  volunteers.  He  has  already  en- 
listed 1,500  more  regulars,  and  about  9,000  more  volunteers, 
making  an  aggregate  force  of  about  36,000.  He  has  authority, 
under  existing  laws,  to  increase  the  regular  force  to  17,000  and 
the  volunteers  to  50,000,  making  an  aggregate  force  of  67,000 
men.  And  now  he  calls  for  authority  to  raise  10,000  more  of 
regulars.  To  what  end  is  this  vast  array  of  military  power  ? 
The  enlistment  is  to  be  during  the  war,  or  for  five  years.  It 
cannot  be  completed  under  a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years. 
What  visions  of  protracted  conflict  do  these  facts  unfold ! 


THE   WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  587 

The  proviso  of  the  bill  authorizes  the  President  to  appoint 
the  officers  of  these  ten  regiments  during  the  recess  of  Congress, 
and  to  report  them  to  the  Senate  at  their  next  session.  This 
proviso  proves  that  these  regiments  are  not  expected  to  be  in 
readiness  for  any  present  support  or  relief  of  the  troops  in 
Mexico.  The  officers  are  not  to  be  appointed  until  Congress 
has  adjourned.  "What  a  power  is  this  to  confer  on  the  Presi- 
dent! Nobody  imagines  that  the  Senate  can  exercise  any 
effective  check  upon  appointments  so  made,  and  when  the  offi- 
cers are  once  at  their  posts.  Four  or  five  hundred  commissions, 
of  all  grades,  from  brigadier-generals  down  to  lieutenants,  are 
thus  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  President.  How  many  of 
them  are  to  be  dangled  in  the  eyes  of  members  of  this  House, 
with  the  view  of  carrying  measures  which  seem  now  to  meet 
with  no  particular  favor,  remains  to  be  seen. 

But  the  great  objection  to  the  bill  is  the  policy  which  it  dis- 
closes. In  proposing  this  measure  and  that  of  the  Lieutenant- 
General,  the  Administration  virtually  call  upon  Congress  to 
sanction  the  ultra  and  extravagant  policy  which  they  have 
recently  adopted  in  regard  to  this  war.  I  say  recently  adopted, 
for  it  is  plain  that  a  new  spirit  has  come  over  the  dream  of  the 
Executive  on  this  subject. 

On  the  11th  of  November  last  the  Secretary  of  War  addressed 
a  letter,  which  is  in  print,  to  a  gentleman  in  Kentucky,  in  which 
he  said :  "  It  is  proper,  however,  to  say  that  the  amount  of  force 
already  in  service  is  deemed  sufficient  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
war." 

On  the  16th  day  of  the  same  November  he  issued  a  requisi- 
tion for  ten  new  regiments  of  volunteers  to  serve  during  the 
war.  What  occurred  during  these  five  days  to  change  the  whole 
policy  of  the  Administration  has  never  been  disclosed,  but  it  is 
plain  that  a  marvellous  change  was  wrought.  And  in  pursu- 
ance of  it,  these  ten  new  regiments  of  regulars  are  now  called 
for.  This  new  policy  can  be  nothing  less  than  one  of  invasion 
and  conquest. 

The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  in  June  last 
said  :  "  Texas,  and  indemnity  for  wrongs  confessed  by  several 
treaties,  coasts  and  borders  in  tranquil  possession  without  trans- 


583  THE   WAR  WITH  MEXICO. 

atlantic  interference,  are  all  we  insist  upon.  It  will  be  Mexican 
infatuation,  should  the  contest  become  one  of  races,  of  borders, 
of  conquest,  and  of  territorial  extension.', 

Mexican  infatuation,  I  presume,  Sir,  is  at  length  sufficiently 
manifested,  and  this  contest  of  races,  borders,  conquest,  and 
territorial  extension  is  to  be  commenced.  And  this  contest 
Congress  is  now  called  upon  to  sanction.  If  it  be  not  so,  the 
President  can  inform  us.  But  if,  as  I  cannot  doubt,  this  be  the 
policy,  I  am  entirely  opposed  to  it,  and  I  feel  bound  to  express 
that  opposition  in  the  most  unequivocal  terms. 


THE 

CONQUEST  OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF 
THE   UNION,   FEBRUARY,   22,  1847. 


The  Army  Bill  being  under  consideration  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state 
of  the  Union, — 
Mr.  Winthrop  moved  to  add  the  following  provisos  to  the  first  clause  of  the  bill : 

Provided,  That  no  more  than  a  proportionate  amount  of  the  money  appropriated 
by  the  two  first  sections  of  this  bill  shall  be  expended  during  any  one  quarter  of  the 
year  for  which  said  appropriations  are  made. 

"  Provided,  also,  That  so  much  of  said  appropriations  as  shall  be  unexpended  at  the 
next  meeting  of  Congress,  shall  be  subject  to  reconsideration  and  revocation. 

"  Provided,  further,  That  these  appropriations  are  made  with  no  view  of  sanctioning 
any  prosecution  of  the  existing  war  with  Mexico  for  the  acquisition  of  territory  to 
form  new  States  to  be  added  to  the  Union,  or  for  the  dismemberment  in  any  way  of 
the  Republic  of  Mexico." 

The  question  having  been  stated,  Mr.  Winthrop  addressed  the  Committee  as 
follows :  — 

There  are  few  things,  Mr.  Chairman,  more  trying  to  the  tem- 
per of  one  who  has  any  reverence  for  order,  or  any  regard  for 
appropriateness,  than  the  course  of  proceedings  in  this  House. 
It  was  a  saying  of  Solomon,  "  a  word  spoken  in  due  season, 
how  good  is  it!"  Another  of  his  proverbs  compared  such  a 
word  to  "  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver."  But  it  would 
have  puzzled  even  Solomon  himself  to  realize  his  own  ideas  in 
such  a  body  as  this.  There  seems  to  be  no  such  thing  as  saying 
a  seasonable  word  in  this  House.  No  man  can  say  the  thing  he 
wishes  to  say,  at  the  time  he  wishes  to  say  it.     One  must  be 

50 


590  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

always  out  of  season,  either  for  himself,  or  for  the  House,  or  for 
the  subject,  or  perhaps  for  all  at  once. 

My  own  experience  upon  this  point  does  not  differ  materially, 
I  am  sure,  from  that  of  those  around  me.  A  few  weeks  ago  I 
desired  to  say  something  about  the  Loan  bill.  What  happened  ? 
It  was  whipped  through  the  House  at  the  rate  of  half  a  million 
a  minute.  One  hour  of  discussion  was  allowed  for  a  bill  of 
twenty-eight  millions  of  dollars !  Nothing  remained  for  all  of  us 
but  silent  votes. 

Next  came  the  Three  Million  bill.  I  desired  to  say  a  word 
about  that.  But,  after  struggling  for  the  floor  for  two  or  three 
days,  I  was  compelled  to  content  myself  with  an  unexplained 
vote  upon  that  bill  also. 

Last  week  I  had  proposed  to  make  a  few  remarks  upon  the 
Army  bill,  which,  it  was  understood,  was  to  form  the  subject  of 
debate  on  Friday  and  Saturday.  Other  business  intervened, 
and  no  Army  bill  was  brought  forward. 

This  morning  I  came  into  the  House  prepared  to  enter  upon 
the  discussion  of  the  new  Tariff  bill,  which  the  chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  had  given  us  formal  notice 
would  be  taken  up  to-day.  But  the  new  Tariff  bill  is  now 
passed  over,  and  lo !  the  Army  bill  is  before  us. 

Well,  Sir,  I  will  not  complain.  I  ought  to  be  too  grateful, 
perhaps,  for  getting  the  floor  at  all,  amidst  such  a  crowd  of  com- 
petitors, to  indulge  in  any  fault-finding  on  the  occasion.  At 
any  rate,  I  will  seize  the  moment  as  it  flies ;  revert,  as  well  as  I 
can,  to  my  last  week's  preparations,  and  proceed,  without  further 
preface,  to  the  consideration  of  the  bill  which  has  just  been  read. 

As  one  of  the  members  of  the  committee  by  which  this  bill 
has  been  framed,  I  feel  bound  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House 
and  of  the  country  to  its  peculiar  and  extraordinary  character. 
Undoubtedly,  Sir,  it  is  the  great  bill  of  the  session.  It  appro- 
priates a  sum  of  money  little  short  of  thirty  millions  of  dollars 
to  the  military  service  of  the  Government.  The  amendments 
which  will  be  moved,  under  the  authority  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means,  will  probably  swell  the  amount  considerably 
beyond  that  sum.*     It  has   been   prepared  in  conformity  with 

*Thc  whole  sum  appropriated  by  this  bill,  as  it  finally  passed  the  House,  was 
$34,545,389.37. 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN   TERRITORY.  591 

estimates  from  the  Departments,  looking  to  the  most  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  existing  war.  More  than  fourteen  millions  of 
dollars  are  appropriated  to  "  transportation  and  supplies  in  the 
Quartermaster's  Department"  —  an  item  having  unquestion- 
able reference  to  further,  and  still  further,  invasion  of  the  territo- 
ries of  Mexico.  Finally,  Sir,  this  bill  runs  through  a  period  of 
sixteen  months  from  this  22d  day  of  February,  and  provides  for 
supporting  and  prosecuting  this  war  to  the  30th  day  of  Juno 
1848! 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to-day  has 
some  control  over  the  Executive  in  relation  to  this  war.  To- 
day, discussion  in  regard  to  its  ends  and  objects,  its  conduct  and 
its  conclusion,  is  something  more  than  empty  breath.  To-day, 
the  Representatives  of  the  people  have  the  reins  in  their  own 
hands.  But  pass  this  bill;  pass  it  without  proviso  or  limitation ; 
and  to-morrow  the  President  is  out  of  our  reach.  We  have 
given  him  a  carte  blanche.  We  have  given  him  a  charter  wide 
as  the  wind.  We  have  surrendered  the  purse  to  the  same  hands 
which  already  hold  the  sword,  and  have  virtually  said  to  him, 
"  March  on,  slay,  burn,  sack,  plunder,  at  your  own  sovereign  will 
and  pleasure.  So  far  as  thirty  millions  of  dollars  for  the  land 
forces  alone  (to  say  nothing  of  ten  or  twelve  millions  more  for  the 
navy)  will  serve  your  turn,  you  have  unlimited  discretion  to 
invade  and  conquer  for  sixteen  months  to  come  !" 

This,  Sir,  is  the  language  of  this  bill,  as  it  stands.  Is  it  repub- 
lican language?  Is  it  democratic  language?  Is  it  constitutional 
language  ? 

Are  you  aware,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  this  House  aware,  that  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  omnipotent  as  it  is  often  called, 
have  never  ventured  of  late  years  to  pass  such  a  bill  as  this  ? 
The  British  Parliament,  in  all  the  plenitude  of  its  power,  could 
not  pass  this  bill,  without  violating  one  of  the  principles  of  the 
constitution  of  the  realm.  That  principle,  unwritten,  indeed, 
but  firmly  established  by  the  practice  of  a  long  series  of  years, 
is,  that  appropriations  for  the  support  of  standing  armies  should 
not  be  made  for  a  longer  term  than  a  single  year. 

Our  own  Constitution  is  explicit  upon  the  subject.  Congress 
shall  have  power,  it  says,  "  to  raise  and  support  armies,  but  no 


592  THE   CONQUEST  OF  MEXICAN   TERRITORY. 

appropriation  of  money  to  that  use  shall  be  for  a  longer  term 
than  two  years."  This  bill  keeps  carefully  within  the  letter  of 
the  Constitution ;  but  how  far  does  it  conform  to  the  spirit  of 
the  instrument?  Who  can  doubt  that  this  limitation  of  two 
years  had  reference  to  the  Congressional  term  —  to  the  official 
tenure  of  the  Representatives  of  the  people  ?  Who  can  ques- 
tion that  this  limitation  was  intended  to  secure  to  each  successive 
Congress  the  right  and  the  opportunity  of  controlling  the  sup- 
plies for  the  army  during  its  own  term,  and  to  prevent  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  at  any  time,  from  forestalling  the 
action  of  their  freshly  chosen  successors  ? 

Now,  Sir,  what  are  we  doing  here  to-day  ?  The  term  of  the 
present  Congress  is  on  the  eve  of  expiration.  In  less  than 
another  fortnight,  this  body  will  have  finished  its  work,  for  good 
or  for  evil,  and  will  be  dissolved.  A  new  Congress  is  already  in 
part  elected.  By  the  theory  of  the  Constitution,  it  will  be  in 
existence  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  March  next.  It  ought 
to  be  practically  in  existence  on  that  day,  ready  to  proceed,  at 
the  summons  of  the  Executive,  to  the  discharge  of  its  duties. 
At  all  events,  its  constitutional  term  commences  on  that  day ; 
and  on  that  day  the  functions  and  the  authority  of  the  present 
Congress  are  at  an  end.  And  yet  here  we  are,  in  this  last  hour 
of  our  existence,  proposing  to  stretch  out  a  dead  hand  over  six- 
teen months  out  of  the  twenty-four  months  of  the  term  of  our 
successors  —  over  two  thirds  of  their  whole  official  existence  — 
and  to  foreclose,  for  that  long  period,  all  right,  or  certainly  all 
power,  on  their  part,  to  control  the  course  of  the  Government 
upon  so  momentous  a  subject  as  the  prosecution  of  a  war  of 
invasion  and  conquest !  The  Representatives  of  the  people, 
freshly  chosen,  are,  according  to  this  bill,  to  have  no  voice  as  to 
the  number  of  the  standing  army  of  the  country,  or  as  to  its 
employment  and  support,  at  home  or  abroad,  for  sixteen  months 
from  the  commencement  of  their  term  ! 

Sir,  this  is  a  new  course  of  proceeding  in  this  country.  It 
never  was  known  till  now,  in  time  of  war.  It  has  been  known 
but  for  a  few  years  in  time  of  peace.  Until  1843  our  appropri- 
ation bills  ran  from  January  to  January.  A  change  of  the  fiscal 
year  was  then  made  as  a  matter  of  convenience.     I  have  no 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN   TERRITORY.  593 

doubt  that  it  has  proved  a  matter  of  great  convenience  ;  and,  as 
an  arrangement  for  a  time  of  peace,  I  do  not  object  to  it.  But 
I  utterly  protest  against  its  being  applied  under  the  present  cir- 
cumstances of  the  country,  and  to  the  extent  to  which  this  bill 
proposes  to  carry  it. 

In  my  judgment,  Sir,  a  due  regard  to  republican  principles,  to 
the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  the  rights  of  the  people  as 
committed  to  their  representatives,  would  demand  of  us  to 
forbear  from  making  appropriations  which  should  render  the 
Executive  independent  of  the  Legislative  department  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  war,  not  merely  beyond  December  next,  when 
the  new  Congress  would  regularly  be  assembled,  but  even 
beyond  the  earliest  day  at  which  that  Congress  could  be  con- 
vened under  a  call  from  the  President. 

I  have  no  fancy  for  extra  sessions  of  Congress.  Nothing 
would  be  less  convenient  or  less  agreeable  to  myself  personally 
than  to  be  called  here  in  June  or  July.  But  it  is  not  what  you 
or  I  might  find  agreeable  or  convenient,  that  we  are  called  on  to 
consider  at  such  a  moment  as  this,  but  what  the  principles  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  interests  of  the  country  require. 

Still  less  are  we  at  liberty  to  shape  our  legislation  according 
to  the  likings  or  dislikings  of  the  President.  I  have  no  idea  that 
the  President  desires  us  to  leave  him  under  any  necessity  to 
summon  a  new  Congress.  He  has  given  abundant  evidence  of 
his  disposition  to  do  without  Congress  altogether.  A  more 
edifying  chapter  will  never  be  found  in  our  history,  than  that 
which  shall  fully  and  faithfully  record  the  encroachments  of  the 
Executive  upon  the  Legislative  authority  during  the  two  last 
years.  The  first  march  of  the  American  army  across  the  Sabine 
—  where  was  the  constitutional  power  of  the  President  to  direct 
that  ?  The  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union  was  not  then 
consummated.  Six  months  were  yet  to  elapse  before  that  act 
was  to  be  completed.  Doubtless  this  Government  had  incurred 
some  obligation  to  defend  Texas  from  the  consequences  to  which 
that  measure  had  exposed  her.  But  that  was  an  obligation  for 
Congress  to  recognize  —  for  Congress  to  provide  for.  The  Pres- 
ident, however,  determined  to  do  without  Congress,  and  took 
the  responsibility  of  marching  our  armies  into  a  foreign  country. 

50* 


594  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN   TERRITORY. 

A  more  palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution  was  never  perpe- 
trated. 

Then  came  the  march  across  the  Nueces,  into  a  territory 
which  Congress  had  expressly  declared  to  be  a  disputed  terri- 
tory. Sir,  the  determination  of  the  President  to  do  without 
Congress,  to  avoid  and  evade  its  legitimate  control,  was  the 
more  signal  in  this  case,  from  the  fact  that  Congress  was  at  that 
moment  in  session.  It  would  only  have  required  a  message 
from  one  end  of  Pennsylvania  avenue  to  the  other,  to  have 
enabled  the  President  to  obtain  the  opinion  and  decision  of  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  upon 
a  movement,  which  was  the  indisputable  source  and  spring  of 
this  Mexican  war.  But  the  President  knew  that  the  decision  of 
Congress  would  be  against  any  such  movement.  He  deter- 
mined, therefore,  to  do  without  Congress,  and  issued  an  order 
for  the  march  secretly,  stealthily,  and  upon  his  own  unwarranted 
authority.  I  repeat,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  without  detaining  the 
committee  with  other  and  obvious  instances,  that  the  willingness 
of  the  President  to  do  without  Congress  is  quite  too  manifest ; 
and  that  it  is  not  to  his  likings  or  dislikings,  but  to  our  own 
constitutional  rights  and  responsibilities,  that  we  ought  to  look, 
in  deciding  how  far  it  is  fit  to  place  him  beyond  the  reach  of 
legislative  control  and  restraint,  and  how  long  it  is  fit  to  leave 
him  there. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  Sir,  that  during  the  last  war  Congress 
was  never  out  of  session  for  more  than  three  or  four  months  at 
a  time.  The  truly  democratic  President  of  that  day,  James 
Madison,  would  never  have  dreamed  of  doing  without  Congress 
for  sixteen  months  in  time  of  war.  But  the  democratic  Con- 
gress of  that  day  did  not  wait  for  the  Executive  to  summon 
them.  They  adjourned  themselves  from  time  to  time.  If  their 
term  ended  in  March,  they  appointed  a  meeting  for  the  new 
Congress  in  July ;  if  they  closed  a  session  in  July,  they  ad- 
journed to  meet  in  November.  They  plainly  regarded  it  as  their 
constitutional  right,  and  their  constitutional  duty,  to  watch  over 
the  progress  of  the  war,  and  to  provide  pro  re  natd  for  its  exigen- 
cies and  its  emergencies. 

And  this,  unquestionably,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  duty  of  Con- 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY.  595 

gress  now.  The  new  Congress,  fresh  from  the  people,  ought  to 
decide,  and  ought  to  be  left  free  to  decide,  what  shall  be  done  in 
relation  to  this  Mexican  war,  and  what  provisions  shall  be  made 
for  its  future  prosecution  during  the  next  two  years.  Sir,  an 
appeal  has  been  made  to  the  people  on  this  very  subject.  Their 
representatives  have  been  chosen  in  many  cases,  and  are  on  the 
point  of  being  chosen  in  many  other  cases,  with  reference  to  this 
war.  The  war  has  been  condemned  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  is  doomed  to  condemnation  in  many  other  parts.  How 
few  of  us  are  to  be  our  own  successors  (if  I  may  so  speak)  in 
the  next  Congress !  Everybody  knows  that  there  will  be  a  very 
different  state  of  parties  in  this  House  next  year,  even  if  major- 
ities and  minorities  should  not  absolutely  change  sides.  And  is 
the  revolution  of  popular  sentiment,  thus  indicated,  to  be  deprived 
of  all  operation  and  influence  upon  this  odious  war  for  a  year 
and  a  half  to  come  ?  Is  that  your  idea  of  democracy  ?  Sir,  if 
the  Administration  insist  upon  pressing  these  enormous  supplies 
through  the  House  in  this  last  week  of  its  official  existence,  it 
will  be  because  they  know  that  the  new  Congress  would  not 
grant  them,  and  because  they  intend  to  persist  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  war  in  defiance  of  the  plainest  manifestations  of  the  will 
of  the  people ! 

And  here  let  me  remind  the  committee,  that  there  is  nothing 
in  this  bill  to  prevent  the  President  from  employing  this  whole 
vast  sum  of  thirty  millions  of  dollars  in  a  single  month.  After 
the  first  day  of  July  next  the  whole  of  it  will  be  at  his  disposal. 
He  may  spend  it  all  in  one  mad  and  desperate  onslaught  upon 
Mexico,  and  come  back  upon  Congress  in  December  to  supply 
the  deficiencies  of  the  year ! 

Sir,  have  we  not  built  up  the  Executive  power  of  this  country 
to  a  sufficiently  fearful  height  already  ?  We  have  given  the 
President  a  standing  army  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  men.  We 
have  authorized  him  to  appoint  four  or  five  hundred  officers  in 
the  ten  new  regiments,  upon  his  own  responsibility,  without  any 
appeal  to  the  Senate.  We  have  heard  of  the  "  King's  Own " 
and  the  "  Queen's  Own"  in  other  countries:  these  regiments  are 
clearly  "  the  President's  Own,"  "  Polk's  Own."  We  have  author- 
ized him  to  employ  fifty  thousand  volunteers,  and  he  has  called 


596  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

upon  us  to  extend  this  authority.  "We  now  propose  to  give  him 
thirty  millions  of  dollars  without  limitation  or  condition,  and  to 
bid  him  ride  on,  conquering  and  to  conquer,  for  a  year  and  a  half, 
unless  in  the  mean  time  he  shall  want  more  money !  Once  more 
I  ask,  is  this  Democracy  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  intimated  on  another  occasion  that  I  do 
not  go  so  far  as  some  of  my  friends  in  regard  to  the  propriety  or 
expediency  of  withholding  all  supplies  from  the  Executive.  While 
a  foreign  nation  is  still  in  arms  against  us,  I  would  limit  the 
supplies  to  some  reasonable  scale  of  defence,  and  not  withhold 
them  altogether.  I  would  pay  for  all  services  of  regulars  or 
volunteers  already  contracted  for.  I  would  provide  ample  means 
to  prevent  our  army  from  suffering,  whether  from  the  foe  or 
from  famine,  as  long  as  they  are  in  the  field  under  constitutional 
authority.  Heaven  forbid  that  our  gallant  troops  should  be  left 
to  perish  for  want  of  supplies  because  they  are  on  a  foreign  soil, 
while  they  are  liable  to  be  shot  down  by  the  command  of  their 
own  officers  if  they  refuse  to  remain  there !  But  I  cannot  regard 
it  as  consistent  with  constitutional  or  republican  principles  to 
pass  this  bill  as  it  now  stands.  Even  if  I  approved  the  war,  I 
should  regard  such  a  course  of  legislation  as  unwarrantable. 
Disapproving  it,  as  I  unequivocally  and  unqualifiedly  do,  I  am 
the  more  induced  to  interpose  these  objections  to  its  adoption. 

Sir,  this  whole  Executive  policy  of  overrunning  Mexico  to 
obtain  territorial  indemnities  for  pecuniary  claims  and  the  ex- 
penses of  the  war,  is  abhorrent  to  every  idea  of  humanity  and  of 
honor.  For  one,  I  do  not  desire  the  acquisition  of  one  inch 
of  territory  by  conquest.  I  desire  to  see  no  fields  of  blood  an- 
nexed to  this  Union,  whether  the  price  of  the  treachery  by  which 
they  have  been  procured  shall  be  three  million  pieces  of  silver  or 
only  thirty !  I  want  no  more  areas  of  freedom.  Area,  if  I  re- 
member right,  signified  threshing-floor,  in  my  old  school  diction- 
ary. We  have  had  enough  of  these  areas,  whether  of  freedom 
or  slavery ;  and  I  trust  this  war  will  be  brought  to  a  close  with- 
out multiplying  or  extending  them. 

I  repeat  this  the  more  emphatically,  lest  my  vote  in  favor  of 
the  Three  Million  bill  should  be  misinterpreted.  Nothing  was 
further  from  my  intention,  in  giving  that  vote,  than  to  sanction 


THE   CONQUEST   OP  MEXICAN  TERRITORY.  597 

the  policy  of  the  Executive  in  regard  to  the  territories  of  Mexico. 
If  he  insists,  indeed,  on  pursuing  that  policy,  and  if  a  majority 
of  Congress  insist  on  giving  him  the  means,  I  prefer  purchase  to 
conquest;  and  had  rather  authorize  the  expenditure  of  three 
millions  to  pay  Mexico,  than  of  thirty  millions  to  whip  her. 
But  everybody  must  have  understood  that  the  proviso  was  a 
virtual  nullification  of  the  bill,  for  any  purpose  of  acquiring 
territory,  in  the  hands  of  a  Southern  administration. 

It  was  for  that  proviso  that  I  voted.  I  wished  to  get  the  great 
principle  which  it  embodied  fairly  on  the  statute-book.  I  believe 
it  to  be  a  perfectly  constitutional  principle,  and  an  eminently 
conservative  principle. 

Sir,  those  who  undertake  to  dispute  the  constitutionality  of 
that  principle  must  rule  out  of  existence  something  more  than 
the  immortal  ordinance  of  1787.  My  honorable  friend  from 
South  Carolina  (Mr.  Burt)  reminded  us  the  other  day  that  Mr. 
Madison,  in  the  Federalist,  had  cast  some  doubt  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  Confederation  Congress  to  pass  that  ordinance.  He 
did  so.  But  with  what  view,  Sir  ?  Not  to  bring  that  act  into 
discredit,  but  to  enforce  upon  the  people  of  the  United  States 
the  importance  of  adopting  a  new  system  of  government,  under 
which  such  acts  might  henceforth  be  rightfully  done.  This  new 
system  of  government  was  adopted.  The  Constitution  was 
established.  In  the  very  terms  of  that  Constitution  is  found  a 
provision  recognizing  the  authority  of  Congress  to  prevent  the 
extension  of  slavery,  after  a  certain  number  of  years,  "  in  the 
existing  States,"  and  to  prevent  its  introduction  into  the  territories 
immediately.  What  more?  During  the  first  session  of  the  first 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  under  this  new  Constitution,  this 
same  Northwestern  ordinance,  with  its  anti-slavery  clause,  was 
solemnly  recognized  and  reenacted.  This  is  a  fact  never  before 
noticed,  to  my  knowledge,  and  one  to  which  I  beg  the  attention 
of  the  House.  Here  is  the  eighth  act  of  the  first  session  of  the 
first  Congress.     Listen  to  the  preamble  : 

"  Whereas,  in  order  that  the  ordinance  of  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled 
for  the  government  of  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  may  continue  to  have 
full  effect,  it  is  requisite  that  certain  provisions  should  be  made,  so  as  to  adapt  the  same 
to  the  present  Constitution  of  the  United  States : 

" Be  it  enacted"  frc. 


598  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

Then  follow  a  few  formal  changes  in  regard  to  the  Governor 
and  other  officers.  The  sixth  article  of  the  ordinance  remains 
untouched.  Mr.  Madison  was  a  member  of  this  first  Congress, 
as  were  many  others  of  those  most  distinguished  in  framing  the 
new  Constitution.  And  this  bill  passed  both  branches  without 
objection,  and  without  any  division,  except  upon  some  immate- 
rial amendments. 

Here,  then,  we  find  the  very  framers  of  the  Constitution  them- 
selves, in  the  first  year  of  its  adoption,  applying  the  principle  of 
the  Wilmot  proviso  to  all  the  territories  which  the  General 
Government  then  possessed,  without  compromise  as  to  latitude 
or  longitude.  These  territories  were  as  much  the  fruit  of  the 
common  sacrifices,  common  toils,  and  common  blood  of  all  the 
States,  as  any  which  can  now  be  conquered  from  Mexico.  They 
were  the  joint  and  common  property  of  the  several  States.  The 
ordinance  was  unanimously  adopted  in  1787,  and  was  reenacted 
unanimously  in  1789.  Madison,  who  had  questioned  the  au- 
thority of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  to  pass  it  origin- 
ally, voted  for  it  himself  in  the  Congress  of  the  Constitution, 
and  all  his  colleagues  from  the  slaveholding  States  voted  for  it 
with  him.  Sir,  if  the  constitutionality  of  such  an  act  can  now 
be  disputed,  I  know  not  what  principle  of  the  Constitution  can 
be  considered  as  settled. 

I  have  said  that  I  regarded  this  principle  as  eminently  con- 
servative, as  well  as  entirely  constitutional.  I  do  believe,  Sir, 
that  whenever  the  principle  of  this  proviso  shall  be  irrevocably 
established,  shall  be  considered  as  unchangeable  as  the  laws  of 
the  Medes  and  Persians,  then,  and  not  till  then,  we  shall  have 
permanent  peace  with  other  countries,  and  fixed  boundaries  for 
our  own  country.  It  is  plain  that  there  are  two  parties  in  the 
free  States.  Both  of  them  are  opposed,  uncompromisingly  op- 
posed, as  I  hope  and  believe,  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  One 
of  them,  however,  and  that  the  party  of  the  present  Administra- 
tion, are  for  the  widest  extension  of  territory,  subject  to  the  anti- 
slavery  proviso.  The  other  of  them,  and  that  the  party  to  which 
I  have  the  honor  to  belong,  are,  as  I  believe,  content  with  the 
Union  as  it  is,  desire  no  annexation  of  new  States,  and  are 
utterly  opposed  to  the  prosecution  of  this  war  for  any  purpose 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY.  599 

of  dismembering  Mexico.  Between  these  two  parties  in  the 
free  States,  the  South  holds  the  balance  of  power.  It  may 
always  hold  it.  If  now,  therefore,  it  will  join  in  putting  an  end 
to  this  war,  and  in  arresting  the  march  of  conquest  upon  which 
our  armies  have  entered,  the  limits  of  the  Republic  as  well  as 
the  limits  of  slavery  may  be  finally  established. 

It  is  in  this  view  that  I  believe  the  principle  of  the  Wilmot 
proviso  to  be  the  great  conservative  principle  of  the  day,  and  it  is 
in  this  view  that  I  desire  to  place  it  immutably  upon  our  statute- 
book.  The  South  has  no  cause  to  be  jealous  of  such  a  move- 
ment from  our  side  of  the  House.  The  South  should  rather 
welcome  it  —  the  whole  country  should  welcome  it — as  an  over- 
ture of  domestic  peace. 

Sir,  much  as  I  deplore  the  war  in  which  we  are  involved  — 
deeply  as  I  regret  the  whole  policy  of  annexation — if  the  result 
of  these  measures  should  be  to  ingraft  the  policy  of  this  proviso 
permanently  and  ineradicably  upon  our  American  system,  I 
should  regard  it  as  a  blessing  cheaply  purchased.  Good  would, 
indeed,  have  been  brought  out  of  evil ;  and  we  should  be  almost 
ready  to  say,  with  the  great  dramatist  of  old  England : 

"  If  after  every  tempest  comes  such  calm, 
Let  the  winds  blow  till  they  have  wakened  death." 

Yes,  Sir,  in  that  event,  instead  of  indulging  in  any  more  jeers 
and  taunts  upon  the  lone  Star  of  Texas,  we  might  rather  hail 
it  as  the  star  of  hope,  and  promise,  and  peace,  and  might  be 
moved  to  apply  to  it  the  language  of  another  great  English  poet : 

':  Fairest  of  Stars !  last  in  the  train  of  night, 
If  better  thou  belong  not  to  the  dawn." 

If  we  could  at  last  lay  down  permanently  the  boundaries  of 
our  Republic ;  if  we  could  feel  that  we  had  extinguished  forever 
the  lust  of  extended  dominion  in  the  bosoms  of  the  American 
people ;  if  we  could  present  that  old  god,  Terminus,  of  whom 
we  have  heard  such  eloquent  mention  elsewhere,  not  with  out- 
stretched arm  still  pointing  to  new  territories  in  the  distance, 
but  with  limbs  lopped  off,  as  the  Romans  sometimes  represented 
him,  betokening  that  he  had  reached  his  very  furthest  goal ;  if 


600  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

we  could  be  assured  that  our  limits  were  to  be  no  further  ad- 
vanced, either  by  purchase  or  conquest,  by  fraud  or  by  force ; 
then,  then,  we  might  feel  that  we  had  taken  a  bond  of  fate 
for  the  perpetuation  of  our  Union. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  I  voted  for  the  proviso  in  the  Three  Mil- 
lion bill.  It  is  in  this  spirit  that  I  offer  the  third  proviso  to  the 
Thirty  Million  bill  before  us.  Pass  them  both ;  cut  off,  by  one 
and  the  same  stroke,  all  idea  both  of  the  extension  of  slavery 
and  the  extension  of  territory;  and  we  shall  neither  need  the 
three  millions  nor  the  thirty  millions,  for  securing  peace  and 
harmony,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

I  perceive,  however,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  this  result  is  not  yet 
to  be  accomplished.  The  bill  before  us  will  become  a  law,  with- 
out proviso  or  condition  of  any  kind.  The  tremendous  power 
of  purse  and  sword  combined,  is  to  be  conferred  on  the  President, 
and  he  is  to  be  left  to  wield  it  upon  his  own  responsibility  for  a 
full  year  to  come.  O,  Sir,  let  him  remember  that,  though  |  it 
is  excellent  to  have  a  giant's  strength,  it  is  tyrannous  to  use  it 
like  a  giant ! "  Let  him  remember  that,  though  we  may  relieve 
him  from  all  responsibility  to  us,  his  responsibility  to  his  country 
and  to  his  God  remains.  The  President  can  make  peace  with 
Mexico,  if  he  pleases  to  do  so.  He  has  proved  that  he  can  usurp 
authority  to  make  war ;  let  him  show  that  he  is  willing  to  em- 
ploy the  authority  constitutionally  conferred  upon  him,  to  make 
peace.  I  repeat,  Sir,  he  can  make  peace  if  he  will.  He  can  stop 
fighting.  He  can  agree  to  an  armistice.  He  can  signify  to 
Mexico  that  he  has  no  design  to  dismember  her  domain  or 
destroy  her  independence.  He  can  withdraw  his  armies  to  the 
Rio  Grande.  Peace  would  follow  these  steps,  as  surely  as  the 
day  the  night. 

Two  occasions,  Mr.  Chairman,  have  already  occurred,  when 
the  President  might  have  put  an  end  to  this  war  with  the  high- 
est honor  to  himself  and  to  the  country.  If,  after  the  battles  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  he  had  forborne  from  all  further  invasion,  con- 
tented himself  with  the  triumphs  already  achieved  and  the  terri- 
tory already  acquired,  and  placed  himself  entirely  on  the  defen- 
sive, the  war  could  not  have  survived  the  summer.  If,  again, 
after  the  successful  storming  of  Monterey  —  an  exploit  which 


•THE   CONQUEST   OP  MEXICAN  TERRITORY.  601 

will  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  any  thing  in  the  military 
annals  of  the  world  —  he  had  taken  advantage  of  the  terms  of 
capitulation  which  the  brave  and  generous  Taylor  had  so  hu- 
manely and  so  wisely  sanctioned,  and  had  adopted  the  plan  of 
masterly  inactivity  which  that  sagacious  General  proposed,  an 
honorable  peace  might  have  been  looked  for  at  an  early  day. 
But  a  mad  spirit  of  aggression  and  conquest  was  still  destined  to 
prevail.  The  capitulation  was  denounced.  An  officer  was 
despatched,  posthaste,  to  disavow  and  break  up  the  armistice. 
The  brilliant  achievement  of  our  armies  was  disparaged.  Their 
noble-hearted  commander  was  not  even  named  in  the  Executive 
message.  And  a  cry  for  more  Mexican  blood  went  forth  from 
all  the  organs  of  the  Administration. 

And  now,  Sir,  if  I  mistake  not,  a  third  opportunity  is  about 
to  be  offered  for  ending  this  war  with  whatever  distinction  may 
attach  to  military  and  naval  success.  A  blow  is  about  to  be 
struck  at  Vera  Cruz.  It  can  hardly  fail  to  be  successful.  That 
far-famed  castle  will  be  surrendered  to  our  arms,  as  it  lately  was 
to  those  of  France.  All  that  gallant  troops  and  brave  tars  can 
do,  in  that  quarter,  will  be  done ;  and  victorious  wreaths  will 
once  more  adorn  the  brow  of  the  veteran  Scott. 

And  why  should  not  the  war  end  here  ?  What  object  is  to 
be  gained  by  further  fighting  ?  Does  the  President  propose  to 
hold  this  castle  ?  Why,  Sir,  I  am  informed,  by  one  who  knows, 
that  even  the  Mexican  garrison,  composed  of  acclimated  men, 
to  whom  the  malaria  of  that  region  had  been  their  daily  breath 
from  infancy,  were  dying  there  last  summer  at  the  rate  of  thirty 
men  a  day.  How  many  of  an  American  garrison  can  live 
there  ?  Does  the  President  propose  to  march  to  the  capital  of 
Mexico  ?  Our  armies  may  reach  it ;  but  it  will  only  be  to 
realize  the  idea  which  Dr.  Franklin  expressed  in  regard  to  the 
British  armies  in  1777,  when  they  reached  the  capital  of  Penn- 
sylvania. "  Sir  William  Howe,"  said  he,  "  has  not  taken 
Philadelphia ;  it  is  Philadelphia  which  has  taken  Sir  William 
Howe." 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  President  must  abandon  the  absurd  idea 
that  he  can  only  obtain  peace  by  conquering  it.  The  only  con- 
quest which  is  now  needed,  in  order  to  secure  peace,  is  that 

51 


602  THE   CONQUEST   OP  MEXICAN   TERRITORY. 

noblest  of  all  conquests,  in  which  fortune  has  no  share,  a  conquest 
over  himself;  and  would  to  Heaven  that  we  could  vote  him 
supplies  enough  of  true  courage  and  real  patriotism  to  enable 
him  to  achieve  it!  He  has  only  to  conquer  his  own  self-will, 
his  own  pride  of  opinion,  his  own  ambition  to  associate  his 
name  with  the  acquisition  of  more  territory,  and  we  can  have 
peace  to-morrow  !  Let  him  but  stop  fighting,  declare  an  armis- 
tice, and  disclaim  all  idea  of  spoliation  or  dismemberment,  and 
then,  however  we  may  continue  to  quarrel  about  the  declaration 
that  "  war  exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico,"  we  shall  all  be  able  to 
agree  that  "  peace  exists  by  the  act  of  the  President."  And, 
Sir,  if  he  should  live  a  thousand  years,  he  will  never  win  a 
nobler  tribute  than  this. 

Before  taking  my  seat,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  the  clock  warns  me 
I  shall  soon  be  obliged  to  do,  I  propose  to  make  a  few  remarks 
on  the  new  tariff  which  has  been  brought  forward  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means  to  furnish  the  sinews  of  this  war. 
I  remember  that,  some  seven  or  eight  years  ago,  a  paper  was 
sent  to  the  table  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachu- 
setts, which  it  became  my  official  duty  to  announce,  and  which, 
either  from  ignorance  or  accident,  was  indorsed,  "  Remonstrance 
against  the  Annexation  of  Taxes"  This  mistake  has  proved  to 
have  been  quite  premonitory.  It  was  very  much  like  spelling 
lone  star,  1-o-a-n.  Loans  and  taxes  are  the  legitimate  fruits  of 
the  great  measure  of  annexation.  We  have  had  a  loan  bill,  and 
we  now  have  a  tax  bill.  For  the  first  I  have  already  voted. 
For  the  last,  as  it  now  stands,  I  shall  not  vote  ;  and  I  desire  to 
state  some  of  the  general  views  which  govern  me  in  this  course. 

I  am  ready,  Sir,  now  and  at  all  times,  to  unite  in  maintaining 
the  national  credit.  I  do  not  desire  to  see  the  evils  of  an  odious 
war  multiplied  and  aggravated  by  disordered  finances  and  a  bank- 
rupt Treasury.  If  our  armies  are  to  be  kept  afoot,  wherever 
they  may  be,  and  in  whatever  numbers  they  may  be,  I  am  for 
having  means  enough  in  the  Treasury  for  feeding  them,  and 
clothing  them,  and  paying  them.  I  am  for  paying  them,  too 
if  possible,  not  with  depreciated  paper,  but  in  a  sound  redeem- 
able currency.  I  desire  to  leave  the  Administration  no  apology 
or  pretence  for  supporting  our  troops  by  a  system  of  pillage  and 
plunder  in  the  enemy's  country. 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   MEXICAN   TERRITORY.  603 

There  are  purposes  of  peace,  too,  which  require  money. 
There  are  just  debts  to  be  paid,  important  establishments  to  be 
supported,  cherished  institutions  to  be  maintained,  noble  chari- 
ties to  be  administered ;  and  the  Treasury  must  be  supplied  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  them  all. 

"With  these  views  I  voted  for  the  loan  bill.  I  believed  it  to 
be  a  necessary  provision  for  sustaining  the  public  credit.  I 
believed,  and  still  believe,  that  even  should  the  Administration 
reconsider  and  reverse  the  rash  policy  they  have  adopted,  and 
proceed  to  prosecute  a  peace  as  vigorously  as  they  have  prose- 
cuted the  war,  the  loan  would  still  be  indispensable. 

Now,  Sir,  let  it  be  noted,  that  by  this  loan  bill  we  have  given 
the  Administration  the  precise  amount  of  pecuniary  means 
which  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  considered  necessary.  He 
asked  for  authority  to  reissue  five  millions  of  Treasury  notes. 
We  have  given  it  to  him.  He  said  that  he  should  need  author- 
ity to  borrow  twenty-three  millions  more,  in  case  no  additional 
revenue  was  raised,  but  that  if  duties  were  laid  on  tea  and 
coffee,  and  the  land  graduation  system  was  adopted,  he  should 
only  require  nineteen  millions.  We  have  given  him  the  twenty- 
three  millions.  I  moved  to  reduce  the  amount  to  nineteen,  and 
the  House  rejected  the  motion.  Yet  now  he  is  found  calling 
upon  us  for  the  additional  revenue  besides ;  and  the  President 
unites  with  him  in  a  fervent  appeal  to  our  patriotism  to  lay  a 
tax  upon  tea  and  coffee  ! 

The  Secretary  tell  us  that  these  duties  are  essential  to  enable 
him  to  negotiate  the  loan.  It  is  not  so,  Sir.  You  have  held  out 
such  a  tempting  bait  to  capitalists,  both  foreign  and  domestic, 
by  the  terms  of  the  loan,  that,  from  present  appearances,  it  will 
be  negotiated  quite  too  readily.  But,  if  it  were  not  so,  there  is 
another  and  a  better  way  than  by  the  provisions  of  any  new  tariff 
bill,  by  which  its  negotiation  may  be  secured. 

It  is  one  of  the  great  beauties  of  this  system  of  loans  that  it 
appeals  to  the  confidence  of  the  people.  It  bears  the  same 
relation  to  the  finances,  which  the  volunteer  system  bears  to  the 
military  forces  of  the  country.  There  must  be  good  will  towards 
the  Government,  and  something  of  trust  and  confidence  in  its 
policy,  or  neither  of  these  systems  can  be   successful.     Confi- 


604  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

dence  is  the  one  thing  needful  for  the  public  credit ;  and  this 
confidence  must  exist  in  the  right  quarter. 

The  venerable  Gallatin  has  given  us  a  seasonable  hint  on 
these  points,  in  the  pamphlet  on  the  Oregon  question  which  he 
published  last  year.  He  tells  us  in  what  quarter,  and  by  what 
means,  the  Government  must  obtain  these  loans  : 

"  There  is  as  yet  (says  he)  but  very  little  active  circulating  capital  in  the  new  States  > 
they  cannot  lend ;  they,  on  the  contrary,  want  to  borrow  money.  This  can  be  obtained 
in  the  shape  of  loans  only  from  the  capitalists  of  the  Atlantic  States.  A  recurrence 
to  public  documents  will  show  that  all  the  loans  of  the  last  war  were  obtained  in  that 
quarter." 

And  again : 

■  When  our  Government  relies  on  the  people  for  being  sustained  in  making  war,  its 
confidence  must  be  entire.  They  must  be  told  the  whole  truth ;  and,  if  they  are  really 
in  favor  of  the  war,  they  will  cheerfully  sustain  the  Government  in  all  the  measures 
necessary  to  carry  it  into  effect." 

Now,  Sir,  if  the  President  desires  to  create  an  entire  confi- 
dence in  the  public  credit,  and  to  render  his  loans  easy  of  nego- 
tiation, he  must  let  the  people  of  the  country  understand  where 
this  war  is  to  end.  He  must  tell  them  the  whole  truth.  He 
must  disclaim  these  indefinite  ideas  of  national  aggrandizement. 
He  must  abandon  the  purpose  of  dismembering  Mexico.  He 
must  dissipate  that  dark  cloud  of  disunion,  which  is  seen  hover- 
ing over  us  as  often  as  we  agitate  the  question  of  an  extension 
of  territory.  He  must  give  assurance  that  peace  is  to  be  restored 
and  the  Union  preserved ;  and  he  can  then  have  all  the  money 
which  may  be  wanted  at  a  moment's  warning.  This,  Sir,  is  the 
way,  and  this  the  only  way,  of  creating  real  confidence  in  the 
right  quarter. 

But  if  it  were  true,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  additional  taxes  were 
necessary  at  this  moment  to  sustain  the  public  credit,  this  little 
bill,  which  has  been  reported  by  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  would  do  little  or  nothing  toward  such  an  end.  Why, 
there  is  something  almost  ridiculous  in  the  introduction  of  such 
a  bill  for  such  an  emergency  as  the  present.  Here  we  are,  with 
a  public  debt  of  fifty  millions  already  created,  and  with  an 
annual  expenditure  of  more  than  fifty  millions  already  author- 
ized, and  how  do  we  propose  to  provide  for  it  ?     We  call  upon 


THE  CONQUEST  OP  MEXICAN  TERRITORY.  605 

the  Secretary  for  his  grand  projet,  and  what  does  he  present  to 
us  ?  A  few  additional  duties  on  a  little  iron  and  coal  and  sugar 
and  on  two  descriptions  of  cottons,  twenty  per  cent,  on  tea  and 
coffee,  and  a  graduation  of  the  price  of  the  public  lands !  I  am 
wrong,  Sir.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  disclaims  recom- 
mending the  duties  on  iron,  and  coal,  and  sugar,  and  cottons. 
I  am  not  surprised  at  it  either ;  for  the  whole  yield  of  them  all 
would  be  too  insignificant  to  be  worthy  even  of  his  attention. 
From  the  best  accounts  I  can  get,  the  duties  on  one  description 
of  cottons  would  yield  absolutely  nothing,  as  none  of  them  are 
imported.  The  Secretary  has  been  loud  in  his  complaints  about 
minimums.  Sir,  this  whole  bill  is  a  minimum,  and  a  friend  near 
me  well  suggests  that  it  is  worthy  of  a  minimum  Administra- 
tion. Certainly,  it  is  the  very  smallest  bill  that  was  ever  reported 
in  any  country  to  meet  so  great  an  exigency.  Three  millions  a 
year  is  the  largest  estimate  which  anybody  can  make  of  the  rev- 
enue which  will  be  derived  from  it ;  it  will  probably  not  exceed 
two  millions  and  a  half.  Seriously,  Mr.  Chairman,  such  a  bill, 
in  my  judgment,  is  more  likely  to  injure  the  public  credit  than 
to  sustain  it.  If  we  do  any  thing  at  this  moment,  we  should  do 
enough  to  impress  capitalists  with  the  idea  that  we  are  not 
afraid  to  tax.  We  should  go  for  raising  eight  or  ten  millions 
more  revenue  at  the  least.  With  specific  duties,  and  proper 
discriminations,  we  might  easily  accomplish  that  result.  And 
until  specific  duties  and  proper  discriminations  are  reestablished, 
we  shall  have  no  sound,  productive,  permanent  revenue  system. 
The  Secretary  is  indeed  pluming  himself  greatly  on  the  opera- 
tion of  his  new  tariff.  Undoubtedly,  Sir,  it  has  thus  far  yielded 
somewhat  more  than  was  anticipated.  But  one  swallow  does 
not  make  a  summer.  One  month's  operation  is  no  test  of  a 
tariff.  Nor  is  this  a  moment  when  any  fair  calculation  can  be 
made  of  its  real  results.  There  are  too  many  disturbing  causes. 
There  is  a  war  on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  and  a  famine  on  the 
other;  no  potatoes  in  Ireland  ;  short  grain  crops  all  over  Europe; 
a  second  short  cotton  crop  in  our  Southern  States.  A  general 
derangement  of  commerce  and  currency  has  ensued,  which 
happens  to  enure  greatly  to  our  benefit.  You  might  as  well 
judge  of  the  ordinary  height  of  the  waves  by  the  tossings  and 

51* 


606  THE   CONQUEST   OF  MEXICAN  TERRITORY. 

heavings  of  an  equinoctial  gale,  as  of  the  legitimate  tendencies 
of  the  new  tariff  during  such  a  financial  storm  as  now  surrounds 
us.  Mr.  Walker  should  employ  Mr.  Espy  to  make  his  calcula- 
tions for  the  present  year. 

Sir,  I  have  no  confidence  in  this  new  system.  The  people 
have  no  confidence  in  it.  It  is  based  upon  false  principles.  It 
defies  all  experience.  It  abandons  all  protection  of  our  own  labor ; 
and,  sooner  or  later,  it  will  prove  to  be  utterly  insufficient  as  a 
revenue  measure.  For  one,  therefore,  I  am  not  for  propping  it  up 
by  any  such  little  bill  as  is  now  submitted  to  us.  I  am  not  for 
eking  out  the  insufficiencies  of  a  horizontal  tariff  by  taxes  upon 
tea  and  coffee.  I  am  not  for  supplying  means  for  an  unjust  war 
upon  a  foreign  nation,  by  an  unjust  war  upon  our  domestic 
industry.  I  go  rather,  Sir,  for  the  things  which  make  for  peace, 
and  the  things  by  which  we  may  build  up  one  another. 


NOTE 


VOTE   IN    THE  HOUSE   OF   REPRESENTATIVES  OX   MR.  WIXTHROP  S   PROVISO, 
TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY  23. 

The  following  Proviso,  moved  by  Mr.  Winthrpp  to  be  added  to  the  bill  appro- 
priating money  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  forces  engaged  in  the  present 
war  and  of  the  army  generally,  being  under  consideration,  namely : 

"  Provided,  further,  That  these  appropriations  are  made  with  no  view  of  sanction- 
ing any  prosecution  of  the  existing  war  with  Mexico  for  the  acquisition  of  territory  to 
form  new  States  to  be  added  to  the  Union,  or  for  the  dismemberment  in  any  way  of 
the  Republic  of  Mexico  :  " 

the  question  on  agreeing  thereto  was  taken  by  yeas  and  nays  and  decided 
as  follows :  — 

Yeas.  —  Messrs.  Abbott,  Arnold,  Ashmun,  Barringer,  Bell,  Blanchard,  Mil- 
ton Brown,  Buffington,  William  W.  Campbell,  Carroll,  John  G.  Chapman, 
Cocke,  Collamer,  Cranston,  Crozier,  Darragh,  Delano,  Dixon,  Dockcry,  John 
H.  Ewing,  Edwin  H.  Ewing,  Foot,  Gentry,  Giddings,  Graham,  Grider,  Grin- 
nell,  Hale,  Hampton,  Harper,  Henry,  Hilliard,  Elias  B.  Holmes,  John  W.  Hous- 
ton, Samuel  D.  Hubbard,  Hudson,  Washington  Hunt,  Joseph  R.  Ingersoll, 
Daniel  P.  King,  Thomas  B.  King,  Lewis,  McGaughey,  McHenry,  Mcllvaine, 
Marsh,  Miller,  Moseley,  Pendleton,  Pollock,  Ramsey,  Ripley,  Julius  Rockwell, 
John  A.  Rockwell,  Root,  Runk,  Schenck,  Seaman,  Severance,  Truman  Smith, 
Albert  Smith,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  Stephens,  Strohm,  Thibodeaux,  Thomasson, 
Benjamin  Thompson,  Tilden,  Toombs,  Trumbo,  Vance,  Vinton,  White,  Win- 
throp,  Woodruff,  Wright,  Young. —  76. 

Nays.  —  Messrs.  Stephen  Adams,  Atkinson,  Bedinger,  Benton,  Biggs,  James 
Black,  James  A.  Black,  Bowdon,  Bowlin,  Boyd,  Brinkerhoff,  Brockenbrough, 
Brodhead,  Wm.  G.  Brown,  Burt,  Cathcart,  Augustus  A.  Chapman,  Reuben 
Chapman,  Chase,  Chipman,  Clarke,  Cobb,  Collin,  Cottrell,  Cullum,  Cummins. 
Cunningham,  De  Mott,  Dillingham,  Dobbin,  Douglass,  Dromgoole,  Dunlap, 
Edsall,  Ellet,  Ellsworth,  Erdman,  Faran,  Ficklin,  Foster,  Fries,  Garvin,  Giles, 
Goodyear,  Gordon,  Grover,  Hamlin,  Harmanson,  Hastings,  Henley,  Hoge,  Hop- 


608  NOTE. 

kins,  Hough,  George  S.  Houston,  Edmund  W.  Hubard,  Hungerford,  James  B. 
Hunt,  Hunter,  Charles  J.  Ingersoll,  Jenkins,  James  H.  Johnson,  Joseph  John- 
son, Andrew  Johnson,  George  W.  Jones,  Seaborn  Jones,  Kauffman,  Kennedy, 
Preston  King,  Lawrence,  Leake,  Leffler,  La  Sere,  Ligon,  Long,  Lumpkin, 
Maclay,  McClean,  McClelland,  McClernand,  McCrate,  McDaniel,  Joseph  J. 
McDowell,  James  McDowell,  McKay,  John  P.  Martin,  Barclay  Martin,  Morris, 
Moulton,  Newton,  Niven,  Norris,  Owen,  Parrish,  Payne,  Perry,  Phelps,  Pills- 
bury,  Reid,  Relfe,  Bitter,  Roberts,  Russell,  Sawtelle,  Sawyer,  Scammon,  Sed- 
don,  Alexander  D.  Sims,  Simpson,  Thomas  Smith,  Robert  Smith,  Stanton, 
Starkweather,  St.  John,  James  Thompson,  Jacob  Thompson,  Thurman,  Tibbatts, 
Towns,  Tredway,  Went  worth,  Wick,  Williams,  Wilmot,  Woodward,  Yost.  — 124. 


ADDRESS  ON  TAKING  THE  CHAIR  AS  SPEAKER. 


ADDRESS   DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OP  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  DECEMBER  6,  1847. 


Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  — 

I  am  deeply  sensible  of  the  honor  which  you  have  conferred 
upon  me  by  the  vote  which  has  just  been  announced,  and  I  pray 
leave  to  express  my  grateful  acknowledgments  to  those  who  have 
thought  me  worthy  of  so  distinguished  a  mark  of  their  confi- 
dence. 

When  I  remember  by  whom  this  chair  has  been  filled  in  other 
years,  and,  still  more,  when  I  reflect  on  the  constitutional  cha- 
racter of  the  body  before  me,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  you  have 
assigned  me  a  position  worthy  of  any  man's  ambition,  and  far 
above  the  rightful  reach  of  my  own. 

I  approach  the  discharge  of  its  duties  with  a  profound  impres- 
sion at  once  of  their  dignity  and  of  their  difficulty. 

Seven  years  of  service  as  a  member  of  this  branch  of  the 
National  Legislature  have  more  than  sufficed  to  teach  me,  that 
this  is  no  place  of  mere  formal  routine  or  ceremonious  repose. 
Severe  labors,  perplexing  cares,  trying  responsibilities,  await  any 
one  who  is  called  to  it,  even  under  the  most  auspicious  and  favor- 
able circumstances.  How,  then,  can  I  help  trembling  at  the  task 
which  you  have  imposed  upon  me,  in  the  existing  condition  of 
this  House  and  of  the  country  ? 

In  a  time  of  war,  in  a  time  of  high  political  excitement,  in  a 
time  of  momentous  national  controversy,  I  see  before  me  the 
Representatives  of  the  People  almost  equally  divided,  not  merely 


610  ADDRESS   ON   TAKING   THE   CHAIR   AS    SPEAKER. 

as  the  votes  of  this  morning  have  already  indicated,  in  their  pre- 
ference for  persons,  but  in  opinion  and  in  principle,  on  many  of 
the  most  important  questions  on  which  they  have  assembled  to 
deliberate. 

May  I  not  reasonably  claim,  in  advance,  from  you  all,  some- 
thing more  than  an  ordinary  measure  of  forbearance  and  indulg- 
ence, for  whatever  of  inability  I  may  manifest  in  meeting  the 
exigencies  and  embarrassments  which  I  cannot  hope  to  escape  ? 
And  may  I  not  reasonably  implore,  with  something  more  than 
common  fervency,  upon  your  labors  and  upon  my  own,  the  bless- 
ing of  that  Almighty  Power,  whose  recorded  attribute  it  is  that 
"  He  maketh  men  to  be  of  one  mind  in  a  house  ?  " 

Let  us  enter,  gentlemen,  upon  our  work  of  legislation  with  a 
solemn  sense  of  our  responsibility  to  God  and  to  our  country. 
However  we  may  be  divided  on  questions  of  immediate  policy, 
we  are  united  by  the  closest  ties  of  permanent  interest  and  per- 
manent obligation.  We  are  the  representatives  of  twenty  mil- 
lions of  people,  bound  together  by  common  laws  and  a  common 
liberty.  A  common  flag  floats  daily  over  us,  on  which  there  is 
not  one  of  us  who  would  see  a  stain  rest,  and  from  which  there 
is  not  one  of  us  who  would  see  a  star  struck.  And  we  have  a 
common  Constitution,  to  which  the  oaths  of  allegiance,  which 
it  will  be  my  first  duty  to  administer  to  you,  will  be  only,  I  am 
persuaded,  the  formal  expression  of  those  sentiments  of  devotion 
which  are  already  cherished  in  all  our  hearts. 

There  may  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  powers  which 
this  Constitution  confers  upon  us ;  but  the  purposes  for  which 
it  was  created  are  inscribed  upon  its  face,  in  language  which  can- 
not be  misunderstood.  It  was  ordained  and  established  "  to  form 
a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquil- 
lity, provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  general  wel- 
fare, and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  to  our 
posterity." 

Union,  justice,  domestic  tranquillity,  the  common  defence,  the 
general  welfare,  and  the  security  of  liberty  for  us  and  for  those 
who  shall  come  after  us,  are  thus  the  great  objects  for  which  we 
are  to  exercise  whatever  powers  have  been  intrusted  to  us.  And 
I  hazard  nothing  in  saying  that  there  have  been  few  periods  in 


ADDRESS   ON  TAKING  THE   CHAIR  AS   SPEAKER.  611 

our  national  history,  when  the  eyes  of  the  whole  people  have 
been  turned  more  intently  and  more  anxiously  towards  the  Capi- 
tol, than  they  are  at  this  moment,  to  see  what  is  to  be  done,  here 
and  now,  for  the  vindication  and  promotion  of  these  lofty  ends. 

Let  us  resolve,  then,  that  those  eyes  shall  at  least  witness  on 
our  part,  duties  discharged  with  diligence,  deliberations  conducted 
with  dignity,  and  efforts  honestly  and  earnestly  made  for  the 
peace,  prosperity,  and  honor  of  the  country. 

I  shall  esteem  it  the  highest  privilege  of  my  public  life,  if  I 
shall  be  permitted  to  contribute  any  thing  to  these  results,  by  a 
faithful  and  impartial  administration  of  the  office  which  I  have 
now  accepted. 


NOTE 


The  following  correspondence  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  election  of 
Speaker,  at  the  opening  of  the  30th  Congress. 

56  Coleman's,  Washington, 
December 5,  1847. 

Dear  Sir  :  It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  aid,  by  my  vote,  in  placing  you  in 
the  Chair  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives.  But  I  have  no  personal  hopes  or 
fears  to  dictate  my  course  in  the  matter,  and  the  great  consideration  for  me 
must  be  that  of  the  policy  which  the  Speaker  will  impress  on  the  action  of  the 
House. 

Not  to  trouble  you  with  suggestions  as  to  subordinate  points,  there  are  some 
leading  questions  on  which  it  may  be  presumed  that  you  have  a  settled  purpose. 
May  I  respectfully  inquire,  whether,  if  elected  Speaker,  it  is  your  intention,  — 

So  to  constitute  the  Committees  of  Foreign  Relations  and  of  Ways  and 
Means  as  to  arrest  the  existing  war  ? 

So  to  constitute  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  as  to  favor  the  repeal  of  the 
law  of  February  12,  1793,  which  denies  trial  by  jury  to  persons  charged  with 
being  slaves ;  to  give  a  fair  and  favorable  consideration  to  the  question  of  the 
repeal  of  those  Acts  of  Congress  which  now  sustain  slavery  in  this  District ;  and 
to  further  such  measures  as  may  be  in  the  power  of  Congress  to  remedy  the 
grievances  of  which  Massachusetts  complains  at  the  hands  of  South  Carolina,  in 
respect  to  ill-treatment  of  her  citizens  ? 

I  should  feel  much  obliged  to  you  for  a  reply  at  your  early  convenience,  and 
I  should  be  happy  to  be  permitted  to  communicate  it,  or  its  substance,  to  some 
gentlemen  who  entertain  similar  views  to  mine,  on  this  class  of  questions. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  with  great  personal  esteem,  your  friend  and  servant, 

John  G.  Palfrey. 


Washington,  Coleman's  Hotel, 
December  5,  1847. 
Dear  Sir  :    Your  letter  of  to-day  has  this  moment  been  handed  to  me. 
I  am  greatly  obliged  by  the  disposition  you  express  "  to  aid  in  placing  me  in 
the  Chair  of  the  House  of  Representatives."    But  I  must  be  perfectly  candid  in 


XOTE.  613 

saying  to  you,  that  if  I  am  to  occupy  that  Chair,  I  must  go  into  it  without  pledges 
of  any  sort. 

I  have  not  sought  the  place.  I  have  solicited  no  man's  vote.  At  a  meeting 
of  the  Whig  members  of  the  House  last  evening,  (at  which,  however,  I  believe 
you  were  not  present,)  I  was  formally  nominated  as  the  Whig  candidate  for 
Speaker,  and  I  have  accepted  the  nomination. 

But  I  have  uniformly  said  to  all  who  have  inquired  of  me,  that  my  policy  in 
organizing  the  House  must  be  sought  for  in  my  general  conduct  and  character 
as  a  public  man. 

I  have  been  for  seven  years  a  member  of  Congress  from  our  common  State  of 
Massachusetts.  My  votes  are  on  record.  My  speeches  are  in  print.  If  they 
have  not  been  such  as  to  inspire  confidence  in  my  course,  nothing  that  I  could 
get  up  for  the  occasion,  in  the  shape  of  pledges  or  declarations  of  purpose,  ought 
to  do  so. 

Still  less  could  I  feel  it  consistent  with  my  own  honor,  after  having  received 
and  accepted  a  general  nomination,  and  just  on  the  eve  of  the  election,  to  frame 
answers  to  specific  questions,  like  those  which  you  have  proposed,  to  be  shown 
to  a  few  gentlemen,  as  you  suggest,  and  to  be  withheld  from  the  great  body  of 
the  Whigs. 

Deeply,  therefore,  as  I  should  regret  to  lose  the  distinction  which  the  Whigs 
in  Congress  have  offered  to  me,  and  through  me  to  New  England,  for  want  of 
the  aid  of  a  Massachusetts  vote,  I  must  yet  respectfully  decline  any  more  direct 
reply  to  the  interrogatories  which  your  letter  contains. 

I  remain,  with  every  sentiment  of  personal  esteem, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

Hon.  J.  G.  Palfrey,  fyc.^c. 


52 


THE   DEATH   OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


ANNOUNCEMENT  OF    THE   DEATH   OF   EX-PRESIDENT  ADAMS  TO  THE  HOUSE 
OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  FEBRUARY  24,  1848. 


Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, — 

It  has  been  thought  fit  that  the  Chair  should  announce  offi- 
cially to  the  House,  an  event  already  known  to  the  members 
individually,  and  which  has  filled  all  our  hearts  with  sadness. 

A  seat  on  this  floor  has  been  vacated,  towards  which  all  eyes 
have  been  accustomed  to  turn  with  no  common  interest. 

A  voice  has  been  hushed  forever  in  this  Hall,  to  which  all  ears 
have  been  wont  to  listen  with  profound  reverence. 

A  venerable  form  has  faded  from  our  sight,  around  which  we 
have  daily  clustered  with  an  affectionate  regard. 

A  name  has  been  stricken  from  the  roll  of  the  living  states- 
men of  our  land,  which  has  been  associated,  for  more  than  half 
a  century,  with  the  highest  civil  service,  and  the  loftiest  civil  re- 
nown. 

On  Monday,  the  21st  instant,  John  Quincy  Adams  sunk  in 
his  seat,  in  presence  of  us  all,  owing  to  a  sudden  illness,  from 
which  he  never  recovered ;  and  he  died,  in  the  Speaker's  room, 
at  a  quarter  past  seven  o'clock  last  evening,  with  the  officers  of 
the  House  and  the  delegation  of  his  own  Massachusetts  around 
him. 

Whatever  advanced  age,  long  experience,  great  ability,  vast 
learning,  accumulated  public  honors,  a  spotless  private  charac- 
ter, and  a  firm  religious  faith,  could  do,  to  render  any  one  an 
object  of  interest,  respect,  and  admiration,  they  had  done  for 
this  distinguished  person  ;  and  interest,  respect,  and  admiration 


THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  615 

are  but  feeble  terms  to  express  the  feelings,  with  which  the 
members  of  this  House  and  the  People  of  this  country  have  long 
regarded  him. 

After  a  life  of  eighty  years,  devoted  from  its  earliest  maturity 
to  the  public  service,  he  has  at  length  gone  to  his  rest.  He  has 
been  privileged  to  die  at  his  post ;  to  fall  while  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duties ;  to  expire  beneath  the  roof  of  the  Capitol ;  and 
to  have  his  last  scene  associated  forever,  in  history,  with  the 
birthday  of  that  illustrious  Patriot,  whose  just  discernment 
brought  him  first  into  the  service  of  his  country. 

The  close  of  such  a  life,  under  such  circumstances,  is  not  an 
event  for  unmingled  emotions.  We  cannot  find  it  in  our  hearts 
to  regret,  that  he  has  died  as  he  has  died.  He  himself  could 
have  desired  no  other  end.  "  This  is  the  end  of  earth,"  were 
his  last  words,  uttered  on  the  day  on  which  he  fell.  But  we 
might  almost  hear  him  exclaiming,  as  he  left  us — in  a  language 
hardly  less  familiar  to  him  than  his  native  tongue  —  "  Hoc  est, 
nimirum,  magis  feliciter  de  vita  migrare,  quam  mori." 

It  is  for  others  to  suggest  what  honors  shall  be  paid  to  his 
memory.  No  acts  of  ours  are  necessary  to  his  fame.  But  it 
may  be  due  to  ourselves  and  to  the  country,  that  the  national 
sense  of  his  character  and  services  should  be  fitly  commemo- 
rated. 


HORTICULTURE. 


A    SPEECH   AT    TIIE    FESTIVAL    OF    THE   MASSACHUSETTS    HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY  IN  FAXEUIL  HALL,  BOSTON,  SEPTEMBER  22,    1848- 


[In  reply  to  the  following  toast,  proposed  by  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Society,  —  "  Winthrop,  the  first  Governor  of  Massachusetts  —  The  good  stock 
which  he  planted  more  than  two  centuries  ago,  bears  fruit  in  this  generation  which 
speaks  for  itself."] 

I  wish  that  it  could  speak  for  itself,  Mr.  President!  Most 
heartily  do  I  wish  that  the  fruit  of  that  old  stock  to  which  you 
have  so  kindly  alluded,  could  speak  for  itself  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  this  occasion,  —  could  find  language  for  the  senti- 
ments with  which  a  scene  like  this  has  filled  all  our  hearts.  It 
is  so  long,  however,  since  I  was  at  liberty  to  speak  for  myself,  — 
I  have  so  long,  of  late,  been  a  doomed  listener  to  the  not  always 
very  inspiring  speeches  of  others,  —  that  I  am  almost  afraid  that 
my  faculty,  if  I  ever  had  any,  has  flown.  But  with  whatever 
words  I  can  find,  I  desire  to  offer  my  congratulations  to  this 
Society,  on  the  eminent  success  of  the  exhibition  which  is  now 
brought  to  a  close. 

I  think  you  will  agree  with  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  a 
richer  display  of  horticultural  products  has  rarely  been  witnessed 
by  any  of  us.  I  have  had  a  recent  opportunity  of  seeing  some 
of  the  horticultural  exhibitions  of  other  climes.  It  is  hardly 
more  than  a  twelvemonth,  since  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  be 
present  at  more  than  one  of  the  famous  flower-shows  of  London 
and  its  vicinity.  I  know  not  what  hidden  beauties  might  have 
revealed  themselves  on  these  occasions  to  a  more  scientific  eye, 
—  what  prodigies  of  art  might  have  been  discovered  by  those 
who  knew  how  to  look  for  them,  —  I  can  only  speak  of  the 
impressions  produced  on  a  superficial  observer.     I   saw  there 


HORTICULTURE.  617 

magnificent  collections  of  plants,  such  as  I  never  saw  before, 
such  as  I  have  never  seen  since.  Not  a  few  of  them  were 
pointed  out  to  me  as  original  products  of  our  own  soil ;  but  I 
confess  that  they  had  been  so  improved  by  cultivation,  that  it 
must  have  required  a  very  practised  eye,  or  an  exceedingly  pa- 
triotic pair  of  spectacles,  to  have  emboldened  any  one  to  claim 
them  as  Native  American  productions.  But  as  to  fruits,  I  saw 
no  exhibition  of  them  anywhere,  which  for  variety,  perfection, 
or  profusion,  could  be  compared  with  what  we  have  seen  in  this 
Hall,  during  the  last  two  or  three  days. 

Certainly,  Mr.  President,  we  have  never  beheld  the  like  in 
these  parts  before.  A  few  years  ago,  we  all  remember  that  a 
little  room  in  Tremont  street  was  all  too  wide  for  your  annual 
shows.  But  you  have  gone  on  so  rapidly,  adding  triumph  to 
triumph  —  at  one  moment  producing  a  new  apple,  at  another  a 
few  more  pears,  at  a  third  "  a  little  more  grape" — that  your 
own  spacious  Horticultural  rooms  have  now  become  too  small, 
and  old  Faneuil  Hall  itself  can  hardly  stretch  its  arms  wide 
enough,  to  embrace  all  the  spoils  of  your  victories ! 

And  what  shall  I  say  of  the  festival  by  which  your  exhibition 
is  now  closed  and  crowned  ?  Who  does  not  feel  it  a  privilege  to 
be  here?  Which  one  of  us,  especially,  that  has  been  accustomed 
to  associate  meetings  in  this  place  only  with  subjects  of  political 
contention  and  party  strife,  can  fail  to  appreciate  the  harmony 
and  beauty  of  the  scene  before  him  ?  Never,  surely,  was  there 
combined  a  greater  variety  of  delightful  circumstances.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  decide  for  which  of  our  senses  you  have  provided 
the  most  luxurious  repast.  Fruit,  flowers,  music,  fair  faces, 
sparkling  eyes,  wit,  eloquence,  and  poetry,  have  all  conspired  to 
lend  their  peculiar  enchantment  to  the  hour. 

But  it  would  be  doing  great  injustice  to  your  Association,  to 
estimate  its  claims  upon  the  consideration  and  gratitude  of  the 
community,  by  the  mere  success  of  its  exhibitions  or  the  brilliancy 
of  its  festivals.  We  owe  them  a  far  deeper  debt  for  their  influence 
in  disseminating  a  taste  for  one  of  the  purest  and  most  refined 
pleasures  of  life,  and  for  their  exertions  in  diffusing  the  know- 
ledge of  an  art  so  eminently  calculated  to  elevate  the  moral 
character  of  society. 

52* 


618  HORTICULTURE. 

Horticulture,  indeed,  does  little  to  supply  the  physical  wants 
of  man.  The  great  crops  and  harvests  by  which  the  world  is  fed, 
are  the  products  of  a  sterner  treatment  of  the  soil, — ever-honored 
Agriculture,  always  the  first  of  arts.  But  "  man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone."  There  is  food  for  the  soul,  the  mind,  the  heart, 
no  less  essential  to  his  true  subsistence,  and  required  not  merely 
by  the  educated  and  refined,  but  by  all  who  have  souls,  minds,  or 
hearts  within  them.  And  whence  can  the  toiling  millions  of  our 
race  obtain  a  more  abundant  or  a  more  wholesome  supply  of 
this  food,  than  from  the  beauties  of  nature  as  developed  at  their 
own  doors,  and  by  their  own  hands,  by  the  exquisite  processes 
of  horticulture  ? 

It  has  been  said  that  an  undevout  astronomer  is  mad.  But 
we  need  not  look  up  to  the  skies  for  incentives  to  devotion.  We 
need  not  employ  telescopes  to  find  evidences  of  Beneficence. 
There  are 

"  Stars  of  the  morning,  dew-drops,  which  the  Sun 
Impearls  on  every  leaf  and  every  flower," 

whose  lessons  are  legible  to  the  unassisted  eye.  The  flowers,  them- 
selves, with  their  gorgeous  hues  and  inimitable  odors,  and  which 
seem,  in  the  economy  of  nature,  to  have  no  other  object  but  to 
minister  to  the  gratification  and  delight  of  man,  —  who  can 
resist  their  quiet  teachings  ?  What  companions  are  they  to 
those  who  will  only  take  them  into  company,  and  cherish  their 
society,  and  listen  to  their  charming  voices !  Who  ever  parts 
from  them  without  pain,  that  has  once  experienced  their  dis- 
interested and  delightful  friendship  ? 

I  know  not  in  the  whole  range  of  ancient  or  modern  poetry,  a 
strain  more  touching  or  more  true  to  nature,  than  that  in  which 
the  great  English  bard  has  presented  Eve  bidding  farewell  to  her 
flowers :  — 

O  flowers, 
That  never  will  in  other  climate  grow, 
My  early  visitation,  and  my  last 
At  even,  which  I  bred  up  with  tender  hand 
From  the  first  opening  bud,  and  gave  ye  names  ! 
Who  now  shall  rear  ye  to  the  sun,  or  rank 
Your  tribes,  and  water  from  the  ambrosial  fount  I " 

We  know  not  what  were  those  flowers,  that  never  could  in 


HORTICULTURE.  619 

other  climate  grow.  We  may  know  hereafter.  But  such  as  we 
have,  there  are  daughters  of  Eve  here  present,  I  doubt  not,  with 
whom,  to  be  deprived  of  them,  would  wellnigh  partake  of  the 
bitterness  of  a  Paradise  lost. 

But  let  me  hasten  to  relieve  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  from 
the  too  sombre,  if  not  too  sentimental,  strain  into  which  I  have 
been  betrayed.  My  reverend  friends  who  have  preceded  me 
will  already  have  regarded  me  as  poaching  on  their  premises. 
Let  me  add  but  a  single  other  idea,  as  the  subject  of  the  senti- 
ment which  I  shall  offer  in  conclusion. 

We  are  accustomed  to  designate  certain  arts  as  the  Fine  Arts, 
and  I  would  be  the  last  to  disparage  their  claim  to  this  distin- 
guished title.  They  furnish  to  our  halls  of  state  and  to  the 
mansions  of  the  wealthy,  paintings  and  sculpture  which  cannot 
be  too  highly  prized.  But  Horticulture,  in  its  most  comprehen- 
sive sense,  is  emphatically  the  Fine  Art  of  common  life.  It  is 
eminently  a  Republican  Fine  Art.  It  distributes  its  productions 
with  equal  hand  to  the  rich  and  the  poor.  Its  implements  may 
be  wielded  by  every  arm,  and  its  results  appreciated  by  every 
eye.  It  decorates  the  dwelling  of  the  humblest  laborer  with 
undoubted  originals,  by  the  oldest  masters,  and  places  within  his 
daily  view,  fruit-pieces  and  flower-pieces,  such  as  Van  Huysum 
never  painted,  and  landscapes  such  as  Poussin  could  only  copy. 
Let  me  say,  then,  — 

Horticulture  —  Its  best  Exhibitions  are  in  the  village  garden  and  the  cottage  win- 
dow ;  and  its  best  Festivals  in  the  humble  homes  which  it  adorns,  and  in  the  humble 
hearts  which  it  refines  and  elevates. 


THE   CITY   OF   WASHINGTON. 


A   SPEECH   MADE   AT   A   COMPLIMENTARY  DINNER   GIVEN    BY   CITIZENS    OF 
WASHINGTON    TO   MEMBERS   OF   THE  THIRTIETH  CONGRESS,  DECEMBER  20. 

1848. 


[In  reply  to  the  following  toast,  proposed  by  the  Honorable  W.  W.  Seaton,  Mayor 
of  the  City,  —  " The  Thirtieth  Congress:  Honor  and  harmony  to  its  counsels;  —  happi- 
ness and  prosperity  to  its  members."] 

I  am  greatly  honored,  Mr.  Mayor  and  Gentlemen,  in  being 
called  on  to  respond,  in  the  presence  of  so  many  older  and  abler 
public  servants,  to  the  sentiment  just  proposed.  I  thank  you, 
personally,  for  the  privilege  of  participating  in  these  agreeable 
festivities ;  and  I  thank  you,  officially,  for  the  compliment  which 
you  have  offered  to  the  two  branches  of  the  National  Legislature. 
I  am  sincerely  glad  that  this  thirtieth  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  however  distinguished  or  undistinguished  it  may  have 
been  in  other  respects,  has  been  prompted  to  do  so  much  that  is 
liberal  and  acceptable  for  the  District  of  Columbia.  You  are 
very  little  indebted  for  these  appropriations  to  one,  who,  under 
all  ordinary  circumstances  of  legislation,  is  deprived  both  of  voice 
and  vote  ;  but  I  can  truly  say  that  there  are  no  appropriations  to 
which  I  have  affixed  that  attesting  signature,  which  is  all  that  is 
left  to  me,  with  a  truer  satisfaction. 

I  do  not  know,  however,  that  members  of  Congress  are  entitled 
to  any  very  high  commendation  for  their  liberality  to  this  District. 
It  is  a  liberality  which  costs  them  nothing.  They  can  afford  to 
be  generous  —  they  can  certainly  afford  to  be  just  —  with  other 
people's  money ;  and  more  especially  when  it  comes  to  them  in 
such  ample  streams  as  now,  under  the  auspices  of  the  honorable 


THE   CITY   OF  WASHINGTON.  621 

Secretary  at  your  side,  (Hon.  R.  J.  "Walker.)  They  have,  more- 
over, the  strongest  personal  interest  in  promoting  the  welfare  and 
prosperity  of  this  particular  part  of  the  District.  The  presence 
of  the  distinguished  Senator  from  Missouri  (Mr.  Benton)  reminds 
us,  that  to  many  of  them  this  city  is  their  home  for  no  inconsider- 
able part  of  their  lives.  And  many  more  of  them,  we  know, 
would  be  glad  to  make  it  their  home  for  a  much  longer  period 
than  they  do,  if  they  could  only  succeed  in  securing  the  unbroken 
confidence  and  support  of  their  constituents,  as  he  has  done,  for 
a  term  of  thirty  years.  Not  a  few  of  us  live  here,  and  not  a  few 
of  us,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  die  here.  We  partake  of  all  your 
advantages  and  of  all  your  disadvantages.  If  your  streets  are 
rough  and  out  of  repair,  our  bones  are  shaken,  as  well  as  yours, 
and  our  necks  are  liable  to  be  broken.  If  they  are  badly  lighted  at 
night,  we  are  as  likely  as  you  to  stumble  and  fall  into  the  ditch. 
And  if  you  have  no  good  schools,  our  children,  as  well  as  your 
own,  may  be  deprived  of  a  seasonable  and  satisfactory  education. 
But  apart  altogether,  Mr.  Mayor,  from  any  selfish  considera- 
tions of  this  sort,  we  all  ought  to  take  a  pride,  and  I  trust  that 
we  all  do  take  a  pride,  as  Americans  and  as  patriots,  in  the  pros- 
perity and  welfare  of  the  capital  of  the  Republic.  Most  heartily 
do  I  respond  to  the  sentiment  expressed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  in  his  letter,  published  this  morning,  communicating 
to  Congress  the  annual  report  of  the  Land  Office,  and  in  which 
the  patronage  of  the  National  Government  is  invoked  for  the 
public  schools  of  this  District.  Most  cordially  do  I  concur  with 
him  in  the  idea  which  he  suggests,  that  this  city  should  be  made 
a  fit  representative  of  the  civilization  and  refinement  and  true 
greatness  of  our  country.  It  already,  perhaps,  furnishes  a  pretty 
fair  sample  of  the  country  in  one  respect.  As  a  city  of  "  magnifi- 
cent distances,"  it  admirably  illustrates  the  almost  immeasurable 
extents  over  which  the  Republic  is  so  rapidly  reaching.  But  it 
should  portray,  in  miniature  something  of  what  our  country 
ought  to  be,  and  of  what,  by'the  blessing  of  God,  it  is  to  be, 
morally  as  well  as  physically.  Its  arts  and  sciences,  its  literature 
and  learning,  should  have  their  emblems  and  illustrations  here. 
Here  should  be  the  model  schools,  the  model  charities,  the  model 
libraries,  the  model  prisons  of  our  land  ;  the  model  institutions  of 


G22  THE   CITY   OP  WASHINGTON. 

every  sort,  for  education,  benevolence,  reformation,  and  govern- 
ment. Whatever  American  architecture  can  do,  should  be  exhi- 
bited in  our  public  buildings.  Whatever  American  painting 
and  sculpture  can  do,  should  be  displayed  in  commemorating 
here  the  great  deeds  and  the  great  men  of  our  history. 

This,  Sir,  was  evidently  the  spirit  in  which  your  city  was 
originally  laid  out  and  founded  by  the  Father  of  his  Country 
and  his  illustrious  compeers.  We  see  it  in  the  length  and  breadth 
of  your  avenues,  in  the  noble  squares  which  they  reserved  for 
public  purposes,  and  in  the  fine  proportions  and  ample  dimen- 
sions of  the  Capitol  and  the  Executive  Mansion.  We  know  it, 
too,  from  their  own  predictions.  They  looked  forward  to  the 
time  when  this  city  should  be  a  kind  of  American  Zion, — beauti- 
ful for  situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth,  —  to  which  all  the 
tribes  should  annually  come  up,  and  find  fresh  impulses  to  patri- 
otism, and  fresh  incentives  to  Union,  in  the  beauty  and  grandeur 
of  a  common  temple.  They  looked  forward  to  the  day,  when 
all  men  should  find  here  a  City  worthy  of  the  great  objects  to 
which  it  has  been  dedicated,  and  not  altogether  unworthy  of  the 
incomparable  name  by  which  it  has  been  called. 

We  all  rejoice,  I  am  sure,  in  witnessing  some  first  approaches 
to  a  realization  of  this  idea,  in  the  improvements  which  have 
marked  your  progress  during  a  few  years  past,  —  in  the  erection 
of  a  National  Observatory,  in  the  foundation  of  a  National 
Museum,  in  the  commencement  of  a  National  Monument,  and  in 
the  establishment  of  the  National  and  the  Smithsonian  Institutes. 
I  cannot  name  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  however,  without 
expressing  the  hope  that,  if  the  capital  of  this  Republic  is  ever  to 
be  the  seat  of  a  great  institution  of  learning  and  science,  —  if  this 
long-cherished  wish  of  Washington  is  at  length  to  be  accom- 
plished —  it  may  not  be  wholly  owing  to  the  dying  bequest 
of  a  munificent  foreigner.  I  have  no  objection  to  the  importa- 
tion of  a  little  foreign  patronage  for  such  an  object,  but  I  trust 
that  even  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  himself,  will  regard  it 
as  a  venial  violation  of  his  free-trade  principles,  if  I  advocate  the 
encouragement  of  the  domestic  article  also. 

Once  more  let  me  thank  you,  Sir,  in  the  name  of  the  mem- 
bers of  Congress  around  me,  for  the  hospitalities  of  this  occa- 


THE   CITY    OF   WASHINGTON.  623 

sion,  and  for  the  many  other  hospitalities  and  kindnesses,  public 
and  private,  which  we  have  all  received  at  your  hands  in  time 
past ;  and  let  me  relieve  your  patience,  without  further  delay, 
by  proposing  to  the  company  as  a  sentiment, — 

"  The  City  of  Washington,  and  its  accomplished  and  excellent  Mayor,  Mr.  Seaton." 


REPLY   TO   A  YOTE   OF   THANKS. 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  ON  THE  FINAL  ADJOURNMENT  OF  THE  THIRTIETH 
CONGRESS,   MARCH,  4,   1849. 


Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Representatives, — 

The  hour  has  arrived  which  terminates  our  relations  to  the 
country,  and  our  relations  to  each  other,  as  members  of  the 
Thirtieth  Congress  ;  and  you  have  already  pronounced  the  word 
which  puts  an  end  at  once  to  my  vocation  and  to  your  own. 

But  neither  the  usage  of  the  occasion,  nor  my  own  feelings, 
will  allow  me  to  leave  the  Chair,  without  a  word  of  acknow- 
ledgment, and  a  word  of  farewell,  to  those  with  whom  I  have 
been  so  long  associated,  and  by  whom  I  have  been  so  highly 
honored. 

Certainly,  gentlemen,  I  should  subject  myself  to  a  charge  of 
great  ingratitude,  were  I  not  to  thank  you  for  the  Resolution  in 
reference  to  my  official  services,  which  you  have  placed  upon  the 
records  within  a  few  hours  past. 

Such  a  resolution,  I  need  not  say,  is  the  most  precious  testi- 
monial which  any  presiding  officer  can  receive,  and  affords  the 
richest  remuneration  for  any  labors  which  it  may  have  cost. 

It  did  not  require,  however,  this  formal  tribute  at  your  hands, 
to  furnish  me  with  an  occasion  of  grateful  acknowledgment  to 
you  all.  I  am  deeply  sensible,  that  no  intentions,  however  hon- 
est, and  no  efforts,  however  earnest,  could  have  carried  me  safely 
and  successfully  through  with  the  duties  which  have  been 
imposed  upon  me,  had  I  not  been  seconded  and  sustained,  from 
first  to  last,  by  your  kind  cooperation  and  friendly  forbearance. 

I  beg  you,  then,  to  receive  my  most  hearty  thanks,  not  merely 
for  so  generous  an  appreciation  of  my  services,  but  for  the  uni- 


REPLY  TO  A  VOTE  OF  THANKS.  625 

form  courtesy  and  confidence  which  you  have  manifested  towards 
me,  during  my  whole  official  term,  and  which  have  done 
so  much  to  lighten  the  labors  and  relieve  the  responsibilities 
which  are  inseparable  from  the  Chair  of  this  House.  I  can 
honestly  say,  that  I  have  endeavored,  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
to  fulfil  the  pledges  with  which  I  entered  upon  this  arduous  sta- 
tion, and  to  discharge  its  complicated  and  difficult  duties  with- 
out partiality  and  without  prejudice.  Nor  am  I  conscious  of 
having  given  just  cause  of  imputation  or  offence  to  any  mem- 
ber of  the  House.  If  there  be  one,  however,  towards  whom  I 
have  seemed,  at  any  moment,  to  exhibit  any  thing  of  injustice, 
or  any  thing  of  impatience,  I  freely  offer  him  the  only  reparation 
in  my  power,  in  this  public  expression  of  my  sincere  regret. 

We  have  been  associated,  gentlemen,  during  a  most  eventful 
period  in  the  history  of  our  country  and  of  the  world.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  designate  another  era  in  the  modern  annals  of 
mankind,  which  has  been  signalized  by  so  rapid  a  succession  of 
startling  political  changes.  Let  us  rejoice  that  while  the  powers 
of  the  earth  have  almost  everywhere  else  been  shaken,  —  that 
while  more  than  one  of  the  mightiest  monarchies  and  stateliest 
empires  of  Europe  have  tottered  or  have  fallen,  —  our  own  Ameri- 
can Republic  has  stood  firm.  Let  us  rejoice  at  the  evidence 
which  has  thus  been  furnished  to  the  friends  of  liberty  through- 
out the  world,  of  the  inherent  stability  of  institutions,  which  are 
founded  on  the  rock  of  a  written  constitution,  and  which  are 
sustained  by  the  will  of  a  free  and  intelligent  people.  And  let  us 
hope  and  trust — as  I,  for  one,  most  fervently  and  confidently  do 
—  that,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  upon  prudent,  conciliatory,  and 
patriotic  counsels,  every  cause  of  domestic  dissension  and  frater- 
nal discord  may  be  speedily  done  away,  and  that  the  States 
and  the  people,  whose  representatives  we  are,  may  be  bound 
together  forever  in  a  firm,  cordial,  and  indissoluble  Union. 

Offering  once  more  to  you  all,  my  most  grateful  acknow- 
ledgments of  your  kindness,  and  my  best  wishes  for  your  indi- 
vidual health  and  happiness,  I  proceed  to  the  performance  of  the 
only  duty  which  remains  to  me,  by  announcing,  as  I  now  do, 

That  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
stands  adjourned,  sine  die. 

53 


NOTE 


INVITATION  TO   A  PUBLIC   DINNER. 

Boston,  August  28,  1848. 
Dear  Sir  :  A  large  number  of  Whigs,  of  the  Suffolk  Congressional  Dis- 
trict, among  your  strongest  personal  and  political  friends,  "  entertaining  a  high 
respect  for  the  character  and  abilities  of  their  distinguished  Representative  in 
Congress,  and  a  deep  sense  of  gratitude  for  the  services  which  he  has  rendered, 
and  the  honor  he  has  reflected  upon  the  State  and  the  Union,  by  his  faithful  and 
successful  discharge  of  the  arduous  duties  of  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, during  a  long  and  laborious  session,"  have  requested  us  to  tender  you, 
in  their  behalf,  a  public  dinner,  at  such  time  and  place  as  may  be  most  agree- 
able to  you. 

Joining,  to  that  of  our  friends,  our  own  earnest  and  sincere  desire  that  you 
may  find  it  convenient  to  accede  to  their  request, 

We  are,  with  considerations  of  high  regard,. 

Your  friends  and  obedient  servants, 


Abbott  Lawrence, 
James  Clark, 
F.  B.  Crowninshield, 
Albert  Fearing, 
Nathan  Appleton, 
William  Schouler, 
George  Morey, 
N.  W.  Coffin, 
P.  Greely,  Jr., 
Bradley  N.  Cummings, 

Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  Boston. 


F.  W.  Lincoln,  Jr., 
Philo  S.  Shelton, 
Peter  Harvey, 
George  W.  Crockett, 
Josiah  Bradlee, 
J.  Richardson, 
John  H.  Eastburn, 
B.  S.  Rotch, 
Francis  Bacon, 
Charles  H.  Mils. 


answer. 


Boston,  September  15, 1848. 
Gentlemen  :    Absence  from  home  prevented  me  from  receiving  your  most 
obliging  communication  of  the  28th  ult.,  until  a  late  day. 


NOTE.  627 

I  hasten  now  to  acknowledge  it,  and  to  assure  you  of  my  deep  sensibility  to 
the  compliment  which  it  contains. 

I  have,  indeed,  been  called  to  the  discharge  of  "  arduous  duties  during  a  long 
and  laborious  session  "  of  Congress.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  overestimate  the 
labors  which  belong  to  the  office  of  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States.  Nothing  could  afford  me  higher  satisfaction  than  to 
know,  that,  in  the  judgment  of  the  personal  and  political  friends  whom  you 
represent,  my  performance  of  the  duties  of  that  office  has  been  faithful  and 
successful,  and  that  it  has  reflected  no  dishonor,  either  on  our  own  Common- 
wealth, or  on  the  Country  at  large. 

Such  an  expression,  I  need  hardly  say,  is  peculiarly  welcome  to  me  from  my 
immediate  constituents,  —  implying,  as  it  does,  that  they  have  not  been  extreme 
to  note  any  inattention  to  their  local  interests,  which  may  have  resulted  from 
the  engrossing  character  of  the  duties  of  the  Chair. 

Boston  has  been  accustomed  to  no  common  services  in  the  National  Councils. 
Few  Districts  in  the  Union  can  point  to  such  a  succession  of  distinguished  and 
devoted  Representatives.  Fisher  Ames,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  William  Eustis, 
Josiah  Quincy,  Artemas  Ward,  James  Lloyd,  Jonathan  Mason,  Benjamin  Gor- 
ham,  Daniel  Webster,  Nathan  Appleton,  Abbott  Lawrence,  Richard  Fletcher ; 
—  this  is,  indeed,  a  catalogue  of  stars,  to  which  any  one  may  be  proud  to  have 
been  added. 

If,  on  retiring  from  office,  at  the  close  of  my  present  ^term,  —  when  I  shall 
have  represented  the  people  of  Boston  in  Congress  longer  than  any  one  of  my 
predecessors,  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  —  my  name  shall  not  be 
thought  unworthy  of  some  humble  association,  in  the  kind  regards  of  my  fellow 
citizens,  with  the  names  of  these  eminent  men,  the  measure  of  my  political 
ambition  will  be  full. 

Be  pleased  to  communicate  to  those,  in  whose  behalf  you  have  addressed  me, 
my  cordial  thanks  for  the  honor  which  they  have  done  me,  and  to  assure  them, 
that  while  I  decline  to  be  made  the  subject  of  any  ceremonious  entertainment,  I 
shall  always  cherish  the  most  grateful  remembrance  of  their  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness. 

I  am,  gentlemen,  with  the  highest  respect  and  esteem, 

Your  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

Hon.  Abbott  Lawrence,  and  others. 


LETTER     TO     THE    WHIG     NOMINATING     CONVENTION,     DECLINING     A     RE- 
ELECTION. 

Boston,  October  9th,  1848. 
Gentlemen  :    I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  your  obliging  communica- 
tion of  the  5th  instant,  informing  me  that  I  have  been  nominated,  unanimously 
and  by  acclamation,  as  a  candidate  for  reelection  to  Congress. 


628  NOTE. 

I  am  most  deeply  indebted  to  the  members  of  the  Whig  Ward  and  County 
Convention  for  so  generous  an  expression  of  their  confidence ;  and  I  pray  you 
to  present  to  them  all,  and  to  accept  for  yourselves,  an  assurance  of  my  pro- 
found gratitude. 

It  has  been  for  some  time  past,  and  is  still,  my  sincere  and  earnest  desire  to 
be  relieved  from  further  service  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States. 

With  this  view,  I  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Chairman  of  your  Convention,  in 
July  last,  announcing  my  determination  not  to  be  a  candidate  for  reelection. 

The  opinion  of  himself  and  many  other  most  respected  political  and  personal 
friends,  that  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  our  party,  at  that  moment,  made  it 
extremely  undesirable  that  such  an  announcement  should  be  made  public,  in- 
duced me  to  assent  to  its  being  withheld.  But  my  views  and  feelings  have 
undergone  no  change,  and  I  am  still  strong  and  sincere  in  the  desire  to  retire 
from  Congress  on  the  4th  of  March  next,  when  I  shall  have  completed  a  nine 
years'  service  as  the  Representative  of  Boston. 

It  is  urged  upon  me,  however,  by  yourselves,  and  by  other  distinguished 
Whigs,  whose  opinions  I  am  bound  to  respect,  that  under  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  present  campaign,  the  nomination  of  a  new  candidate  would  be 
difficult  and  dangerous ;  and  that,  by  insisting  on  my  purpose  to  decline  a  re- 
election, I  may  jeopard,  to  some  extent,  the  success  of  my  party,  in  other  and 
far  more  important  particulars. 

It  is  suggested  to  me,  moreover,  that  a  full  year  will  intervene  between  the 
election  and  the  commencement  of  the  new  term  of  Congressional  service ;  and 
that,  if  I  should  feel  obliged  to  resign  my  place  in  the  course  of  that  time,  there 
may  be  an  opportunity  of  filling  it  under  more  auspicious  circumstances. 

I  am  quite  unwilling,  gentlemen,  to  give  too  ready  an  ear  to  these  suggestions, 
lest  I  should  seem  to  arrogate  to  myself  something  of  popularity  or  influence 
which  I  do  not  possess.  But  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  if  a  well-considered 
belief  should  be  found  to  exist,  among  those  who  are  authorized  to  act  for  the 
Whigs  of  this  District,  that  the  use  of  my  name  would  be  of  any  material  im- 
portance to  the  success  of  their  efforts,  and  more  particularly  to  the  choice  of 
the  Taylor  and  Fillmore  electoral  ticket,  I  would  willingly  make  any  sacrifice 
of  personal  feeling,  and  leave  myself  at  the  disposal  of  my  friends.  I  would 
not  desert  those  who  have  never  deserted  me :  still  less  would  I  abandon  those 
great  national  interests  and  principles,  for  which  we  have  so  long  contended, 
and  which,  in  my  judgment,  can  only  be  vindicated,  at  this  moment,  by  the 
election  of  General  Taylor  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 

With  these  explanations,  I  desire  to  refer  the  whole  subject  once  more  to  the 
free  and  unembarrassed  decision  of  the  Convention,  by  declining  the  nomina- 
tion which  they  have  tendered  me.  I  do  so  in  the  earnest  hope  that  they  may 
be  induced  to  excuse  me  from  further  service,  and  in  the  honest  conviction  that 
they  can  readily  find  a  successor,  who  will  at  once  bring  more  weight  to  the 
ticket,  and  more  ability  to  the  office. 

This  letter  is  not  intended  for  publication ;  but  perhaps  you  can  bring  my 


NOTE.  629 

views  before  the  Convention  in  no  better  way,  than  by  reading  it  at  their  next 
meeting. 

Begging  you,  once  more,  to  assure  them  of  my  heartfelt  gratitude  for  all  their 
kindness  and  confidence,  and  to  receive  for  yourselves  my  best  thanks  for  the 
complimentary  terms  of  your  communication, 

I  remain,  Gentlemen,  most  respectfully  and  faithfully, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

ROBERT   C.  WlNTHROP. 

Col.  T.  C.  Amory,  and  others,  Committee. 


RESOLUTIONS   OF  THE   CONVENTION,  OCTOBER  11,  1848. 

Resolved,  That  we  have  learned,  with  deep  regret,  that  the  Hon.  Robert  C. 
Winthrop,  now  representing  this  District  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
has  expressed  a  desire  to  be  relieved  from  further  service  in  that  important  sta- 
tion, which  he  has  so  long  filled,  with  honor  to  himself  and  satisfaction  to  the 
country,  and  purposes  declining  a  renomination. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  Convention,  such  a  step  would  be  fraught 
with  great  danger  and  serious  injury  to  the  best  interests  of  the  Whig  cause, 
and  calculated  to  affect  unfavorably  the  result  of  our  labors  in  the  Presidential 
canvass  and  great  political  struggle  about  to  take  place. 

Resolved,  That  we  know  of  no  person  so  likely  to  unite  the  votes  of  the 
Whig  party  in  this  District  at  the  present  time,  or  who,  if  elected,  will  exercise 
a  more  salutary  influence  at  Washington,  than  our  present  honorable  Repre- 
sentative ;  and  that  it  is  our  earnest  wish  that  he  would  reconsider  the  subject, 
and  thus  preserve  the  Whig  party,  at  this  crisis,  from  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
inseparable  from  the  selection  of  any  new  candidate ;  and  with  a  view  to  effect 
if  possible,  this  most  desirable  object,  this  Convention  do  now,  renewedly  and 
unanimously,  renominate  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  to  represent  the  First 
Congressional  District  in  the  next  Congress  of  these  United  States,  and  respect- 
fully solicit  his  acceptance  thereof. 

Mr.  Winthrop  accepted  the  nomination,  and  was  reelected  by  a  majority  of 
about  four  thousand. 


53* 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF 
THE    UNION,    FEBRUARY   21,   1S50. 


I  do  not  rise,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  enter  elaborately  into  the 
general  discussion  to  which  the  annual  message  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  has  given  occasion.  But  finding  myself 
under  an  unexpected  necessity  of  leaving  my  seat  for  a  week  or 
two,  I  have  been  unwilling  to  go,  without  making  a  few  remarks, 
which  I  feel  to  be  due  to  my  own  position  and  character. 

I  have  abstained,  thus  far,  from  any  expression  of  opinion  or 
declaration  of  purpose,  in  regard  to  the  unfortunate  sectional 
controversies  by  which  our  country  is  now  agitated.  I  have 
done  so  designedly,  and  for  many  reasons,  satisfactory  to  myself, 
if  to  nobody  else. 

In  the  first  place,  Sir,  I  desired  to  wait  until  the  excitement 
growing  out  of  that  protracted  struggle  for  the  Speakership, — 
to  which,  by  the  unmerited  favor  of  my  friends,  I  was  so  promi- 
nent a  party,  —  had  passed  away  from  the  minds  of  all  who 
were  engaged  in  it ;  a-nd  until  I  could  express  myself  fully  and 
fearlessly  upon  these  controverted  topics,  without  the  suspicion  of 
being  influenced  by  any  thing  of  private  resentment  or  personal 
disappointment* 

In  the  second  place,  Sir,  I  desired  to  wait  until  something  of 

*  The  memorable  contest  for  the  Speakership  of  the  thirty-first  Congress  began 
December  3d,  and  ended,  after  sixty-three  balloting3,  December  22d,  1849.  The  final 
vote  stood  thus:  for  Howell  Cobb  102,  for  R.  C.  AVinthrop  100,  scattering  20. 
A  Resolution  had  been  previously  adopted  that,  on  this  trial,  a  majority  of  the  whole 
number  should  not  be  necessary  for  a  choice,  and  Mr.  Cobb  was  accordingly  declared 
Speaker. 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  631 

that  fervent  and  flaming  heat,  which  had  been  so  evidently- 
brought  here  from  what  may  well  be  termed  "  the  warm  and 
sunny  South,"  had  abated  ;  until  the  angry  passions,  which 
seemed  pent  up  within  so  many  bosoms  at  the  outset  of  the 
session,  had  found  vent  through  the  safe  and  wholesome  channel 
of  debate ;  and  until  there  could  be  a  chance  that  a  calm  and 
dispassionate  voice  from  "  the  cold  and  calculating  North " 
might  be  listened  to  with  some  degree  of  patient  attention. 

In  the  third  place,  Sir,  I  desired  to  wait  until  matters  should 
be  rather  more  clearly  and  fully  developed ;  until  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case  should  be  before  us ;  until  we  should  have 
been  able  to  take  an  observation  of  the  precise  position  of  the 
precious  vessel  in  which  we  are  all  embarked ;  until  we  could 
ascertain,  if  possible,  what  is  the  real  length,  and  breadth,  and 
height,  and  depth,  of  that  fearful  chasm,  that  yawning  abyss, 
upon  the  dizzy  brink  of  which,  we  are  told,  the  Ship  of  State  is 
even  now  poising  herself;  until  we  could  learn,  too,  what  course 
might  be  proposed  by  older,  and  abler,  and  more  experienced 
hands,  for  extricating  her  from  peril ;  and  until,  especially,  we 
might  hear  distinctly,  above  the  roar  of  the  elements  and  the 
rattling  of  the  shrouds,  the  voice  of  the  responsible  man  at  the 
helm,  —  the  man  who  has  been  placed  at  the  helm  by  a  majority 
of  the  crew,  with  my  own  cordial  concurrence,  and  who,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  I  hope,  and  trust,  and  believe,  is  destined  to  be 
hailed  by  us  all  hereafter  as  "  the  Pilot  who  has  weathered  the 
storm ! " 

These,  Mr.  Chairman,  are  some  of  the  views  with  which  I 
have  thus  far  abstained,  and  would  gladly  have  still  longer 
abstained,  from  any  participation  in  that  strife  of  tongues  which 
has  so  long  been  raging  around  us,  —  a  strife,  let  me  say,  which 
has  seemed  to  me  likely  to  have  no  more  important  or  practical 
issue,  than  that  which  was  chronicled  by  one  of  the  sacred  his- 
torians in  regard  to  a  quarrel  among  the  Hebrew  tribes,  when  he 
summed  up  the  whole  matter  by  saying,  —  "  and  the  words  of 
the  men  of  Judah  were  fiercer  than  the  words  of  the  men  of 
Israel." 

But,  Sir,  I  have  not  been  permitted  to  pursue  this  expectant 
system,  as  an  honorable  member  of  the  medical  faculty  near  me, 


632  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

(Mr.  Venable,)  would  probably  call  it,  —  I  have  not,  I  say,  been 
permitted  to  pursue  this  course  of  silent  observation  without 
interruption.  It  appears  to  have  been  the  studious  policy  x)f  a 
few  members  of  this  House  to  drag  me  into  the  debate,  whether  I 
would  or  no.  Not  satisfied  with  having  accomplished  my  defeat 
as  a  candidate  for  reelection  to  the  Speaker's  chair,  —  a  defeat, 
Sir,  which,  in  all  its  personal  incidents  and  consequences  I 
have  ever  regarded  as  the  most  fortunate  of  triumphs,  and 
over  which  no  one  of  my  enemies  has  rejoiced  more  heartily 
than  myself,  —  not  satisfied  with  the  accomplishment  of  this 
result,  they  have  made  it  their  special  business  to  provoke  and 
taunt  me  by  unworthy  reflections  upon  my  political  and  official 
conduct ;  and  more  than  one  of  them  has  not  scrupled  to  assail 
me  with  the  coarsest  and  most  unwarrantable  personalities. 

It  is  my  purpose,  Sir,  at  this  moment,  to  notice  some  of  these 
unmannerly  assaults  ;  and  no  one  will  be  surprised,  I  think,  if  I 
should  be  found  doing  so  in  no  very  mincing  or  measured  terms. 

Indeed,  Mr.  Chairman,  both  the  House  and  the  country  will 
bear  witness,  that  I  have  been  placed  in  a  somewhat  extraordi- 
nary position  during  the  present  session  of  Congress.  Hardly 
had  I  reached  the  Capital,  before  I  found  myself  held  up,  at  the 
length  of  three  or  four  columns,  in  the  Democratic  organ  of  this 
city,  as  a  desperate  Abolitionist.  The  Abolition  papers,  in 
reply,  exhibited  me  at  equal  length,  as,  indeed,  they  had  often 
done  before,  as  a  rank  pro-slavery  man.  The  honorable  mem- 
ber from  Tennessee,  (Mr.  Andrew  Johnson,)  coming  next  to  the 
onslaught,  and  doing  me  the  favor  to  rehearse  before  my  face  a 
speech  which  he  had  delivered  behind  my  back  at  the  last- 
session,  arraigned  me  in  the  most  ferocious  terms  as  having 
prostituted  the  prerogatives  of  the  Chair  to  sectional  purposes, 
and  as  having  framed  all  my  committees  in  a  manner  and  with 
a  view  to  do  injustice  to  the  South.  The  honorable  member 
from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Giddings,)  following  him,  after  a  due  delay, 
denounced  me  with  equal  violence,  as  having  packed  the  most 
important  of  those  committees  for  the  purpose  of  betraying  the 
North.  The  one  proclaimed  me  to  be  the  very  author  and  ori- 
ginator of  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  The  other  reproached  me  as 
being    a    downright,  or,  at  best,  a  disguised,  enemy  to    that 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  633 

proviso.  The  one  exclaimed,  as  the  very  climax  of  his  condem- 
nation, "  I  would  sooner  vote  for  Joshua  R.  Giddings  himself 
than  for  Robert  Q.  Winthrop."  The  other  responded  with  an 
equally  indignant  emphasis,  "and  I  would  sooner  vote  for  How- 
ell Cobb  than  for  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  —  he  cannot  do  worse, 
he  may  do  better."  Nay,  I  presume  it  is  safe  to  say,  that  the 
honorable  member  is  now  of  opinion  that  he  has  done  better, 
since  not  only  has  the  honorable  member  secured  for  himself 
a  place  on  the  Territorial  Committee,  but  the  report  of  the  anti- 
slavery  convention,  at  their  late  meeting  in  Boston,  has  remarked 
upon  it  as  "  a  curious  and  instructive  fact,  that,  in  the  composi- 
tion of  committees,  Mr.  Cobb  has  given  more  weight  to  the  anti- 
slavery  element  of  the  House  than  was  done  by  his  Northern 
predecessor."     How  far  this  is  true,  I  leave  others  to  pronounce. 

But  the  honorable  members  from  Tennessee  and  Ohio,  (par 
nobile  fratrum !)  have  not  been  the  only  contributors  to  this 
most  amiable,  consistent,  and  harmonious  testimony  in  regard  to 
my  public  conduct  and  character.  An  honorable  colleague  from 
Massachusetts  (Mr.  Allen)  has  cast  in  his  mite,  also,  both  by 
prompting  others  at  his  elbow,  and  by  the  manlier  method  of 
direct  accusation.  He,  too,  has  charged  me  with  having  arranged 
certain  committees,  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  preventing  the 
action  which  northern  men  demanded.  And  more  recently, 
again,  an  honorable  member  from  Virginia,  (Mr.  Morton,)  in  a 
speech  which,  I  take  pleasure  in  saying,  was  characterized  by 
entire  courtesy,  if  not  by  entire  justice,  has  told  the  House  and 
his  constituents  that  he  voted  against  me  as  Speaker,  because 
"  he  believed  me  to  be  in  favor  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  ;  because 
he  believed  me  to  be  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia ;  and  because  my  name  was  found  in  a 
minority  of  forty -five  against  the  admission  of  Florida  as  a  slave 
State." 

Sir,  if  my  name  were  a  little  less  humble  than  I  feel  it  this 
day  to  be,  —  if  I  were  not  conscious  how  small  a  claim  it  has  to 
be  classed  among  the  great  names  even  of  our  own  age  and 
country,  much  more  of  the  world,  I  should  be  tempted  to  con- 
sole myself  under  these  conflicting  accusations  with  those  noble 
lines  of  Milton,  which,  as  it  is,  I  cannot  but  remember  :  — 


634  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

"Fame,  if  not  double  fuc'd,  is  double  mouth'd, 
And  with  contrary  blast  proclaims  most  deeds  ; 
On  both  his  wings,  one  black,  the  other  white, 
Bears  greatest  names  in  his  wild  aCry  flight.'' 

But  indeed,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  need  no  consolation.  These 
contradictory  charges  are  the  natural  consequence  of  the  very- 
position  which  I  have  sought  to  occupy,  —  of  the  very  position 
which  I  glory  this  day  in  occupying,  —  and  from  which  no  pro- 
vocations and  no  reproaches  can  ever  drive  me. 

Sir,  when  I  was  first  a  candidate  for  Congress,  now  some  ten 
winters  gone,  I  told  the  Abolitionists  of  my  district,  in  reply  to 
their  interrogatories,  that,  while  I  agreed  with  them  in  most 
of  their  abstract  principles,  and  was  ready  to  carry  them  out, 
in  any  just,  practicable,  and  constitutional  manner  ;  yet,  if 
I  were  elected  to  this  House,  I  should  not  regard  it  as  any 
peculiar  part  of  my  duty  to  agitate  the  subject  of  slavery.  I 
have  adhered  to  that  declaration.  I  have  been  no  agitator.  I 
have  sympathized  with  no  fanatics.  I  have  defended  the  rights 
and  interests  and  principles  of  the  North,  to  the  best  of  my 
ability,  wherever  and  whenever  I  have  found  them  assailed  ;  but 
I  have  enlisted  in  no  crusade  upon  the  institutions  of  the  South. 
I  have  eschewed  and  abhorred  ultraism  at  both  ends  of  the 
Union.  "  A  plague  o'  both  your  houses,"  has  been  my  constant 
ejaculation  ;  and  it  is  altogether  natural,  therefore,  that  both 
their  houses  should  cry  a  plague  on  me !  I  would  not  have  it 
otherwise.  I  covet  their  opposition.  I  dote  on  their  dislike.  I 
desire  no  other  testimony  to  the  general  propriety  of  my  own 
course  than  their  reproaches.  I  thank  my  God  that  he  has 
endowed  me,  if  with  no  other  gifts,  with  a  spirit  of  moderation, 
which  incapacitates  me  for  giving  satisfaction  to  ultraists  any- 
where and  on  any  subject.  If  they  were  to  speak  well  of  me,  I 
should  be  compelled  to  exclaim,  like  one  of  old,  "What  bad  thing 
have  I  done,  that  such  men  praise  me  ?  " 

The  only  thing  which  I  have  to  regret,  Mr.  Chairman,  is,  that 
these  various  charges  could  not  have  been  made  against  me  in 
one  and  the  same  debate,  and  on  one  and  the  same  day.  They 
would  then  have  effectually  answered  each  other.  They  would 
then  have  fairly  shamed  each  other  out  of  court,  and  I  should 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  635 

have  been  spared  the  necessity  of  even  this  brief  allusion  to 
them. 

But,  Sir,  the  list  of  my  accusers  is  not  yet  complete.  Another 
honorable  member  from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Root,)  has  recently  taken  the 
field  against  me,  and  has  seen  fit  to  make,  what,  if  it  were 
entirely  parliamentary,  I  should  be  constrained  to  call,  some  very 
impertinent  allusions  to  my  course  in  reference  to  a  resolution  of 
his,  which  was  recently  laid  on  the  table.  I  was  accidentally  in 
the  Senate  chamber  when  his  speech  was  delivered,  but  my 
attention  has  been  called  to  it  in  a  late  number  of  the  Congres- 
sional Globe. 

Sir,  when  the  honorable  member  first  offered  his  resolution, 
some  weeks  since,  I  united  with  my  friends  in  the  free  States  in 
saving  it  from  the  fate  which  it  then  merited,  and  which  it  has 
since  received.  I  thought  it  then  a  most  premature  and  precipi- 
tate movement,  and  there  are  those  near  me  who  can  bear  wit- 
ness, that  notwithstanding  my  exalted  sense  of  the  honorable 
member's  habitual  wisdom  and  prudence,  I  could  not  repress  the 
exclamation  — 

"  Thus  fools  rush  in,  where  angels  fear  to  tread  !  " 

I  yielded,  however,  to  the  suggestions  of  those  around  me, 
that  it  might  be  as  precipitate  to  lay  it  on  the  table  at  once,  as  it 
was  to  offer  it ;  and  that  there  would  be  no  harm  in  taking  time 
to  consider  it.  A  fortnight  intervened,  and  I  did  consider  it  in  all 
its  bearings.  And  as  the  honorable  member  has  been  so  plain 
and  unceremonious  with  me,  in  ascribing  motives  and  calling 
names,  I  shall  be  equally  plain  and  unceremonious  with  him,  in 
telling  him  what  I  thought  of  his  resolution. 

I  regarded  it,  Mr.  Chairman,  considering  all  the  circumstances, 
of  Congress  and  of  the  country,  as  one  of  the  most  mischievous 
propositions  ever  introduced  into  this  House.  I  regarded  it  as 
mischievous  in  its  inevitable  consequences,  and  as  mischievous 
in  its  deliberate  design.  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
honorable  member,  for  the  sake  of  a  little  miserable  notoriety, 
had  wantonly  put  in  peril  the  very  cause  of  which  he  professed 
to  be  the  peculiar  champion,  —  that  for  the  sake  of  playing  cap- 
tain, and  marching  a'head  of  the  music,  he  had  been  willing  to 


636  PERSONAL   VINDICATION. 

take  the  risk  of  sacrificing  the  very  fortress  of  which  he  assumed 
to  be  the  defender.  I  believed,  in  one  word  Sir,  that  if  that 
resolution  were  persevered  in,  in  the  existing  condition  of  this 
House  and  of  the  country,  all  hope  of  practical  legislation  would 
be  extinguished,  the  great  measure  of  the  admission  of  Califor- 
nia, as  a  State,  into  this  Union,  would  be  impeded,  obstructed, 
and  finally  defeated ;  and  that  the  session  would  be  one  pro- 
tracted scene  of  strife,  confusion,  and  discord. 

And  why,  then,  Sir,  entertaining  these  views  of  the  resolution, 
did  I  not  vote  upon  the  second  motion  to  lay  it  on  the  table  ? 
For  this  is  the  part  of  my  conduct  which  the  honorable  member 
has  taken  in  such  especial  dudgeon,  and  which  he  has  made  the 
pretext  for  applying  to  me  certain  contumelious  epithets. 

Well,  now,  I  do  confess,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  was  a  little 
malicious  in  withholding  my  vote  on  this  particular  occasion. 
It  would  have  been  so  very  gratifying  to  the  honorable  member 
if  he  could  have  only  had  me  once  fairly  on  the  record,  where  he 
has  never  yet  had  me,  against  a  resolution  containing  as  one  of 
its  elements,  the  Wilmot  proviso  !  It  would  have  furnished  such 
an  excellent  apology  for  him  and  his  friends  for  having  voted 
against  me  as  Speaker,  and  for  having  thrown  the  organization 
of  this  House  into  the  hands  of  a  Southern  Democrat!  It 
would  have  been  such  a  telling  free-soil  card  in  the  next  canvass 
in  the  fourth  district  of  Massachusetts,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
twenty -first  district,  I  think  it  is,  of  Ohio !  Indeed,  Sir,  it  was 
certainly  a  little  cruel  to  deprive  the  honorable  member  of  an 
advantage  upon  which  he  had  so  confidently  calculated. 

But  I  believe  it  is  Solomon  who  has  said,  "  Surely  in  vain  is 
the  net  spread  in  the  sight  of  any  bird."  Sir,  I  saw  the  trap 
which  the  honorable  member  had  laid  for  me.  I  knew  that  he 
and  his  peculiar  friends  were  lying  in  wait  for  me.  I  knew  they 
were  seeking  to  find  a  justification,  after  the  event,  for  an  oppo- 
sition to  me  for  which  they  had  so  little  apology  beforehand. 
I  saw  that  he  had  framed  his  resolution  so  that,  whether  we  voted 
for  it  or  against  it,  we  should  be  placed  in  a  false  position.  If 
we  voted  not  to  lay  it  on  the  table,  and  seemingly  sustained  the 
resolution,  we  were  to  be  held  up  as  abandoning  General  Taylor 
and  the  Administration.     If  we  voted  to  lay  it  on  the  table,  we 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  637 

were  to  be  denounced  as  enemies  to  the  principles  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  '87.  I  understand  that  the  honorable  member  said,  in 
advance,  that  he  would  either  have  our  votes  or  our  scalps.  I 
know  not  the  precise  meaning  which  is  to  be  attached  to  this 
humane  and  elegant  expression,  if  he  really  used  it.  It  might 
be  well,  perhaps,  to  refer  it  for  inquiry  to  the  committee  on  Indian 
Affairs.  If  he  only  intended,  by  this  tomahawk  threat,  that  he 
would  deal  a  few  stabs  at  my  character  behind  my  back,  he  is 
welcome  to  all  the  glory  of  the  exploit.  But  whatever  he  meant, 
I  did  not  intend  that  he  should  have  either  my  vote  or  my  scalp, 
if  I  could  help  it;  and  seeing  that  my  vote  would  make  no 
difference  to  the  result,  I  declined  to  gratify  his  desire  to  insnare 
me.  And  now,  because  the  trap  of  the  honorable  member  failed 
to  work,  in  the  only  case  in  which  it  was  of  special  importance 
for  him  that  it  should  work,  he  flies  into  a  passion,  strips  off  his 
neck-cloth,  and  begins  to  scold  about  dodging  and  skulking ! 

Why,  Sir,  the  honorable  gentleman  forgets  himself.  Certainly 
his  speech  forgets  itself;  for,  in  the  very  same  paragraph  in  which 
he  upbraids  me  for  my  course  in  this  case,  he  describes  his  own 
course  in  another  case,  as  entirely  identical  with  it.  I  would 
not  ask  a  better  justification  from  any  one,  than  that  which  the 
honorable  member  himself  has  furnished  me  out  of  his  own 
mouth.  Hear  what  he  says,  Sir,  as  to  his  own  conduct  at  the 
late  Presidential  election,  — 

"  It  was  nothing  more  (says  he)  but  a  game  at  the  best.  I 
neither  wanted  to  cheat  nor  to  be  cheated,  and  hence  I  took  no 
part  in  it.     I  stood  out." 

Does  it  not  lie  admirably  in  his  mouth,  to  charge  others  with 
skulking,  and  to  exclaim  so  heroically,  "  it  is  better  to  vote  wrong 
than  to  dodge,"  when,  in  the  very  same  breath,  he  is  boasting 
that  he  skulked  himself  from  the  great  Presidential  struggle ! 

Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  of  the  same  sort  in  the  honorable 
member's  history.  What  else  but  dodging  was  his  conduct  in 
the  protracted  contest  for  the  Speakership  ?  What  did  he  do 
but  throw  away  his  vote  to  the  end  on  an  impossible  candidate? 
What  did  the  eight  peculiar  free  soilers  do,  but  pair  off,  four  from 
each  party,  and,  by  neutralizing  each  other,  virtually  not  vote  at 
all  —  virtually  dodge,  by  refusing  to  vote  so  as  to  make  any 
54 


638  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

difference  to  the  result  ?  Sir,  there  are  those  here  who  believe, 
that  the  first  great  desertion  of  Northern  principles  at  this  session 
has  been  exhibited  by  those,  who  have  thrown  the  organization 
of  this  House  into  the  hands  of  a  Southern  Democrat.  Of  that 
the  honorable  member  stands  convicted.  And,  my  opinion  is, 
that  any  one  who  considers  the  adroit  and  ingenious  manner  in 
which  it  was  done,  by  seeming  to  vote,  and  yet  practically  not 
voting  at  all,  —  will  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  if  the  honorable 
member  desires  to  see  the  true  "  Artful  Dodger  "  of  the  day,  he 
must  look  at  home. 

Nor  is  this  all,  Mr.  Chairman.  The  honorable  member  has 
made  a  great  vaunting  of  what  he  would  have  done  on  the  last 
night  of  the  last  session,  if  the  Walker  amendment  had  been 
longer  persisted  in.  The  more  important  inquiry,  Sir,  is,  what 
did  he  do  ?  Where  was  he  during  the  weary  watches  of  that 
memorable  night  ?  Where  was  he  when  the  honorable  member 
from  Tennessee  (Mr.  Andrew  Johnson)  moved  to  strike  out  the 
word  "  impartial "  from  the  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Chair  ?  Who 
then  was  "  willing  to  wound,  but  yet  afraid  to  strike  ?  "  Where 
was  he,  too,  when  the  honorable  member  from  Kentucky  (Mr. 
Morehead)  moved  that  most  momentous  amendment  to  the 
Walker  proviso  in  regard  to  the  rightful  boundaries  of  Texas  ? 
His  name  is  not  on  the  record ;  and,  though  the  proverb  is  some- 
what musty,  Sir,  I  cannot  help  reminding  the  honorable  member 
that  "  those  who  live  in  glass  houses  should  not  throw  stones." 

But  he  tells  us  most  pathetically,  that  the  Wilmot  proviso  has 
been  wounded  in  the  house  of  its  friends ;  nay,  that  so  far  as 
this  House  could  kill  it,  it  has  been  killed.  Well,  now,  Sir,  this 
remains  to  be  seen.  Doubtless,  the  honorable  member  finds  it 
for  his  purpose,  at  this  moment,  to  think  so,  or  at  least  to  say  so. 
But  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  great  principles  of  the 
ordinance  of  '87  have  lost  any  portion  of  their  vitality ;  whether 
they  have  not  as  strong  and  living  a  hold  on  the  hearts  of  other 
northern  and  western  men  as  on  that  of  the  honorable  member 
himself;  and  whether,  on  the  proper  occasion,  if  a  real  necessity 
or  a  reasonable  demand  for  their  assertion  and  maintenance 
should  arise,  they  would  not  be  asserted  and  maintained  by 
as  large  a  majority  in  this  body  as  they  ever  have  been  hereto- 
fore.    I  believe  they  would  be. 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  639 

But  this  Ldo  say, — that  if  these  principles  have  been  wounded 
and  struck  down ;  if  it  be  true,  that,  by  laying  on  the  table  an 
unseasonable  resolution  of  the  honorable  member  from  Ohio, 
we  have  killed  the  Wilmot  proviso, — its  death  must  lie  forever 
at  his  door,  and  not  at  ours ;  and  the  true  inscription  on  its  tomb- 
stone will  read  thus  :  "  Here  lies  a  victim  to  the  restless  vanity 
and  headstrong  rashness  of  the  honorable  member  from  Ohio, 
who  held  it  deliberately  up  to  receive  its  death-blow,  in  order  to 
gratify  his  passion  for  notoriety,  and  his  pique  against  some  of 
his  old  friends  of  the  Whig  party." 

Why,  Sir,  the  conduct  of  the  honorable  member  on  this  occa- 
sion was  what  a  French  philosopher  has  called  "  worse  than  a 
fault."  It  was  a  mistake  —  a  fatal  blunder.  It  was  a  moment 
of  all  others  when  the  North  should  not  have  been  called  on  to 
show  its  hand ;  when  gentlemen  from  the  free  States  should  not 
have  been  required  to  say  what  they  would  do,  or  what  they 
would  not  do,  in  regard  to  the  Territories ;  and  my  only  regret  is, 
that  the  resolution  could  not  have  been  suffered  to  go  upon  the 
table  by  southern  votes  only,  with  the  mere  silent  assent  of 
northern  men.  It  was  the  precise  case  for  what  the  honorable 
member  has  called  "  standing  out,"  and  for  the  reservation  of  all 
expression  of  opinion  or  intention,  until  a  real  exigency  for  such 
an  expression  had  occurred.  And  I  repeat,  Sir,  that  if  the  north- 
ern force  has  been  weakened,  and  the  northern  front  broken,  it  is 
owing  to  the  rash  and  precipitate  charge  which  was  attempted 
under  the  assumed  and  illegitimate  lead  of  the  honorable  mem- 
ber from  Ohio. 

But  there  are  some  men,  we  are  told,  who  are  "  wiser  in  their 
own  conceit  than  seven  men  who  can  render  a  reason."  The 
honorable  member  and  his  little  squad,  insist  upon  regarding 
themselves  as  the  only  persons  in  the  country,  or,  certainly,  as 
the  only  persons  in  this  House,  who  know  how  to  defend  north- 
ern rights,  or  how  to  vindicate  the  great  principles  of  human 
freedom.  Nay,  Sir,  they  modestly  claim  to  be  the  only  ones 
who  desire,  or  who  are  even  willing,  to  defend  or  vindicate  them. 
All  the  world  are  doughfaces  (as  they  elegantly  style  it)  except 
themselves !  They  alone  are  loyal  to  human  liberty !  They  are 
the  only  reliable  defenders,  or  legitimate  occupants,  of  the  great 


640  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

free-soil  field !  Surely  these  are  the  men,  and  wisdom  shall  die 
with  them ! 

I  cannot  listen,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  these  arrogant  assumptions 
and  offensive  pretensions,  without  calling  to  my  aid  the  castiga- 
tion  which  was  administered  by  Edmund  Burke,  (not  the  Editor 
of  the  Daily  Union,  Sir,)  to  one  of  the  petty  cabals  which 
infested  Great  Britain  during  the  period  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion, and  which  were  attempting,  as  he  said,  "  to  hide  their  total 
want  of  consequence  in  bustle  and  noise,  and  puffing,  and  mu- 
tual quotation  of  each  other."  "Because  half  a  dozen  grass- 
hoppers, (said  he,)  under  a  fern,  make  the  field  ring  with  their 
importunate  chink,  whilst  thousands  of  great  cattle,  reposed 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  British  Oak,  chew  the  cud  and  are 
silent,  pray  do  not  imagine  that  those  who  make  the  noise  are 
the  only  inhabitants  of  the  field ;  that,  of  course,  they  are  many 
in  number;  or  that,  after  all,  they  are  other  than  the  little, 
shrivelled,  meagre,  hopping,  though  loud  and  troublesome,  insects 
of  the  hour." 

For  one,  Sir,  I  do  not  recognize  the  honorable  member  and 
his  half  a  dozen  compeers  on  this  floor,  as  my  file-leaders,  or  as 
my  fuglemen,  in  this  campaign.  I  do  not  belong  to  the  "  Root 
and  branch  party."  I  shall  not  march  at  the  tap  of  their  drum. 
I  shall  not  vote  against  any  bona  fide,  practical,  and  seasonable 
measure,  simply  because  they  originate  it ;  but  I  give  my  consti- 
tuents and  the  country  notice,  once  for  all,  that  they  are  not  to 
judge  of  my  sentiments  upon  the  great  questions  of  the  day  by 
any  votes  which  I  may  give,  or  which  I  may  not  give,  upon  their 
amateur  abstractions  or  their  precipitate  instructions.  I  shall 
vote  for  them,  or  vote  against  them,  or  not  vote  at  all,  just  as  it 
happens  to  suit  my  own  views,  and  certainly  not  at  all  with  a 
view  to  suit  their  purposes. 

The  honorable  member,  in  the  course  of  a  speech  in  which  he 
has  misrepresented  and  assailed  at  least  one  half  of  the  northern 
members  of  this  House,  has  told  us  that  he  was  a  member  of 
"  the  reviled  Free  Soil  sect."  Good  heavens,  Sir !  if  they  are 
the  reviled,  who  are  the  revilers,  and  what  must  they  be  ?  Never, 
in  the  whole  history  of  our  country  —  never,  since  the  existence 
of  political  parties  anywhere  —  has  there  been  a  party,  which, 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  641 

under  the  pretext  of  philanthropy,  has  so  revelled  and  luxuriated 
in  malice,  hatred,  and  uncharitableness  —  in  vituperation,  ca- 
lumny, and  slander  —  as  this  "reviled  Free  Soil  sect."  I  speak  of 
their  principal  leaders  and  organs,  as  I  know  them  in  my  own  part 
of  the  country,  and  not  of  the  great  mass  of  their  followers,  there 
or  elsewhere,  who,  I  doubt  not,  are  led  along  by  honest  impulses, 
and  many  of  whom,  I  as  little  doubt,  are  disgusted  with  the 
music  of  their  own  trumpeters.  Never,  Sir,  I  repeat,  has  there 
been  witnessed  in  this  country,  or  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  such 
an  audacity  of  false  statement  and  false  accusation,  as  that  with 
which  some  of  their  presses  have  teemed!  Never  have  there 
been  baser  stabs  at  character  than  those  with  which  some  of 
their  speeches  have  reeked ! 

I  need  not  say  that  I  have  had  my  full  share,  and  more  than 
my  full  share,  of  their  misrepresentation  and  abuse.  I  bear  no 
special  malice  towards  members  of  this  House  who  deal  with 
me  in  this  style,  because  I  know  that,  after  all,  they  are  but  the 
instruments  and  mouth-pieces  of  others  afar  off.  There  is  a 
little  nest  of  vipers,  Sir,  in  my  own  immediate  district  and  its 
vicinity,  who  have  been  biting  a  file  for  some  three  or  four  years 
past,  and  who,  having  fairly  used  up  their  own  teeth,  have  evi- 
dently enlisted  in  their  service  the  fresher  fangs  of  some  honor- 
able members  of  this  House.*  "Odisse  quern  Icederis."  Con- 
scious that  they  have  wronged  me,  they  now  hate  me;  and 
having  been  thoroughly  put  down  at  home,  they  have  turned 
prompters  and  panderers  to  assaults  upon  me  here.  Let  them 
go  on  in  their  manly  and  magnanimous  vocation.  If  they  only 
succeed  in  doing  themselves  half  as  much  injury  as  they  do  me 
good,  they  will  speedily  merit  as  much  of  my  sympathy  as  they 
now  have  of  my  scorn. 

Sir,  I  have  already  had  occasion,  during  the  present  session, 
to  allude  to  one  of  the  false  statements  which  has  been  fre- 

*  For  this  application  of  the  old  fable  of  The  Viper  and  the  File,  as  well  as  for  some 
of  the  other  sharpnesses  and  severities  of  this  speech,  (which  is  given  here  precisely 
as  it  was  delivered  and  published  at  the  time.)  the  plea  of  the  old  Eoman  Fabulist 
may  be  employed  :  — 

"Excedit  animus  quem  proposuit  terminum  ; 
Sed  difficulter  continetur  spiritus, 
Integritatis  qui  sincere  conscius 
A  noxiorum  premitur  insolentiis." 

54* 


642  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

quently  made  in  regard  to  me  at  home,  and  which  has  been 
repeated  here  by  the  honorable  member  from  Ohio  on  my  right, 
(Mr.  Giddings.)  That  honorable  member's  speech,  I  take  occa- 
sion to  say,  as  printed  for  the  use  of  the  fourth  district  in  Massa- 
chusetts, is  a  mere  tissue  of  perversion  and  misrepresentation, 
so  far  as  my  conduct  is  concerned.  But  the  most  that  I  can  do, 
on  this  occasion,  is  to  notice  one  of  the  charges  which  it  con- 
tained, and  in  regard  to  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  a  direct 
issue  was  made  up  between  us. 

The  honorable  member  seems  to  have  thought  it  important  to 
his  justification  among  his  constituents  for  his  vote  against  me 
for  Speaker  two  years  ago,  that  he  should  implicate  me  in  the 
origin  of  the  late  deplorable  war  with  Mexico.  He  knew  per- 
fectly well  that  my  mere  vote  for  the  bill,  by  which  the  existence 
of  that  war  was  recognized,  and  by  which  provision  was  made 
for  the  rescue  of  our  little  army  on  the  Rio  Grande,  would  not 
answer  his  purpose.  He  knew  that,  whether  that  vote  were  right 
or  wrong,  it  was  given  in  company  with  those  who  were  alto- 
gether invulnerable  to  his  malignant  shafts.  He  knew  that  he 
could  not  strike  at  me,  on  this  point,  without  striking  also  at 
Corwin,  and  Vinton,  and  Schenck,  of  his  own  State,  and  Marsh 
and  Foote,  of  Vermont,  and  I  know  not  how  many  others,  from 
the  North  and  from  the  West,  whose  characters  would  be  an 
ample  shield  against  all  who  should  attack  them,  and  whom  he 
would  not,  then  at  least,  have  dared  to  charge  as  supporters  of 
the  war.  And  so,  Sir,  he  sets  himself  to  work  to  prove  me  an 
accessory  before  the. fact,  and  charges  me  with  having  gone  to  a 
Whig  caucus,  before  the  war  bill  was  introduced,  and  with  hav- 
ing made  an  appeal  to  the  Whigs,  to  vote  in  favor  of  a  bill,  in 
regard  to  the  intended  character  of  which  I  had  no  more  know- 
ledge than  the  man  in  the  moon !  Sir,  I  never  heard  of  this 
Whig  caucus,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief,  until  I 
saw  this  account  of  it  in  a  letter  of  the  honorable  member  to 
his  constituents,  eighteen  months  afterwards.  And  difficult  as 
it  almost  always  is  for  any  one  to  prove  a  negative,  it  is  for- 
tunately in  my  power,  this  day,  to  furnish  such  conclusive  testi- 
mony that  I  attended  no  such  meeting,  and  made  no  such  speech, 
that  even  the  honorable  member  himself  will  blush  at  ever  having 
made  the  statement. 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  643 

I  have  here  a  budget  of  letters,  which  I  have  rescued  within 
a  few  days  past  from  a  forgotten  pigeon-hole  at  home.  They 
were  procured  two  years  ago,  without  my  instigation,  and  almost 
without  my  knowledge,  by  the  editor  of  the  Boston  Atlas,  with 
a  view  to  vindicate  me  from  this  calumny  at  the  time  it  was 
originally  uttered.  I  shall  append  some  of  them,  if  not  all  of 
them,  to  the  pamphlet  copy  of  this  speech,  if  such  a  copy  is  ever 
published.     I  shall  only  have  time  to  read  one  of  them  now. 

Is  the  honorable  member  from  Delaware  in  his  seat?  (Mr. 
Houston  rose  and  assented.)  I  have  here  a  letter  bearing  his 
signature,  dated  Washington,  April  1st,  1848,  and  addressed  to 
William  Schouler,  Esq.,  Boston.  I  will  thank  him  to  tell  me, 
after  I  have  read  it,  whether  it  is  his  letter,  and  whether  this  be 
his  testimony  now,  as  it  was  two  years  ago,  in  relation  to  the 
allegation  of  the  honorable  member  from  Ohio. 
The  letter  is  as  follows  : 

Washington,  April  1st,  1848- 

Dear  Sir  :  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  30th  ultimo,  and  in  reply  to  it  I  have 
to  state,  that  I  remember  very  well  the  casual  conversation  which  I  had  with  you  re- 
cently in  Boston,  "  concerning  a  meeting  of  Whig  members  of  Congress,  held  on  the 
morning  of  the  11th  of  May,  1846,"  and  I  will  briefly  state,  at  your  request,  what  I 
recollect  in  relation  to  the  absence  of  the  Honorable  Eobert  C.  Winthrop  on  that 
occasion. 

That  meeting  was  held  in  consequence  of  the  hostile  collision  which  had  just  occurred 
on  the  Rio  Grande,  between  a  portion  of  our  military  forces  and  those  of  Mexico,  and 
I  perfectly  recollect  that  I  not  only  attended  the  meeting,  but  that  I  also  made  some 
remarks  in  it,  the  substance  of  which  I  still  remember.  The  meeting  was  not  full, 
many  members  of  the  House  belonging  to  the  Whig  party  being  absent,  and  I  distinctly 
recollect  that  the  meeting  adjourned  without  coming  to  any  formal  conclusion  on  the 
subject,  in  consequence  of  this  fact,  as  was  then  mentioned  and  understood  by  those 
present.  I  remember  that  Mr.  Smith  of  Connecticut,  Mr.  Hudson  of  Massachusetts, 
and  Mr.  Giddings  of  Ohio,  were  present  at  the  meeting,  and  appeared  to  me  to  be 
among  the  most  prominent  of  the  speakers  in  it ;  and  I  also  remember  that  I  had  a 
few  words  of  conversation  with  them  after  the  meeting  was  over,  and  before  we  sepa- 
rated, upon  the  subject  of  some  remarks  which  I  had  made  in  the  meeting.  I  have  a 
very  distinct  recollection  that  Mr.  Winthrop  was  not  present  at  the  meeting,  and  of 
noting  his  absence,  as  well  as  that  of  Mr.  Vinton  of  Ohio  ;  and  my  reason,  if  any  should 
be  required  to  fortify  my  memory  on  this  point,  for  observing  this  fact,  is  this  :  I  had 
already  come  to  regard  these  two  gentlemen  as  among  the  most  experienced  and  pro- 
minent members  of  our  party  in  the  House ;  and  as  one  sat  directly  before  me,  and  the 
other  immediately  on  my  right,  during  that  session,  in  the  House,  it  will  not  appear 
strange,  I  apprehend,  when  these  two  circumstances  are  taken  together,  that  I  should 
not  only  note  but  remember  their  absence  on  that  occasion.  Such  is  my  distinct  recol- 
lection, and  without  wishing  to  raise  any  question  of  memory  between  myself  and 


644  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

others  on  this  or  any  other  point,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  giving  it  to  you  in  compli- 
ance with  your  request. 

As  to  the  meeting  held  some  time  previous,  on  the  "  Oregon  question,"  as  it  is  fa- 
miliarly termed,  I  have  to  state,  that  it  is  impossible  that  I  could  have  confounded  it  in 
my  memory  with  the  meeting  first  mentioned,  as  I  did  not  attend  that  meeting,  and 
knew  nothing  of  its  existence  until  a  day  or  two  after  it  had  been  held. 
I  am,  very  truly  and  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

John  \V.  Houston. 
Wm.  Schouler,  Esq. 

Mr.  Houston.  That  is  my  letter,  and  I  have  no  alteration  to 
make  in  it. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  There  are  other  letters  here,  Sir,  equally 
distinct  and  conclusive. 

But  the  honorable  member  summons  Mr.  E.  D.  Culver,  of 
New  York,  a  late  member  of  this  House,  to  his  aid,  and  insists 
that  Mr.  Culver  has  substantiated  his  charge.  Sir,  I  think  it  is 
in  Sheridan's  play  of  the  Rivals,  that  one  of  the  characters  is 
made  to  say  —  "  Whenever  I  draw  on  my  invention  for  a  good 
current  lie,  I  always  forge  indorsements  as  well  as  the  bill." 
Now,  I  do  not  intend  to  apply  the  offensive  part  of  this  lan- 
guage to  the  honorable  member.  I  disclaim  doing  so.  Still 
less  do  I  intend  any  reflection  upon  Mr.  Culver.  But  I  say  that 
the  letter  of  Mr.  Culver  does  little  or  nothing  to  sustain  the 
honorable  member's  accusation,  and  that  he  must  procure 
stronger  indorsements,  if  he  expects  his  bill  to  pass  current. 

What  says  the  Honorable  E.  D.  Culver,  in  the  letter  upon 
which  the  honorable  member  relies  ? 

':In  reply  to  your  note  of  the  14th,  (says  he.)  which  came  to  hand  last  evening,  I 
would  state  that  I  was  at  the  Whig  caucus,  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the  Capitol,  on 
the  morning  of  the  11th  of  May,  1846.  The  subject  of  our  deliberations  was  the  anti- 
cipated War  bill.  I  think  Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Vinton,  Mr.  Hunt,  and  yourself,  and 
others  were  present  and  spoke.  The  precise  sentiments  advanced  by  Mr.  Winthrop  I 
cannot  call  to  mind ;  but  the  purport,  the  general  scope  of  his  remarks,  was,  that  we 
(the  Whigs)  must  not  oppose  the  measure  ;  that  policy  would  require  us  to  support  it. 
I  do  not  recollect  his  allusion  to  the  Federalists  and  the  war  of  1812."  (It  seems  that 
this  impartial  cross-examiner  had  asked  some  leading  questions.)  "  I  think  Mr.  Vin- 
ton took  a  similar  view.    Yours  was  quite  the  reverse." 

Now,  Sir,  in  answer  to  these  thinkings  and  indistinct  remem- 
brances of  what  Mr.  Winthrop  said,  and  what  Mr.  Vinton  said, 
and  what  Mr.  Hunt  said,  I  have  here  a  letter  from  Mr.  Vinton, 
to  say  that  he  never  attended  that  meeting,  and  here,  within 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  645 

three  feet  of  me,  is  Mr.  Vinton  himself,  to  acknowledge  the  let- 
ter, and  to  repeat  the  assertion !  While  here,  again,  is  another 
letter  from  the  honorable  "Washington  Hunt,  to  say  that  he  was 
absent  from  Washington  on  the  morning  on  which  the  meet- 
ing was  held,  and  did  not  return  until  the  following  day ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  most  charitable  explanation  that  can  be 
given  of  this  extraordinary  and  unfounded  allegation,  which  the 
honorable  member  from  Ohio  has  so  perseveringly  brought 
against  me,  is  that  suggested  in  the  letter  of  my  late  colleague 
and  friend,  Mr.  Hudson,  who  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  that  the 
honorable  member  may  have  confounded  this  meeting  with  one 
which  was  held  in  regard  to  the  Oregon  notice  resolution,  when 
he  was  the  open  advocate  of  measures  that  looked  to  war,  and 
I  declared  myself  in  favor  of  measures  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace ! 

But  I  leave  the  honorable  member  and  his  friends  to  find 
explanations  for  themselves.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  pronounce 
the  charge  to  be  false,  and  to  prove  it  to  be  so.  Having  done 
this,  I  now  hold  it  up  to  the  House  and  to  the  country,  as  a  fair 
sample  of  the  charges  which  have  been  arrayed  against  me  from 
the  same  quarter.     Ex  uno,  disce  omnes. 

Sir,  I  have  done  with  these  personalities.  They  have  not  been 
of  my  seeking.  They  are  unnatural  and  revolting  to  my  dispo- 
sition. I  am  entirely  new  to  this  style  of  debate.  During  a  ten 
years'  occupancy  of  a  seat  in  this  House,  I  have  never  before 
had  occasion  to  resort  to  it.  I  trust  that  I  may  never  have 
another  such  occasion.  But  I  could  no  longer  submit  in  silence 
to  such  gross  and  groundless  aspersions.  Gentlemen  may  vote 
against  me  whenever  they  please.  There  is  no  office  in  the  gift 
of  the  House,  of  the  people,  or  of  the  President,  which  I  covet, 
or  for  which  I  would  quarrel  with  any  one  for  not  giving  me  his 
support.  But  no  man  shall  slander  me  with  impunity.  No  man 
shall  pervert  and  misrepresent  my  words  and  acts,  and  falsify  the 
record  of  my  public  career,  without  exposure. 

That  career  has  been  one  of  humble  pretension,  and  presents 
no  claim  of  distinguished  service  of  any  sort.  But  such  as  it  is, 
I  am  willing  that  it  should  be  investigated.  Examine  the 
record.     There  may  be  votes  upon  it  which  require  explanation ; 


646  PERSONAL  VINDICATION. 

votes  about  which  honest  men  may  differ;  votes  as  to  which  I 
myself  may  have  doubted  at  the  time,  and  may  still  doubt.  But 
examine  the  record  fairly  and  candidly ;  nothing  extenuate,  nor 
set  down  aught  in  malice  ;  and  you  will  find  that  I  have  neither 
been  false  to  the  North  nor  to  the  South,  to  the  East  nor  to  the 
West.  You  will  find  that,  while  I  have  been  true  to  my  con- 
stituents, I  have  been  true,  also,  to  the  Constitution  and  to  the 
Union.  This,  at  least,  I  know,  Sir  —  my  conscience  this  day 
bearing  me  witness  —  that  I  have  been  true  to  myself,  to  my 
own  honest  judgment,  to  my  own  clear  convictions  of  right,  of 
duty,  and  of  patriotism.  And  we  all  remember  how  justly,  as 
well  as  how  nobly,  it  has  been  said :  — 

"  This  above  all,  —  to  thine  own  self  be  true ; 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  would  gladly  turn  to  some  serious 
consideration  of  the  great  questions  of  the  day,  but  I  am  admo- 
nished that  my  hour  is  almost  exhausted,  and  I  must  reserve  what 
I  had  proposed  to  say  on  these  topics  for  another,  and  I  trust  an 
early  opportunity.  Having  once  swept  this  offensive  rubbish  of 
personalities  out  of  my  path,  I  shall  no  longer  be  obstructed  in 
dealing  with  the  weightier  matters  which  are  before  us.  I  can- 
not conclude,  however,  on  this  occasion,  without  a  few  distinct 
declarations. 

In  the  first  place,  Sir,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  the 
admission  of  California  into  the  Union  as  a  State,  under  the 
constitution  which  she  has  herself  adopted,  is,  in  my  judgment, 
the  first  and  greatest  measure  to  be  accomplished  at  the  present 
session  of  Congress.  For  that  I  am  ready  ;  and  I  shall  bring  to 
it  whatever  powers  I  possess. 

In  the  second  place,  Sir,  I  do  not  believe  that  slavery  does 
now  exist,  or  can  ever  exist,  in  any  of  the  Territories  recently 
acquired  from  Mexico,  without  the  positive  sanction  of  law. 
And  such  a  sanction,  I,  for  one,  shall  never  aid  in  giving. 

In  the  third  place,  Sir,  while  I  reserve  to  myself  the  full 
liberty  to  act  and  to  vote  upon  every  question  which  may  here- 
after arise,  as  my  judgment  at  the  time,  and  under  the  circum- 
stances, may  dictate ;  I  have  no  hesitation  in  expressing  my 


PERSONAL  VINDICATION.  647 

opinion,  that  the  plan  proposed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States  is  the  plan  to  which  we  must  come  at  last,  for  the  settle- 
ment of  these  exciting  and  difficult  questions.  I  do  not  say  that 
it  is  the  plan  of  all  others  which  some  of  us  could  have  wished 
to  carry  out.  But  the  question  is  not  what  we  wish,  but  what 
can  we  accomplish.  "  If  to  do,  were  as  easy  as  to  know  what 
it  were  good  to  do,  chapels  had  been  churches,  and  poor  men's 
cottages  rich  men's  palaces."  We  must  aim  at  something  prac- 
tical and  practicable.  The  President  has  done  so ;  and,  by 
following  out  his  suggestions,  I  believe  southern  sensibilities 
may  be  allayed,  northern  principles  satisfactorily  vindicated, 
domestic  peace  maintained,  and  the  American  Union  preserved. 

And,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  American  Union  must  be  preserved. 
I  speak  for  Faneuil  Hall.  Not  for  Faneuil  Hall,  occupied,  as  it 
sometimes  has  been,  by  an  Anti-slavery  or  a  Liberty  party  con- 
vention, denouncing  the  Constitution  and  Government  under 
which  we  live,  and  breathing  threatenings  and  slaughter  against 
all  who  support  them ;  but  for  Faneuil  Hall,  thronged  as  it  has 
been  so  often  in  times  past,  and  as  it  will  be  so  often  for  a 
thousand  generations  in  times  to  come,  by  as  intelligent,  honest, 
and  patriotic  a  people  as  the  sun  ever  shone  upon ;  I  speak  for 
Faneuil  Hall,  and  for  the  great  masses  of  true-hearted  American 
freemen,  without  distinction  of  party,  who  delight  to  dwell 
beneath  its  shadow,  and  to  gather  beneath  its  roof ;  I  speak  for 
Faneuil  Hall,  when  I  say,  "  the  Union  of  these  States  must  not, 
shall  not,  be  dissolved ! " 

The  honorable  member  from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Giddings)  alluded, 
the  other  day,  in  terms  of  reproach  and  condemnation,  to  a  sen- 
timent which  I  proposed  at  a  public  dinner,  in  this  same  Faneuil 
Hall,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1845.  I  am  willing  that  the  House  and 
the  country  should  pass  judgment  upon  that  sentiment.  I  am 
sorry  that  it  is  not  better ;  but,  such  as  it  is,  I  reiterate  it  here 
to-day.  I  stand  by  it  now  and  always.  It  is  my  living  senti- 
ment, and  will  be  my  dying  sentiment :  — 

"  Our  Country  —  Whether  bounded  by  the  St.  John's  and 
the  Sabine,  or  however  otherwise  bounded  or  described,  and  be 
the  measurements  more  or  less ;  —  still  our  country,  to  be 
cherished  in  all  our  hearts,  —  to  be  defended  by  all  our  hands ! " 


NOTE 


LETTER   FROM   THE   HON.   SAMUEL   F.   VINTON. 

Washington  city,  April  6,  1848. 
Wm.  Schouler,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir  :  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  note,  requesting  me  to  state  whether 
there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Whig  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  on 
the  morning  of  the  day  when  the  war  with  Mexico  was  declared  ?  Whether 
Mr.  Winthrop  was  there,  and  made  a  speech  urging  the  whole  Whig  party  to 
vote  for  the  war ;  and  whether  I  was  there,  and  made  a  speech  to  the  same 
purport  ? 

I  have  no  recollection  of  having  been  present  at  that  meeting  —  and  if  I  ever 
knew  that  such  a  meeting  was  held,  the  recollection  of  it  has  wholly  faded 
away  from  my  memory. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Samuel  F.  Vinton. 


LETTER   FROM   THE   nON.   W.   HUNT. 

Washington,  April  1,  1848. 
Dear  Sir  :    I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  30th  ult,  with  a  copy  of  the 
Boston  Atlas  of  23d  March. 

The  only  answer  I  can  make  to  your  inquiries  is  to  inform  you  that  I  was  not 
in  this  city  on  the  eleventh  day  of  May,  1846.  I  left  the  Capital  late  in  April, 
to  visit  my  residence  in  New  York,  and  did  not  return  till  the  12th  of  May,  the 
day  after  the  War  bill  passed  the  House. 

Mr.  Culver  is  mistaken  in  his  impression  that  I  was  present  at  any  meeting 
held  on  the  day  to  which  he  refers. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

W.Hunt. 
Wm.  Schouler,  Esq.,  Editor  of  the  Atlas,  Boston. 


EXTRACT  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  HON.  CHARLES  HUDSON. 

Washington,  April  1,  1848. 
Sir  :    In  relation  to  the  meeting  of  the  Whigs  on  the  morning  of  the  11th, 


note;  649 

(May,)  I  will  say  to  you,  as  I  have  said  to  Mr.  Giddings  in  a  full  conversation  with 
him  on  the  subject,  that  I  am  satisfied  that  he  confounds  that  meeting  with  another, 
which  took  place  at  another  time  and  place,  on  another  subject.  The  news  of 
the  conflict  between  our  forces  and  those  of  Mexico  came  into  this  city  on  Satur- 
day evening  after  the  adjournment  of  the  House.  On  Sunday  evening  some 
gentlemen  told  me  that  it  was  thought  desirable  that  the  Whigs  should  have  a 
meeting  in  the  morning  before  the  session  of  the  House,  as  it  was  expected  that 
the  President  would  send  in  a  war  message.  I  went  to  the  committee-room  in 
the  morning,  and  found  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  there ;  we  waited  till  near 
the  hour  of  the  meeting  of  the  House  before  we  called  to  order.  The  members 
came  in  slowly,  not  more  than  twenty  or  twenty-five  being  present  at  last.  I 
think  Mr.  Winthrop  was  not  present.  But  I  am  perfectly  confident  that  he  did 
not  make  a  speech  urging  the  Whigs  to  vote  for  any  war  measure.  I  had  strong 
convictions  against  the  propriety  of  any  such  measure,  and  if  one  of  my  own 
colleagues  had  made  such  a  speech  as  has  been  imputed  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  I  am 
satisfied  that  I  could  not  have  forgotten  it.  Besides,  boarding  as  I  did  with 
Messrs.  Delano,  Culver,  Root,  and  King,  all  of  whom  voted  as  I  did  against  the 
bill,  the  vote  of  Mr.  Winthrop  was  a  subject  of  very  frequent  and  very  free 
remark,  and  yet  I  never  heard  any  allusion  to  such  a  speech,  nor,  indeed,  to  any 
speech  of  Mr.  Winthrop  made  in  caucus  on  the  morning  of  the  11th  May  dur- 
ing that  or  the  following  session  —  the  first  intimation  of  such  a  speech  coming 
to  my  knowledge  since  Mr.  Winthrop  was  chosen  Speaker.  My  impressions  on 
this  whole  subject  are  the  more  distinct,  because  those  who  voted  against  the 
war  were  immediately  assailed,  and  on  the  14th  of  the  same  month  I  made  a 
speech  against  the  war,  and  in  justification  of  my  vote. 

The  Whig  meeting  on  the  morning  of  the  11th  of  May  was  in  the  room  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs ;  but  the  meeting  which  I  think  Mr.  Gid- 
dings confounds  with  this  was  held  in  the  evening  in  the  committee  room  on 
Public  Lands,  in  another  part  of  the  Capitol.  At  the  last  named  meeting  Mr. 
Winthrop,  Mr.  Vinton,  Mr.  Giddings,  and,  I  think,  Mr.  Hunt,  spoke  ;  but  this 
meeting  was  some  time  in  the  winter,  and  the  subject  was  the  Oregon  notice, 
which  had  been  recommended  by  the  President  in  his  message.  In  conversation 
with  Mr.  Giddings  this  winter,  we  both  recollected  this  meeting  so  well  as  to  be 
able  to  point  out  to  each  other  the  position  in  the  room  where  the  speakers 
respectively  stood  when  they  addressed  the  meeting,  and  agreed  as  to  the 
speakers,  but  differed  in  our  recollections  as  to  the  subject  under  consideration. 
At  this  Oregon  meeting  there  was  a  marked  difference  of  opinion  between  Mr. 
Winthrop  and  Mr.  Giddings,  and  some  little  warmth  was  manifested  in  the 
debate  —  Mr.  Winthrop  being  opposed  to  giving  the  notice,  and  Mr.  Giddings 
taking  the  opposite  view  of  the  question,  according  to  my  recollection. 
I  am,  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Charles  Hudson. 

Col.  William  Schouler,  Editor  of  the  Atlas. 

55 


650  NOTE. 


EXTRACT   OF   A  LETTER   FROM   HON.  J.   GRINNELL. 

Washington,  April  1, 1848. 
I  have  to  state  that  I  have  no  recollection  of  any  meeting  of  the  Whigs  on 
the  morning  of  the  11th  of  May,  1846.  I  never  heard  of  any  until  the  present 
session  of  this  Congress.  I  do  not  believe  that  Mr.  Winthrop  attended  any  such 
meeting,  for  the  reason  that  I  am  under  a  strong  impression  —  I  may  say,  that  I 
have  as  clear  a  recollection  of  the  fact  as  of  almost  any  that  occurred  on  that 
memorable  day  —  that  Mr.  Winthrop  did  not  leave  Mrs.  Whitwell's  that  morn- 
ing until  we  left  together,  near  the  hour  of  the  meeting  of  the  House,  and  that 
we  went  to  the  House  together,  and  it  was  called  to  order  about  the  time  we 
entered.  I  may  add,  there  was  a  very  free  and  full  discussion  of  our  votes  on 
this  bill  for  some  weeks  after,  at  Mrs.  Whitwell's,  and  that  I  never  heard  of  Mr. 
Winthrop's  attending  any  caucus  of  the  Whigs  on  the  day  war  was  declared,  or 
making  a  speech  urging  the  Whigs  to  go  for  the  war. 


THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN. 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OP  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  ON  THE  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  MR.  CALHOUN'S  DEATH, 
APRIL  1,  1850. 


I  am  not  unaware,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  the  voice  of  New  England 
has  already  been  heard  to-day,  in  its  most  authentic  and  most 
impressive  tones,  in  the  other  wing  of  the  Capitol.  But  it  has 
been  suggested  to  me,  and  the  suggestion  has  met  with  the 
promptest  assent  from  my  own  heart,  that  here,  also,  that  voice 
should  not  be  altogether  mute  on  this  occasion. 

The  distinguished  person,  whose  death  has  been  announced 
to  us  in  the  resolutions  of  the  Senate,  belongs  not,  indeed,  to  us. 
It  is  not  ours  to  pronounce  his  eulogy.  It  is  not  ours,  certainly, 
to  appropriate  his  fame.  But  it  is  ours,  to  bear  witness  to  his 
character,  to  do  justice  to  his  virtue,  to  unite  in  paying  honor  to 
his  memory,  and  to  offer  our  heartfelt  sympathies,  as  I  now 
do,  to  those  who  have  been  called  to  sustain  so  great  a  bereave- 
ment. 

We  have  been  told,  Sir,  by  more  than  one  adventurous  navi- 
gator, that  it  was  worth  all  the  privations  and  perils  of  a  pro- 
tracted voyage  beyond  the  line,  to  obtain  even  a  passing  view  of 
the  Southern  Cross,  —  that  great  constellation  of  the  Southern 
hemisphere.  We  can  imagine,  then,  what  would  be  the  emo- 
tions of  those  who  have  always  enjoyed  the  light  of  that  magni- 
ficent luminary,  and  who  have  taken  their  daily  and  their  nightly 
direction  from  its  refulgent  rays,  if  it  were  suddenly  blotted  out 
from  the  sky. 

Such,  Sir,  and  so  deep,  I  can  conceive  to  be  the  emotions  at 


652  THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN. 

this  hour,  of  not  a  few  of  the  honored  friends  and  associates 
whom  I  see  around  me. 

Indeed,  no  one  who  has  been  ever  so  distant  an  observer  of 
the  course  of  public  affairs  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  past,  can 
fail  to  realize,  that  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  has  been  struck 
from  our  political  firmament.  Let  us  hope,  Sir,  that  it  has  only 
been  transferred  to  a  higher  and  purer  sphere,  where  it  may  shine 
on  with  undimmed  brilliancy  forever ! 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  for  others  to  enter  into  the  details  of  Mr. 
Calhoun's  life  and  services.  It  is  for  others  to  illustrate  and  to 
vindicate  his  peculiar  opinions  and  principles.  It  is  for  me  to 
speak  of  him  only  as  he  was  known  to  the  country  at  large,  and 
to  all,  without  distinction  of  party,  who  have  represented  the 
country,  of  late  years,  in  either  branch  of  the  National  Councils. 

And  speaking  of  him  thus,  Sir,  I  cannot  hesitate  to  say,  that, 
among  what  may  be  called  the  second  generation  of  American 
statesmen  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  there 
has  been  no  man  of  a  more  marked  character,  of  more  pro- 
nounced qualities,  or  of  a  wider  and  more  deserved  distinction. 

The  mere  length  and  variety  of  his  public  services,  in  almost 
every  branch  of  the  National  Government,  running  through  a 
continuous  period  of  almost  forty  years,  —  as  a  member  of  this 
House,  as  Secretary  of  War,  as  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  as  a  Senator  from  his  own 
adored  and  adoring  South  Carolina,  —  would  alone  have  secured 
him  a  conspicuous  and  permanent  place  upon  our  public  records. 

But  he  has  left  better  titles  to  remembrance  than  any  which 
mere  office  can  bestow. 

There  was  an  unsullied  purity  in  his  private  life ;  there  was  an 
inflexible  integrity  in  his  public  conduct ;  there  was  an  indescrib- 
able fascination  in  his  familiar  conversation ;  there  was  a 
condensed  energy  in  his  formal  discourse;  there  was  a  quick- 
ness of  perception,  a  vigor  of  deduction,  a  directness  and  a  de- 
votedness  of  purpose,  in  all  that  he  said,  or  wrote,  or  did ;  there 
was  a  Roman  dignity  in  his  whole  Senatorial  deportment ;  which, 
together,  made  up  a  character,  which  cannot  fail  to  be  contem- 
plated and  admired  to  the  latest  posterity. 

I  have  said,  Sir,  that  New  England  can  appropriate  no  part 


THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN.  653 

of  his  fame.  But  we  may  be  permitted  to  remember,  that  it 
was  in  our  schools  of  learning  and  of  law  that  he  was  trained 
up  for  the  great  contests  which  awaited  him  in  the  forum  or  the 
Seriate  chamber.  Nor  can  we  forget  how  long  and  how  inti- 
mately he  was  associated,  in  the  Executive  or  Legislative 
branches  of  the  Government,  with  more  than  one  of  our  own 
most  cherished  statesmen. 

The  loss  of  such  a  man,  Sir,  creates  a  sensible  gap  in  the 
public  councils.  To  the  State  which  he  represented,  and  the 
section  of  country  with  which  he  was  so  peculiarly  identified, 
no  stranger  tongue  may  venture  to  attempt  words  of  adequate 
consolation.  But  let  us  hope  that  the  event  may  not  be  without 
a  wholesome  and  healing  influence  upon  the  troubles  of  the 
times.  Let  us  heed  the  voice,  which  comes  to  us  all,  both  as 
individuals  and  as  public  officers,  in  so  solemn  and  sjgnal  a  pro- 
evidence  of  God.  Let  us  remember,  that,  whatever  happens  to 
the  Republic,  we  must  die !  Let  us  reflect  how  vain  are  the 
personal  strifes  and  partisan  contests  in  which  we  daily  engage, 
in  view  of  the  great  account  which  we  may  so  soon  be  called 
on  to  render !  Well  may  we  exclaim,  as  Cicero  exclaimed,  in 
considering  the  death  of  Crassus :  "  O  fallacem  hominum  spem, 
fragilemque  fortunam,  et  inanes  nostras  contentiones  !  " 

Finally,  Sir,  let  us  find  fresh  bonds  of  brotherhood  and  of  union 
in  the  cherished  memories  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us ; 
and  let  us  resolve  that,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  day  shall  never 
come,  when  New  England  men  may  not  speak  of  the  great 
names  of  the  South,  whether  among  the  dead  or  the  living,  as 
of  Americans  and  fellow-countrymen! 


55 


THE 

ADMISSION  OF  CALIFORNIA, 


AND   THE 


ADJUSTMENT    OF    THE    SLAVERY    QUESTION. 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  ON  THE  STATE  OF 
THE    UNION,   MAY  8,  1850. 


When  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union  some  weeks  ago,  I  intimated 
my  purpose  to  take  another  opportunity,  at  no  distant  day,  to 
express,  somewhat  more  in  detail  than  I  was  able  to  do  on  that 
occasion,  the  views  which  I  entertain  in  regard  to  what  have 
well  been  called  the  great  questions  of  the  day. 

The  eager  competitions  for  the  floor,  which  have  been  wit- 
nessed here  almost  without  intermission  from  that  time  to  this, 
have  postponed  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose  much  longer 
than  1  could  have  desired. 

I  rise  now,  however,  at  last,  to  fulfil  it.  And  most  heartily  do  I 
wish,  Mr.  Chairman,  that,  in  doing  so,  I  could  see  my  way  clear 
to  contribute  something  to  the  repose  of  the  country,  and  to  the 
harmony  of  our  national  councils.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  the  sin- 
cerity or  the  earnestness  of  my  desire,  that  every  bone  of  conten- 
tion between  different  portions  of  the  Union  may  be  broken, 
every  root  of  bitterness  removed,  and  that  the  American  Con- 
gress  may  be   seen   again    in   a  condition    to    discharge  its 


THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA.  655 

legitimate  functions,  of  providing  at  once  for  the  wants  of  the 
Government  and  for  the  interests  of  the  people.  If  there  be  an 
example  in  history,  which  I  would  gladly  emulate  at  such  a 
moment  as  this,  it  is  that  of  an  old  Swiss  patriot,  four  hundred 
years  ago  —  of  whom  I  have  recently  read  an  account  —  who, 
when  the  confederated  cantons  had  become  so  embittered 
against  each  other,  by  a  long  succession  of  mutual  criminations 
and  local  feuds,  that  the  dissolution  of  the  confederacy  was 
openly  proposed  and  discussed,  and  the  liberties  of  Switzerland 
seemed  on  the  very  verge  of  ruin,  was  suddenly  found  rushing 
from  his  cherished  retirement  into  the  Assembly  of  Deputies, 
and  exclaiming,  "  Concord,  concord,  concord!"  and  who,  it 
is  related,  by  his  prudence,  his  patriotism,  and  his  eloquence, 
brought  back  that  Assembly,  and  the  people  whom  they  repre- 
sented, to  a  sense  of  the  inestimable  blessings  which  were  at 
stake  upon  the  issue,  and  finally  succeeded  in  restoring  his  dis- 
tracted country  to  a  condition  of  harmony,  tranquillity,  and 
assured  Union  ! 

Sir,  there  is  no  sacrifice  of  personal  opinion,  of  pride  of  con- 
sistency, of  local  regard,  of  official  position,  of  present  havings 
or  of  future  hopes,  which  I  would  not  willingly  make  to  play 
such  a  part  as  this. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said,  that  it  has  been  played  already.  Per- 
haps it  may  be  said,  that  a  voice,  or  voices,  have  already  been 
heard  in  the  other  end  of  this  Capitol,  if  not  in  this,  which  have 
stilled  the  angry  storm  of  fraternal  discord,  and  given  us  the 
grateful  assurance  that  all  our  controversies  shall  be  peacefully 
settled. 

At  any  rate,  Sir,  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  I  am  but  too  sen- 
sible that  it  is  not  given  to  me,  in  this  hour,  to  attempt  such  a 
character.  And  let  me  add,  that  there  is  one  sacrifice  which  I 
could  never  make,  even  for  all  the  glory  which  might  result  from 
the  successful  performance  of  so  exalted  a  service.  I  mean,  the 
sacrifice  of  my  own  deliberately  adopted  and  honestly  cherished 
principles.  These  I  must  avow,  to-day  and  always.  These  I 
must  stand  to,  here  and  everywhere.  Under  all  circumstances, 
in  all  events,  I  must  follow  the  lead  of  my  own  conscientious 
convictions  of  right  and  of  duty. 


656  THE  ADMISSION   OF  CALIFORNIA 

I  assume  then,  to-day,  Mr.  Chairman,  no  character  of  a  pacifi- 
cator. I  have  no  new  plan  of  adjustment  or  reconciliation  to 
offer  for  the  difficulties  and  dissensions  in  which  we  are  unhap- 
pily involved. 

Still  less,  Sir,  have  I  sought  the  floor  for  the  purpose  of  enter- 
ing into  fresh  controversy  with  anybody  in  this  House  or  else- 
where. Not  even  the  gratuitous  imputations,  the  second-hand 
perversions  and  stale  sarcasms,  of  the  honorable  member  from 
Connecticut,  (Mr.  Cleveland,)  a  few  days  ago,  can  tempt  me  to 
employ  another  hour  of  this  session  in  the  mere  cut  and  thrust 
of  personal  encounter.  I  pass  from  that  honorable  member  with 
the  single  remark,  that  it  required  more  than  all  his  vehement 
and  turgid  declamation  against  others,  who,  as  he  suggested, 
were  shaping  their  course  with  a  view  to  some  official  promotion 
or  reward,  to  make  me,  or,  as  I  think,  to  make  this  House,  forget, 
that  the  term  of  one  of  his  own  Connecticut  Senators  was  soon 
about  to  expire,  that  the  Connecticut  Legislature  was  just  about 
to  assemble,  and  that  the  honorable  member  himself  was  well 
understood  to  be  a  prominent  candidate  for  the  vacancy! 

And  I  shall  be  equally  brief  with  the  distinguished  member 
from  Pennsylvania,  (Mr.  Wilmot,)  who  honored  me  with  another 
shaft  from  the  self-same  quiver  on  Friday  last.  I  will  certainly 
not  take  advantage  of  his  absence  to  deal  with  him  at  any 
length.  But  I  cannot  forbear  saying,  that  as  I  heard  him  pour- 
ing forth  so  bitter  an  invective,  so  pitiless  a  philippic,  against 
Southern  arrogance  and  Northern  recreancy,  and  as  I  observed 
the  sleek  complacency  with  which  he  seemed  to  congratulate 
himself  that  he  alone  had  been  proof  against  all  the  seductions 
of  patronage  and  all  the  blandishments  of  power,  I  could  not 
help  remembering  that  his  name  was  an  historical  name  more 
than  a  century  ago,  and  the  lines  in  which  a  celebrated  poet  had 
embalmed  it  for  immortality,  came  unbidden  to  my  lips : 

"  Shall  parts  so  various  aim  at  nothing  new  ? 
He'll  shine  a  Tully  and  a  Wilmot  too  ! " 

My  object  to-day,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  simple  and  humble 
one  of  expressing  my  own  views  on  matters  in  regard  to  which  I 
have,  in  some  quarters,  been,  either  intentionally  or  unintention- 


AND   THE  ADJUSTMENT   OF  THE   SLAVERY  QUESTION.  657 

ally,  misunderstood  and  misrepresented.  The  end  of  my  hour  will 
find  me,  I  fear,  with  even  this  work  but  half  accomplished  ;  and 
I  must  rely  on  being  judged  by  what  shall  be  printed  hereafter, 
rather  than  by  what  I  may  succeed  in  saying  now.  I  will  not, 
however,  make  my  little  less,  by  wasting  any  more  of  my  time 
in  an  empty  exordium,  but  will  proceed  at  once  to  the  business 
in  hand. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  Sir,  I  desire  to  explain,  at  the  expense 
of  some  historical  narrative  and  egotistical  reference,  the  position 
which  I  have  heretofore  occupied  in  relation  to  a  certain  anti- 
slavery  proviso,  which  has  been  the  immediate  occasion  of  most 
of  those  sectional  dissensions  by  which  our  domestic  peace 
has  been  of  late  so  seriously  disturbed. 

I  need  not  say,  Sir,  that  I  am  no  stranger  to  that  proviso, 
though,  during  the  whole  of  the  last  Congress,  I  was  precluded, 
by  my  position  in  the  chair  of  the  House,  from  giving  any  vote, 
or  uttering  any  voice,  in  regard  to  it. 

There  are  those  here  to-day,  and  I  might  single  out,  in  no 
spirit  of  unkindness  certainly,  the  present  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means,  (Mr.  Bayly,)  as  one  of  them,  who 
have  often  taken  pains  to  remind  the  House  and  the  country, 
that  this  proviso  was  formally  proposed  by  me  to  a  bill  for  esta- 
blishing a  government  in  the  Oregon  territory,  before  the  honor- 
able member  from  Pennsylvania,  whose  name  it  now  bears,  (Mr. 
Wilrnot,)  had  entered  upon  his  Congressional  career. 

I  have  never  denied  this  allegation.  I  have  never  desired  to 
deny  it.  The  fact  is  upon  record ;  and  I  would  not  erase  or 
alter  that  record  if  it  were  in  my  power  to  do  so.  But,  Sir,  I 
have  often  desired,  and  always  intended,  whenever  I  should 
again  be  free  to  take  part  in  the  discussions  of  this  body,  to 
recall  to  the  remembrance  of  the  House  and  of  the  country,  the 
circumstances  under  which,  and  the  views  with  which,  that  pro- 
position was  made. 

It  was  made,  Mr.  Chairman,  on  the  1st  day  of  February, 
1845.  And  what  was  the  condition  of  the  country,  and  of  the 
public  affairs  of  the  country,  on  that  day  ? 

Oregon  was  then  a  disputed  territory.  We  were  engaged  at 
that  time,  Sir,  in  negotiations  with  Great  Britain,  in  respect  to 


658  THE  ADMISSION  OF  CALIFORNIA 

the  conflicting  claims  of  the  two  countries  to  that  remote  region. 
Those  negotiations  had  been  long  protracted,  and  had  engen- 
dered a  spirit  of  restless  impatience  on  the  subject,  in  the  minds 
of  a  great  portion  of  the  American  people.  The  question,  too, 
had  been  drawn,  —  as,  I  regret  to  say,  almost  every  question  in 
this  country  seems  destined  to  be  drawn,  —  into  the  perilous 
vortex  of  party  politics ;  and  a  Democratic  Presidential  triumph 
had  just  been  achieved,  under  a  banner  on  which  were  legibly 
inscribed  the  well-remembered  figures  54°  40',  and  the  well- 
remembered  phrase,  "  the  whole  or  none." 

Under  these  circumstances,  Sir,  a  bill  was  introduced  into  this 
House,  to  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  over  the 
whole  territory  in  dispute,  and  to  authorize  the  assumption  and 
exercise  of  one  of  the  highest  attributes  of  exclusive  sovereignty, 
by  granting  lands  to  settlers. 

The  bill  was  in  other  respects  highly  objectionable.  It  pro- 
vided for  carrying  on  a  government  by  the  appointment  of  only 
two  officers  —  a  governor  and  a  judge  —  who  were  to  have  ab- 
solute authority  to  promulgate  and  enforce,  throughout  the  ter- 
ritory of  Oregon,  any  and  all  laws  which  they  might  see  fit  to 
select  from  the  statutes  of  any  State  or  Territory  in  the  Union. 
The  whole  destinies  of  Oregon  were  thus  to  be  confided  to  the 
discretion  of  two  men,  who  were  to  make  up  a  code  of  laws  to 
suit  themselves,  by  picking  and  culling  at  pleasure  from  all  the 
statute  books  of  the  country.  They  were  at  liberty,  as  the  bill 
stood  —  although  the  entire  territory  was  above  the  latitude  of 
36°  30' — to  adopt  a  slave  code  or  a  free  code,  as  might  be  most 
agreeable  to  their  own  notions ;  and  there  was,  at  that  very  mo- 
ment, lying  upon  the  tables  before  us,  a  report  from  the  Indian 
agent  or  sub-agent  in  that  quarter,  from  which  it  appeared,  that 
a  number  of  the  native  Indians  had  already  been  captured  and 
enslaved  by  the  white  settlers,  and  that  they  were  held  in  a  state 
of  absolute  and  unjustifiable  bondage. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  moved 
the  proviso  in  question  ;  and  I  now  read,  from  a  speech  printed 
at  the  time,  the  remarks  which  I  made  on  the  occasion  : 

"  One  limitation  upon  the  discretion  of  these  two  irresponsible  law-givers  ought  cer- 
tainly to  be  imposed,  if  this  bill  is  to  pass.    As  it  now  stands,  there  is  nothing  to  pre- 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    659 

vent  them  from  legalizing  the  existence  of  domestic  slavery  in  Oregon.  It  seems  to 
be  understood,  that  this  institution  is  to  be  limited  by  the  terms  of  the  Missouri  com- 
promise, and  is  nowhere  to  be  permitted  in  the  American  Union  above  the  latitude  of 
36°  30'.  There  is  nothing,  however,  to  enforce  this  understanding  in  the  present 
case.  The  published  documents  prove  that  Indian  slavery  already  exists  in  Oregon. 
I  intend,  therefore,  to  move,  whenever  it  is  in  order  to  do  so,  the  insertion  of  an  ex- 
press declaration,  that  •  there  shall  neither  be  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  this 
Territory,  except  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted.' " 

I  did  not  stop  here,  however.  Sir.  The  whole  argument  of 
my  speech  on  that  occasion,  with  the  exception  of  the  single 
sentence  which  I  have  cited,  was  against  the  passage  of  the  bill 
in  any  form. 

"I  am  in  hopes,  Mr.  Chairman,  (such  was  my  distinct  avowal,)  that  the  bill  will  not 
become  a  law  at  the  present  session  in  any  shape.  Every  thing  conspires,  in  my  judg- 
ment, to  call  for  the  postponement  of  any  such  measure  to  a  future  day." 

The  great  and  paramount  objection  to  the  bill,  in  my  mind, 
was  that  it  would  jeopard  the  peace  of  the  country ;  that  it 
would  break  up  the  amicable  negotiations  in  which  we  were 
engaged,  and  would  leave  no  other  alternative  for  settling  the 
vexed  question  of  title  between  us  and  Great  Britain,  but  the 
stern  arbitrament  of  war. 

Entertaining  this  opinion,  I  aimed  at  defeating  the  measure 
by  every  means  in  my  power ;  and  it  was  well  understood,  at 
the  time,  that  this  very  proviso  was  one  of  the  means  upon 
which  I  mainly  relied  for  the  purpose.  I  deliberately  designed, 
by  moving  it,  to  unite  the  Southern  Democracy  with  the  con- 
servative Whigs  of  both  the  North  and  the  South,  in  opposition 
to  the  bill,  and  thus  to  insure  its  defeat. 

The  motion  prevailed.  The  proviso  was  inserted  by  a  vote 
of  131  to  69.  And  I,  for  one,  then  carried  out  my  opposition 
to  the  bill  by  voting  against  it,  proviso  and  all.  The  Southern 
Democracy,  however,  did  not  go  with  me  on  this  vote.  Not  a 
few  of  them,  —  the  present  Speaker  of  the  House  among  the 
number,  —  all  of  them,  indeed,  who  were  present,  except  four, 
voted  in  favor  of  the  bill,  notwithstanding  the  anti-slavery 
clause  ;  and  accordingly  it  passed  the  House.  But  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  this  clause  had  its  influence  in  arresting  the 
bill  in  the  other  wing  of  the  Capitol,  where  it  remained  unacted 
upon  until  the  close  of  the  session,  and  was  thus  finally  lost. 


660  THE   ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

Sir,  a  bill  to  create  a  territorial  government  in  Oregon,  con- 
taining this  identical  proviso,  has  since  been  passed  through 
both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  has  received  the  sanction  and 
signature  of  a  Southern  Democratic  President;  and  I  do  not 
suppose,  therefore,  that  this  original  motion  of  mine  will  be 
hereafter  so  frequent  a  subject  of  Southern  Democratic  censure, 
as  it  hitherto  has  been.  But  I  have  desired  to  place  upon 
record,  in  perpetuam  memoriam  rei,  this  plain,  unvarnished  his- 
tory of  the  case  ;  and  having  done  so,  I  willingly  submit  myself 
to  whatever  measure  of  censure  or  reproach  such  a  state  of  facts 
may  fairly  subject  me  to,  either  from  the  South  or  from  the 
North.  If  the  offering  of  this  proviso  to  this  bill,  under  these 
circumstances,  with  these  views,  and  with  this  result,  be  the 
unpardonable  offence  which  it  has  sometimes  been  styled,  I  can 
only  say,  "  adsum,  qui  feci;  in  me  convertite  ferrum  !  "  Nay,  Sir, 
I  will  say  further,  that  if  it  be  fairly  traceable  to  this  movement 
of  mine,  that  it  is  no  longer  an  open  question  whether  domestic 
slavery  shall  find  a  foothold  in  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  I  shall 
feel  that  it  has  not  been  entirely  in  vain,  that  I  have  been  for 
ten  years  associated  with  the  public  councils  of  my  country. 

I  come  next,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  the  proviso,  which  has  more 
legitimately  received  the  name  of  the  honorable  member  from 
Pennsylvania,  (Mr.  Wilmot.)  And  it  is  not  less  important  in 
this  case,  than  in  the  other,  to  recall  to  the  remembrance  of  the 
House  and  of  the  country  the  circumstanoes  under  which  this 
proviso,  also,  was  proposed. 

I  think,  Sir,  that  no  one,  who  was  a  member  of  Congress  at 
the  time,  will  soon  forget  the  eighth  day  of  August,  1846.  The 
country  was  at  war  with  Mexico,  and  Congress  was  within  eight- 
and-forty  hours  of  the  appointed  close  of  a  most  protracted  and 
laborious  session.  "We  were  already  almost  exhausted  by  hot 
weather  and  hot  work,  and  all  the  energies  which  were  left  us 
were  required  for  winding  up  that  great  mass  of  public  business 
which  always  awaits  the  closing  hours,  whether  of  a  longer  or  a 
shorter  session.  Under  these  circumstances,  a  message  was 
received  by  this  House  from  President  Polk,  calling  for  an  appro- 
priation of  money  to  enable  him  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  peace, 
and  intimating,  by  a  distinct  reference  to  the  precedent  of  the 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.     661 

purchase  of  Louisiana,  that  he  designed  to  employ  this  money 
in  the  acquisition  of  more  territory. 

Such  a  message,  I  need  not  say,  Sir,  took  all  who  were  not  in 
the  President's  secrets  greatly  by  surprise.  The  idea  of  bringing 
money  to  the  aid  of  our  armies  for  the  purpose  of  buying  a  peace 
from  a  nation  like  Mexico,  could  not  fail  to  inflict  a  severe  wound 
upon  our  national  pride ;  while  the  lust  of  territorial  acquisition 
and  aggrandizement,  which  was  thus  plainly  betrayed,  gave  a 
deeper  dye  of  injustice  and  rapine  to  the  war  into  which  we  had 
been  so  recklessly  plunged. 

No  time  was  afforded  us,  however,  for  reflections  or  delibera- 
tions of  any  sort.  The  message  was  referred* at  once  to  the 
Committee  of  the  "Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union,  and  a  bill 
was  forthwith  originated  in  that  committee,  under  the  lead  of 
General  McKay,  of  North  Carolina,  for  placing  two  millions  of 
dollars  at  the  unlimited  discretion  of  the  President. 

For  the  debate  upon  this  bill,  two  or  three  hours  of  a  hot 
summer  afternoon  were  grudgingly  allowed  by  the  Democratic 
majority  in  this  House,  and  these  two  or  three  hours  were  di- 
vided off  into  homoeopathic  portions  of  five  minutes  each.  My 
honorable  friend  from  New  York,  (Mr.  Hugh  White,)  —  the 
senior  member  of  the  New  York  delegation,  and  who,  I  hope, 
will  long  remain  here  to  enjoy  the  dignity  of  that  position  — 
obtained  the  floor  for  the  first  five  minutes,  and  I  was  fortunate 
or  unfortunate  enough  to  follow  him.  No  amendment  to  the 
bill  had  then  been  adopted,  and  no  proviso  moved.  But  here  is 
what  I  said  on  that  occasion,  as  reported  in  the  National  Intelli- 
gencer at  the  time : 

"  Mr.  Winthrop  said  that  he  should  follow  the  example  of  his  friend  from  New  York, 
(Mr.  White,)  and  confine  himself  to  a  brief  statement  of  his  views,  reserving  to  him- 
self the  privilege  of  amplifying  and  enforcing  them  hereafter.  The  Administration 
and  its  friends  had  thought  fit  during  the  present  session  to  frame  more  than  one  of 
their  most  important  measures,  so  as  to  leave  their  opponents  in  a  false  position  which- 
ever way  they  voted.  There  were  two  things  which  he  had  not  imagined,  in  advance, 
that  any  circumstances  could  have  constrained  him  to  do,  and  from  which  he  would 
gladly  have  been  spared.  One  of  them  was  to  give  a  vote  which  might  appear  to  lend 
an  approving  sanction  to  a  war  which  had  been  caused  by  the  annexation  of  Texas  ; 
the  other  was  to  give  a  vote  which  might  appear  like  an  opposition  to  the  earliest  restora- 
tion of  peace,  either  with  Mexico  or  any  other  power  on  earth.  But  he  must  let  appear- 
ances take  care  of  themselves.  He  was  not  here  to  pronounce  opinions  either  upon  the 
56 


662  THJ3  ADMISSION  OF  CALIFORNIA 

preamble  of  a  bill  or  the  phrases  of  a  President's  message.  He  was  here  to  vote  on 
substantial  provisions  of  law,  proposed  with  a  view  to  their  practical  interpretation  and 
execution.  One  of  these  votes  he  had  given  already,  under  circumstances  which  were 
familiar  to  the  House  and  to  the  country.  He  believed  it  then,  and  he  believed  it  now, 
upon  the  most  deliberate  reflection,  to  be  the  best  vote  of  which  the  case  admitted- 
And  now,  he  greatly  feared,  that  he  was  about  to  be  compelled  to  give  the  other  of 
these  abhorrent  votes.    He  could  not  and  would  not  vote  for  this  bill  as  it  now  stood. 

"  What  was  the  bill  ?  A  bill  to  place  two  millions  of  dollars  at  the  disposal  of  the 
President '  for  any  extraordinary  emergencies  which  might  arise  out  of  our  intercourse 
with  foreign  nations.'  Not  a  word  about  peace.  Not  a  word  about  Mexico.  Not  a 
syllable  about  the  disputed  boundaries  on  the  Rio  Grande.  It  was  a  vote  of  unlimited 
confidence  in  an  Administration,  in  which,  he  was  sorry  to  say,  there  was  very  little  con- 
fidence to  be  placed.  They  might  employ  this  money  towards  buying  California,  or 
buying  Cuba,  or  buying  Yucatan,  or  buying  the  Sandwich  Islands,  or  buying  any 
other  territory  they  might  fancy  in  either  hemisphere.  If  we  turned  to  the  message  of 
the  President,  it  was  hardly  more  satisfactory.  Nothing  could  be  more  evident  than 
that  this  appropriation  was  asked  for  as  the  earnest  money  for  a  purchase  of  more 
territory.  The  message  expressly  stated  that  it  was  to  be  used  in  part  payment  for 
any  concessions  which  Mexico  might  make  to  us.  The  President  already  had  the 
claims  of  our  citizens  to  deal  with  to  the  amount  of  three  millions  or  more.  Here 
were  two  millions  more  to  be  placed  in  his  hand,  in  cash.  What  was  to  be  the  whole 
payment,  for  which  five  millions  of  dollars  was  wanted  as  an  advance  ?  And  where 
was  this  territory  to  be  ?  The  message,  as  if  not  willing  to  leave  us  wholly  in  the 
dark,  had  pointed  expressly  to  the  example  of  1803  —  to  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  — 
and  this  very  bill  (as  Mr.  W.  understood.)  had  been  copied  verbatim  from  the  act  by 
which  that  purchase  was  indirectly  sanctioned.  The  President  has  thus  called  upon 
us,  in  language  not  to  be  misunderstood,  to  sanction,  in  advance,  a  new  and  indefinite 
acquisition  of  southern  territory.  To  such  an  acquisition  he  (Mr.  W.)  was  opposed. 
He  had  said  heretofore,  and  he  repeated  now,  that  he  was  uncompromisingly  opposed 
to  extending  the  slaveholding  territory  of  the  Union.  He  wanted  no  more  territory  of 
any  sort ;  but  of  this  we  had  more  than  enough  already. 

"  He  cordially  responded  to  the  President's  desires  to  bring  about  a  just  and  honor- 
able peace  at  the  earliest  moment.  Nothing  would  give  him  more  real  satisfaction  than 
to  join  in  a  measure  honestly  proposed  for  that  purpose.  He  did  not  grudge  the  pay- 
ment of  the  two  millions.  He  would  appropriate  twenty  millions  for  the  legitimate 
purposes  of  a  treaty  of  peace,  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  And  he  still  hoped  that 
this  measure  might  assume  a  shape  in  which  he  could  give  it  his  support.  Limit  the 
discretion  of  the  President  to  a  settlement  of  those  boundaries  which  have  been  the 
subject  of  dispute.  Hold  him  to  his  solemn  pledges,  twice  repeated,  that  he  would  be 
ready  at  all  times  to  settle  the  existing  differences  between  the  two  countries  on  the 
most  liberal  terms.  Give  him  no  countenance  in  his  design  to  take  advantage  of  the 
present  war  to  force  Mexico  into  the  surrender,  or  even  the  sale,  of  any  of  her  pro- 
vinces. If  anybody  wants  a  better  harbor  on  the  Pacific,  let  him  wait  till  it  can  be 
acquired  with  less  of  national  dishonor.  But  whatever  you  do  or  omit  to  do,  give  us 
at  least  to  be  assured  that  this  appropriation  is  not  to  be  applied  to  the  annexation  of 
another  Texas,  or  even  to  the  purchase  of  another  Louisiana."    [Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  was  my  five  minutes'  speech  on  that 
memorable  occasion.     It  was  "  brief  as  the  posy  of  a  ring ; " 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    663 

but  it  contained  quite  as  much  substance  as  some  that  are  longer. 
It  embraced  three  distinct  ideas :  first,  that  I  was  opposed  to  the 
continuance,  as  I  had  been  to  the  commencement,  of  the  war 
with  Mexico,  and  that  I  was  ready  to  vote  for  any  amount  of 
money  which  might  be  demanded  for  the  legitimate  purposes  of 
negotiating  a  treaty  of  peace ;  second,  that  I  desired  no  further 
acquisition  of  territory  on  any  side  or  of  any  sort;  and  third, 
that  I  was  uncompromisingly  opposed  to  extending  the  slave- 
holding  territory  of  the  Union. 

And  in  conformity  with  this  last  view,  when  the  honorable 
member  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Wilmot)  offered  his  celebrated 
proviso  not  long  afterwards,  I  unhesitatingly  voted  for  it. 

Sir,  I  have  never  regretted  that  vote ;  nor  have  I  ever  changed, 
in  any  degree,  the  opinions  and  the  principles  upon  which  it  was 
founded.  Again  and  again,  I  have  reiterated  those  opinions  and 
vindicated  those  principles ;  and  as  my  consistency  and  stead- 
fastness on  this  point  have  been  artfully  drawn  into  question  in 
some  quarters,  I  must  be  pardoned  for  a  few  citations  from 
speeches  of  my  own,  in  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  allude  to 
the  subject,  both  in  this  House  and  elsewhere. 

Here,  Sir,  in  the  first  place,  is  an  extract  from  a  speech  deli- 
vered by  me  in  Faneuil  Hall,  on  the  23d  day  of  September, 
1846,  hardly  more  than  six  weeks  after  the  occasion  which  I 
have  just  described : 

"Sir,  upon  all  the  great  points  of  this  question,  there  is  no  difference  of  opinion 
whatever.  All  agree,  that  this  war  ought  never  to  have  been  commenced.  All  agree, 
that  it  ought  to  be  brought  to  a  close  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment.  No  man 
present  denies  that  it  originated,  primarily,  in  the  annexation  of  Texas  ;  and  second- 
arily, in  the  marching  of  the  American  Army  into  the  disputed  territory  beyond  the 
Nueces.  And  no  man  present  fails  to  deplore  and  to  condemn  both  of  these  measures. 
Nor  is  there  a  Whig  in  this  assembly,  nor,  in  my  opinion,  a  Whig  throughout  the 
Union,  who  does  not  deprecate,  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  any  prosecution  of  this 
war,  for  the  purpose  of  aggression,  invasion,  or  conquest. 

"  This,  this  is  the  matter,  in  which  we  take  the  deepest  concern  this  day.  Where, 
when,  is  this  war  to  end,  and  what  are  to  be  its  fruits  ?  Unquestionably,  we  are 
not  to  forget  that  it  takes  two  to  make  a  bargain.  Unquestionably,  we  are  not  to 
forget,  that  Mexico  must  be  willing  to  negotiate,  before  our  own  government  can  be 
held  wholly  responsible  for  the  failure  of  a  treaty  of  peace.  I  rejoice,  for  one,  that 
the  administration  have  shown  what  little  readiness  they  have  shown,  for  bringing  the 
war  to  a  conclusion.  I  have  given  them  credit,  elsewhere,  for  their  original  overtures 
last  autumn ;  and  I  shall  not  deny  them  whatever  credit  they  deserve  for  their  renewed 


664  THE  ADMISSION  OF   CALIFORNIA 

overtures  now.  But,  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  everything  which  takes  the  name  or  the 
form  of  an  overture  of  peace,  which  is  entitled  to  respect  as  such.  If  it  proposes  un- 
just and  unreasonable  terms ;  if  it  manifests  an  overbearing  and  oppressive  spirit;  if 
it  presumes  on  the  power  of  those  who  make  it,  or  on  the  weakness  of  those  to  whom 
it  is  offered,  to  exact  hard  and  heartless  conditions ;  if,  especially,  it  be  of  a  character 
at  once  offensive  and  injurious  to  the  rights  of  one  of  the  nations  concerned,  and  to 
the  principles  of  a  large  majority  of  the  other ;  then  it  prostitutes  the  name  of  peace, 
and  its  authors  are  only  entitled  to  the  contempt  which  belongs  to  those  who  add 
hypocrisy  to  injustice. 

"  Sir,  when  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on  a  sudden  and  serious  emergency, 
demanded  of  Congress  the  means  of  meeting  a  war,  into  which  he  had  already 
plunged  the  country,  he  pledged  himself,  in  thrice  repeated  terms,  to  be  ready  at 
all  times  to  settle  the  existing  disputes  between  us  and  Mexico,  whenever  Mexico 
should  be  willing  either  to  make  or  to  receive  propositions  to  that  end.  To  that 
pledge  he  stands  solemnly  recorded,  in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  men.  Now,  Sir,  it 
was  no  part  of  our  existing  disputes,  at  that  time,  whether  we  should  have  possession 
of  California,  or  of  any  other  territory  beyond  the  Rio  Grande.  And  the  President, 
in  prosecuting  plans  of  invasion  and  conquest,  which  look  to  the  permanent  acquisi- 
tion of  any  such  territories,  will  be  as  false  to  his  own  pledges,  as  he  is  to  the  honor 
and  interests  of  his  country. 

"I  believe  that  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  people  of  Massachusetts  —  I 
know  I  speak  my  own  —  in  saying  that  we  want  no  more  territorial  possessions,  to 
become  the  nurseries  of  new  slave  States.  It  goes  hard  enough  with  us,  that  the  men 
and  money  of  the  nation  should  be  employed  for  the  defence  of  such  acquisitions, 
already  made ;  but  to  originate  new  enterprises  for  extending  the  area  of  slavery  by 
force  of  arms,  is  revolting  to  the  moral  sense  of  every  American  freeman. 

"  Sir,  I  trust  there  is  no  man  here  who  is  not  ready  to  stand  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  country.  I  trust  there  is  no  man  here  who  is  not  willing  to  hold  fast  to  the  Union 
of  the  States,  be  its  limits  ultimately  fixed  a  little  on  one  side,  or  a  little  on  the  other 
side,  of  the  line  of  his  own  choice.  For  myself,  I  will  not  contemplate  the  idea  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  in  any  conceivable  event.  There  are  no  boundaries  of  sea  or 
land,  of  rock  or  river,  of  desert  or  mountain,  to  which  I  will  not  try,  at  least,  to  carry 
out  my  love  of  country,  whenever  they  shall  really  be  the  boundaries  of  my  country. 
If  the  day  of  dissolution  ever  comes,  it  shall  bring  the  evidence  of  its  own  irresistible 
necessity  with  it.  I  avert  my  eyes  from  all  recognition  of  such  a  necessity  in  the  dis- 
tance. Nor  am  I  ready  for  any  political  organizations  or  platforms  less  broad  and 
comprehensive  than  those  which  may  include  and  uphold  the  whole  Whig  party  of 
the  United  States.  But  all  this  is  consistent,  and  shall,  in  my  own  case,  practically 
consist,  with  a  just  sense  of  the  evils  of  slavery ;  with  an  earnest  opposition  to  every- 
thing designed  to  prolong  or  extend  it;  with  a  firm  resistance  to  all  its  encroachments 
on  Northern  rights  ;  and  above  all,  with  an  uncompromising  hostility  to  all  measures 
for  introducing  new  slave  States  and  new  slave  Territories  into  our  Union." 

I  come  next,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  a  speech  delivered  in  this 
House,  on  the  8th  of  January,  1847,  when  I  found  it  necessary 
to  oppose  the  passage  of  a  bill  for  raising  an  additional  military 
force.     I  think  the  bill  was  called  the  Ten  Regiment  bill. 

On  that  occasion,  after  alluding  to  the  probable  influence  of 


AND   THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE   SLAVERY  QUESTION.  665 

the  measure  under  consideration  on  the  chances  of  a  peace  with 
Mexico,  I  proceeded  to  say,  as  follows  : 

"  And  where,  too,  is  to  be  our  domestic  peace,  if  this  policy  is  to  be  pursued  ? 
According  to  the  President's  plan  of  obtaining  '  ample  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of 
the  war,'  the  logger  the  war  lasts,  and  the  more  expensive  it  is  made,  the  more  terri- 
tory we  shall  require  to  indemnify  us.  Every  dollar  of  appropriation  for  this  war  is 
thus  the  purchase-money  of  more  acres  of  Mexican  soil.  Who  knows  how  much  of 
Chihuahua,  and  Coahuila,  and  New  Leon,  and  Durango,  it  will  take  to  remunerate 
us  for  the  expenses  of  these  ten  regiments  of  regulars,  who  are  to  be  enlisted  for  five 
years  ?  And  to  what  end  are  we  thus  about  to  add  acre  to  acre  and  field  to  field  ? 
To  furnish  the  subject  of  that  great  domestic  struggle,  which  has  already  been  fore- 
shadowed in  this  debate ! 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  no  time  to  discuss  the  subject  of  slavery  on  this  occasion, 
nor  should  I  desire  to  discuss  it  in  this  connection,  if  I  had  more  time.  But  I  must 
not  omit  a  few  plain  words  on  the  momentous  issue  which  has  now  been  raised.  I 
speak  for  Massachusetts  —  I  believe  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  all  New  England,  and 
of  many  other  States  out  of  New  England,  —  when  I  say,  that  upon  this  question  our 
minds  are  made  up.  So  far  as  we  have  power  —  constitutional  or  moral  power  —  to 
control  political  events,  we  are  resolved  that  there  shall  be  no  further  extension  of  the 
territory  of  this  Union,  subject  to  the  institutions  of  slavery 

"  I  believe  the  North  is  ready  to  stand  by  the  Constitution,  with  all  its  compromises, 
as  it  now  is.  I  do  not  intend,  moreover,  to  throw  out  any  threats  of  disunion,  what- 
ever may  be  the  result.  I  do  not  intend,  now  or  ever,  to  contemplate  disunion  as  a 
cure  for  any  imaginable  evil.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  intend  to  be  driven  from  a 
firm  expression  of  purpose,  and  a  steadfast  adherence  to  principle,  by  any  threats  of 
disunion  from  any  other  quarter.  The  people  of  New  England,  whom  I  have  any 
privilege  to  speak  for,  do  not  desire,  as  I  understand  their  views  —  I  know  my  own 
heart  and  my  own  principles,  and  can  at  least  speak  for  them  —  to  gain  one  foot  of 
territory  by  conquest,  and  as  the  result  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war  with  Mexico.  I 
do  not  believe  that  even  the  abolitionists  of  the  North  —  though  I  am  one  of  the  last 
persons  who  would  be  entitled  to  speak  their  sentiments — would  be  unwilling  to  be 
found  in  combination  with  Southern  gentlemen,  who  may  see  fit  to  espouse  this  doc- 
trine. We  desire  peace.  We  believe  that  this  war  ought  never  to  have  been  com- 
menced, and  we  do  not  wish  to  have  it  made  the  pretext  for  plundering  Mexico  of  one 
foot  of  her  lands.  But  if  the  war  is  to  be  prosecuted,  and  if  territories  are  to  be  con- 
quered and  annexed,  we  shall  stand  fast  and  forever  to  the  principle  that,  so  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  these  territories  shall  be  the  exclusive  abode  of  freemen. 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  peace,  peace  is  the  grand  compromise  of  this  question  between  the 
North  and  the  South.  Let  the  President  abandon  all  schemes  of  further  conquest. 
Let  him  abandon  his  plans  of  pushing  his  forces  to  the  heart  of  Mexico.  Now,  before 
any  reverses  have  been  experienced  by  the  American  arms,  he  can  do  so  with  the 
highest  honor.  Let  him  exhibit  a  spirit  of  magnanimity  towards  a  weak  and  distracted 
neighbor.  Let  him  make  distinct  proclamation  of  the  terms  on  which  he  is  ready  to 
negotiate  ;  and  let  those  terms  be  such  as  shall  involve  no  injustice  towards  Mexico, 
and  engender  no  sectional  strife  among  ourselves.  But,  at  all  events,  let  him  tell  us 
what  those  terms  are  to  be.  A  proclamation  of  Executive  purposes  is  essential  to 
any  legislative  or  any  national  harmony.  The  North  ought  to  know  them,  the  South 
ought  to  know  them,  the  whole  country  ought  to  understand  for  what  ends  its  blood 
56* 


THE  ADMISSION   OP   CALIFORNIA 

and  treasure  are  to  be  expended.  It  is  high  time  that  some  specific  terms  of  accom- 
modation were  proclaimed  to  Congress,  to  Mexico,  and  to  the  world.  If  they  be  rea- 
sonable, no  man  will  hesitate  to  unite  in  supplying  whatever  means  may  be  necessary 
for  enforcing  them." 

I  come  lastly,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  a  speech  which  I  made  in 
this  House  on  the  22d  of  February,  1847,  and  from  which  I 
shall  venture  to  quote  a  still  longer  extract.  It  was  on  this 
occasion,  Sir,  and  in  connection  with  these  remarks,  that  I 
offered  to  the  bill  then  pending  —  which  was  a  bill  making  an 
appropriation  of  nearly  thirty-five  millions  of  dollars  for  the 
single  item  of  supporting  the  army  —  a  proviso  in  the  following 
words : 

"  Provided,  further,  That  these  appropriations  are  made  with  no  view  of  sanctioning 
any  prosecution  of  the  existing  war  with  Mexico  for  the  acquisition  of  territory  to 
form  new  States  to  be  added  to  the  Union,  or  for  the  dismemberment  in  any  way  of 
the  Republic  of  Mexico." 

That,  Sir,  was  my  proviso.  And  if  anybody  shall  ever  deem 
my  name  worthy  of  being  associated  with  any  legislative  pro- 
position, I  hope  this  one  will  not  be  forgotten.  I  am  willing 
that  it  should  be  known  in  all  time  to  come  as  the  Winthrop 
proviso. 

It  was  indeed  almost  identical  with  a  resolution  proposed  in 
the  other  branch  of  Congress,  by  an  honorable  Senator  from 
Georgia,  (Mr.  Berrien,)  and  it  shared  the  same  fate  with  his 
resolution.  Every  Whig  member  present  at  the  time,  except 
one,  voted  in  favor  of  its  adoption.  There  were  seventy-six 
Whigs  in  all,  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  North  and  South, 
East  and  West,  whose  names  are  inscribed  on  the  journals  in 
favor  of  this  proviso.  But  no  Democrat  voted  for  it ;  not  one. 
And  among  the  names  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-four 
Democrats  who  defeated  it,  may  be  seen  those  of  the  honorable 
member  from  Pennsylvania,  (Mr.  Wilmot,)  and  of  the  honora- 
ble member  from  New  York,  (Mr.  Preston  King,)  side  by  side 
with  those  of  the  present  Speaker  of  this  House,  (Mr.  Cobb,) 
of  the  present  chairman  of  this  committee,  (Mr.  Boyd,)  and  of 
all  the  other  Southern  Democrats  of  the  day. 

It  was  on  this  occasion,  Sir,  that  I  expressed  myself  as  fol- 
lows: 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.     667 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  intimated  on  another  occasion  that  I  do  not  go  so  far  as 
some  of  my  friends  in  regard  to  the  propriety  or  expediency  of  withholding  all  sup- 
plies from  the  Executive.  While  a  foreign  nation  is  still  in  arms  against  us,  I  would 
limit  the  supplies  to  some  reasonable  scale  of  defence,  and  not  withhold  them 
altogether.  I  would  pay  for  all  services  of  regulars  or  volunteers  already  contracted 
for.  I  would  provide  ample  means  to  prevent  our  army  from  suffering,  whether  from 
the  foe  or  from  famine,  as  long  as  they  are  in  the  field  under  constitutional  authority. 
Heaven  forbid  that  our  gallant  troops  should  be  left  to  perish  for  want  of  supplies 
because  they  are  on  a  foreign  soil,  while  they  are  liable  to  be  shot  down  by  the  com- 
mand of  their  own  officers  if  they  refuse  to  remain  there!  But  I  cannot  regard  it  as 
consistent  with  constitutional  or  republican  principles  to  pass  this  bill  as  it  now  stands. 
Even  if  I  approved  the  war,  I  should  regard  such  a  course  of  legislation  as  unwarrant- 
able. Disapproving  it,  as  I  unequivocally  and  unqualifiedly  do,  I  am  the  more  induced 
to  interpose  these  objections  to  its  adoption. 

"  Sir,  this  whole  Executive  policy  of  overrunning  Mexico  to  obtain  territorial  indem- 
nities for  pecuniary  claims  and  the  expenses  of  the  war,  is  abhorrent  to  every  idea  of 
humanity  and  of  honor.  For  one,  I  do  not  desire  the  acquisition  of  one  inch  of  terri- 
tory by  conquest.  I  desire  to  see  no  fields  of  blood  annexed  to  this  Union,  whether 
the  price  of  the  treachery  by  which  they  have  been  procured  shall  be  three  million 
pieces  of  silver  or  only  thirty !  I  want  no  more  areas  of  freedom.  Area,  if  I  remem- 
ber right,  signified  threshing-floor,  in  my  old  school  dictionary.  We  have  had  enough 
of  these  areas,  whether  of  freedom  or  slavery ;  and  I  trust  this  war  will  be  brought  to 
a  close  without  multiplying  or  extending  them. 

"  I  repeat  this  the  more  emphatically,  lest  my  vote  in  favor  of  the  Three  Million  bill 
should  be  misinterpreted.  Nothing  was  further  from  my  intention,  in  giving  that  vote, 
than  to  sanction  the  policy  of  the  Executive  in  regard  to  the  territories  of  Mexico.  If 
he  insists,  indeed,  on  pursuing  that  policy,  and  if  a  majority  of  Congress  insist  on 
giving  him  the  means,  I  prefer  purchase  to  conquest ;  and  had  rather  authorize  the 
expenditure  of  three  millions  to  pay  Mexico,  than  of  thirty  millions  to  whip  her.  But 
everybody  must  have  understood  that  the  proviso  was  a  virtual  nullification  of  the  bill, 
for  any  purpose  of  acquiring  territory,  in  the  hands  of  a  southern  administration. 

"  It  was  for  that  proviso  that  I  voted.  I  wished  to  get  the  great  principle  which  it 
embodied  fairly  on  the  statute-book.  I  believe  it  to  be  a  perfectly  constitutional  princi- 
ple, and  an  eminently  conservative  principle 

"  I  have  said  that  I  regarded  this  principle  as  eminently  conservative,  as  well  as 
entirely  constitutional.  I  do  believe,  Sir,  that  whenever  the  principle  of  this  proviso 
shall  be  irrevocably  established,  shall  be  considered  as  unchangeable  as  the  laws  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  then,  and  not  till  then,  we  shall  have  permanent  peace  with  other 
countries,  and  fixed  boundaries  for  our  own  country.  It  is  plain  that  there  are  two 
parties  in  the  free  States.  Both  of  them  are  opposed  —  uncompromisingly  opposed, 
as  I  hope  and  believe  —  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  One  of  them,  however,  and  that 
the  party  of  the  present  Administration,  are  for  the  widest  extension  of  territory,  sub- 
ject to  the  anti-slavery  proviso.  The  other  of  them,  and  that  the  party  to  which  I 
have  the  honor  to  belong,  are,  as  I  believe,  content  with  the  Union  as  it  is,  desire  no 
annexation  of  new  States,  and  are  utterly  opposed  to  the  prosecution  of  this  war  for 
any  purpose  of  dismembering  Mexico.  Between  these  two  parties  in  the  free  States 
the  South  holds  the  balance  of  power.  It  may  always  hold  it.  If  now,  therefore,  it 
will  join  in  putting  an  end  to  this  war,  and  in  arresting  the  march  of  conquest  upon 
which  our  armies  have  entered,  the  limits  of  the  Republic  as  well  as  the  limits  of 
slavery  may  be  finally  established 


668  THE  ADMISSION  OF  CALIFORNIA 

"  If  we  could  at  last  lay  down  permanently  the  boundary  of  our  Republic  —  if  we 
could  feel  that  we  had  extinguished  forever  the  lust  of  extended  dominion  in  the 
bosoms  of  the  American  people  —  if  we  could  present  that  old  god  Terminus,  of  whom 
we  have  heard  such  eloquent  mention  elsewhere,  not  with  outstretched  arm  still  point- 
ing to  new  territories  in  the  distance,  but  with  limbs  lopped  off,  as  the  Romans  some- 
times represented  him,  betokening  that  he  had  reached  his  very  furthest  goal  —  if  we 
could  be  assured  that  our  limits  were  to  bo  no  further  advanced,  either  by  purchase  or 
conquest,  by  fraud  or  by  force —  then,  then  we  might  feel  that  we  had  taken  a  bond  of 
fate  for  the  perpetuation  of  our  Union. 

"  It  is  in  this  spirit  that  I  voted  for  the  proviso  in  the  Three  Million  bill.  It  is  in 
this  spirit  that  I  offer  the  third  proviso  to  the  Thirty  Million  bill  before  us.  Pass  them 
both  —  cut  off,  by  one  and  the  same  stroke,  all  idea  both  of  the  extension  of  slavery 
and  the  extension  of  territory  —  and  we  shall  neither  need  the  three  millions,  nor  the 
thirty  millions,  for  securing  peace  and  harmony,  both  at  home  and  abroad." 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  know  not  but  that  I  might  be  induced  to 
abate  something  of  the  ambitious  rhetoric  of  these  remarks,  if  I 
were  making  the  speech  over  again  ;  but  I  do  not  desire  to 
change  one  jot  or  tittle  of  their  substantial  matter.  I  adhere, 
this  day,  to  all  the  sentiments  and  all  the  principles  of  that 
speech  ;  and,  so  far  as  they  are  applicable  to  the  present  moment 
and  to  existing  circumstances,  and  so  far  as  may  consist  with 
the  paramount  duty  which  I  owe  to  the  peace  and  the  union  of 
my  country,  I  intend  to  shape  my  course  with  a  view  of  carrying 
them  out  to  their  practical  fulfilment. 

I  have  long  ago  made  up  my  mind,  that,  whatever  prospect 
there  may  be  of  adjusting  and  reconciling  the  conflicting  inter- 
ests and  claims  of  different  portions  of  the  Union,  there  is  no 
prospect,  and  no  possibility,  of  harmonizing  their  discordant 
opinions.  Certainly,  Sir,  neither  labored  arguments,  nor  heated 
appeals,  nor  angry  menaces  ;  neither  threats  of  disorganization 
here,  nor  of  conventions  elsewhere,  have  done  any  thing  towards 
accomplishing  such  a  result,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned. 

I  hold  now,  as  I  held  three  years  ago,  that  it  is  entirely  consti- 
tutional for  Congress  to  apply  the  principles  of  the  ordinance  of 
1787  to  any  territory  which  may  be  added  to  the  Union. 

I  hold  now,  as  I  held  then,  that  the  South  have  no  right  to 
complain  of  such  an  application  of  these  principles  by  those  of 
us  who  have  declared  this  doctrine  in  advance,  and  who  have 
steadily  opposed  all  acquisition  of  territory. 

I  hold  now,  as  I  held  then,  that  their  reproaches  and  fulmina- 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    669 

tions  ought  to  be  exclusively  reserved  for  those  among  them- 
selves, and  for  their  allies  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  who 
have  persisted  in  bringing  this  territory  into  the  Union,  with  the 
distinct  understanding  that  it  was  "  to  furnish  the  subject  of  this 
great  domestic  struggle." 

I  hold  now,  too,  as  I  held  then,  that  one  of  the  greatest 
advantages  of  ingrafting  these  principles  unchangeably  upon 
our  national  policy,  would  be  to  extinguish  the  spirit  of  annexa- 
tion and  conquest  in  the  region  where  we  must  all  acknowledge 
that  it  has  ever  been  most  rife,  and  thus  to  secure  for  us  "  perma- 
nent peace  with  other  countries,  and  fixed  boundaries  for  our 
own  country." 

Do  you  remember,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  old  classical  dialogue 
between  Pyrrhus,  the  King  of  Epirus,  and  his  eloquent  counsel- 
lor, Cineas  ?  Pyrrhus,  we  are  told,  in  disclosing  his  plans  of 
government,  had  stated  his  purpose  of  subjecting  Italy  to  his 
sway ;  when  Cineas  asked,  "  And  having  overcome  the  Romans, 
what  will  your  majesty  do  next  ? "  "  Why,  Sicily,  said  the 
King,  "  is  next  door  to  Italy,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  subdue 
that."  "  And  having  got  possession  of  Sicily,"  said  the  counsel- 
lor, "  what  next  will  be  your  royal  pleasure  ?  "  "I  have  a  mind 
then,"  said  Pyrrhus,  "  to  pass  over  into  Africa."  "  And  what 
after  that  ? "  said  Cineas.  "  Why  then,  at  last,  we  will  give 
ourselves  up  to  quiet,  and  enjoy  a  delightful  peace."  "  But 
what,"  rejoined  the  wise  and  sagacious  counsellor,  "  what  pre- 
vents you  from  enjoying  that  quiet  and  that  delightful  peace 
now?" 

I  can  conceive  such  a  dialogue  passing  between  one  of  our 
late  American  Presidents  and  some  confidential  friend  or  cabi- 
net adviser.  "  I  have  a  mind  to  annex  Texas."  "  And  what 
will  you  do  next?"  "  Why,  Mexico  is  next  door  to  Texas,  and 
it  will  be  easy  to  subject  her  to  our  arms."  "  And  having 
conquered  Mexico,  and  taken  possession  of  such  of  her  pro- 
vinces as  you  desire,  what  next  does  your  excellency  propose  ?  " 
"I  think  we  shall  then  be  ready  for  passing  over  to  Cuba." 
"  And  what  after  that  ?  "  "  Why,  then,  we  will  devote  ourselves 
to  peace,  and  enjoy  a  quiet  life."  "  And  why,  why  —  it  might 
well  have  been  asked  —  should  you  not  enjoy  that  peace  and 


670  TIIE   ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

quiet  now?  Why  will  you  persist  in  disturbing  the  quiet,  and 
perilling  the  peace,  and  putting  in  jeopardy  the  glorious  Union 
which  you  now  enjoy  ,  by  rushing  into  so  wild,  so  wanton,  and,  I 
had  almost  said,  so  wicked  a  policy  ?" 

Sir,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  it  is  this  spirit  of  annexation 
and  conquest,  growing  by  what  it  feeds  on,  which  has  involved 
us  in  all  our  present  troubles,  and  which  threatens  us  with  still 
greater  troubles  in  future.  We  are  reaping  the  natural  and  just 
results  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  of  the  war  which  inevi- 
tably followed  that  annexation.  We  have  almost  realized  the 
fate  of  the  greedy  and  ravenous  bird  in  the  old  fable.  ^Esop 
tells  us  of  an  eagle,  which,  in  one  of  its  towering  flights,  seeing 
a  bit  of  tempting  flesh  upon  an  altar,  pounced  upon  it,  and  bore 
it  away  in  triumph  to  its  nest.  But,  by  chance,  he  adds,  a  coal 
of  fire  from  the  altar  was  sticking  to  it  at  the  time,  which  set  fire 
to  the  nest  and  consumed  it  in  a  trice.  And  our  American  eagle, 
Sir,  has  been  seen  stooping  from  its  pride  of  place,  and  hovering 
over  the  altars  of  a  weak  neighboring  power.  It  has  at  last 
pounced  upon  her  provinces,  and  borne  them  away  from  her 
in  triumph.  Bat  burning  coals  have  clung  to  them !  Discord 
and  confusion  have  come  with  them  !  And  our  own  American 
homestead  is  now  threatened  with  conflagration ! 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  brief  history  of  our  condition.  I 
trust  in  Heaven  that  the  lesson  will  not  be  lost  upon  us.  Gentle- 
men talk  of  settling  the  whole  controversy  which  has  been 
kindled  between  the  North  and  the  South  by  some  sweeping 
compromise,  or  some  comprehensive  plan  of  reconciliation.  I 
hope  that  the  controversy  will  be  settled,  Sir ;  but  I  most 
earnestly  hope  and  pray,  that  it  will  not  so  be  settled,  that  we 
shall  ever  be  in  danger  of  forgetting  its  origin.  I  hope  and  pray 
that  it  will  not  so  be  settled,  that  we  shall  ever  again  imagine, 
that  we  can  enter  with  impunity  on  a  career  of  aggression, 
spoliation,  and  conquest!  This  embittered  strife,  this  protracted 
suspense,  these  tedious  days  and  weeks  and  months  of  anxiety 
and  agitation,  will  have  had  their  full  compensation  and  reward, 
if  they  shall  teach  us  never  again  to  forget  the  curse  which  has 
been  pronounced  upon  those  "who  remove  their  neighbors' 
landmarks;" — if  they  shall  teach  us  to  realize,  in  all  time  to 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OP  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    671 

come,  that  a  policy  of  peace  and  justice  towards  others,  is  the 
very  law  and  condition  of  our  own  domestic  harmony  and  our 
own  national  Union ! 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  how  is  the  great  controversy  by 
which  our  country  is  agitated,  to  be  settled  ? 

In  the  first  place,  Sir,  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  to  be  settled 
by  multiplying  and  accumulating  issues.  I  have  no  faith  in 
the  plan  of  raking  open  all  the  subjects  of  disagreement  and 
difference  which  have  existed  at  any  time  between  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  with  a  view  of  attempting  to  bring  them 
within  the  influence  of  some  single  panacea.  Certainly,  Sir,  if 
such  a  plan  is  to  be  attempted,  we  are  not  to  forget  that  there 
are  two  sides  to  the  question  of  aggression.  The  Southern 
States  complain,  on  the  one  side,  that  some  of  their  runaway 
slaves  have  not  been  delivered  up  by  the  free  States,  agreeably 
to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The 
Northern  States  complain,  on  the  other  side,  that  some  of  their 
freemen  have  been  seized  and  imprisoned  in  the  slave  States, 
contrary  to  the  provisions  of  the  same  Constitution.  I  was, 
myself,  called  upon  some  years  ago,  by  the  merchants  and  ship- 
owners of  Boston  —  as  patriotic  a  body  of  men  as  can  be  found 
on  the  face  of  this  continent,  and  whose  zeal  for  liberty  is  not 
less  conspicuous  than  their  devotion  to  the  Union — to  bring  this 
latter  subject  to  the  attention  of  Congress.  I  made  a  report 
upon  it  to  this  House  in  1843,  in  which,  among  other  remarks, 
I  used  the  following  language  : 

"  That  American  or  foreign  seamen,  charged  with  no  crime,  and  infected  with  no 
contagion,  should  be  searched  for  on  board  the  vessels  to  which  they  belong ;  should 
be  seized  while  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  or,  it  may  be,  while  asleep  in  their 
berths  ;  should  be  dragged  on  shore  and  incarcerated  without  any  other  examination 
than  an  examination  of  their  skins ;  and  should  be  rendered  liable,  in  certain  contin- 
gencies, over  which  they  may  have  no  possible  control,  to  be  subjected  to  the  ignominy 
and  agony  of  the  lash,  and  even  to  the  infinitely  more  ignominious  and  agonizing  fate 
of  being  sold  into  slavery  for  life,  and  all  for  purposes  of  police —  is  an  idea  too  mon- 
strous to  be  entertained  for  a  moment." 

Now,  Sir,  I  will  not  undertake  to  compare  the  two  grievances 
to  which  I  have  thus  alluded.  But  this  I  do  say,  that  if  the  one 
is  to  be  insisted  on  a*s  a  subject  for  immediate  redress  and  repa- 


672  THE  ADMISSION   OP   CALIFORNIA 

ration,  I  see  not  why  the  other  should  not  be  also.  For  myself, 
I  acknowledge  my  allegiance  to  the  whole  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  I  am  willing  to  unite  in  fulfilling  and 
enforcing,  in  all  reasonable  and  proper  modes,  every  one  of  its 
provisions.  I  recognize,  indeed,  a  Power  above  all  human  law- 
makers, and  a  code  above  all  earthly  constitutions !  And  when- 
ever I  perceive  a  plain  conflict  of  jurisdiction  and  authority 
between  the  Constitution  of  my  country  and  the  laws  of  my 
God,  my  course  is  clear.  I  shall  resign  my  office,  whatever  it 
may  be,  and  renounce  all  connection  with  public  service  of  any 
sort.  Never,  never,  Sir,  will  I  put  myself  under  the  necessity  of 
calling  upon  God  to  witness  my  promise  to  support  a  Constitu- 
tion, any  part  of  which  I  consider  to  be  inconsistent  with  His 
commands. 

But  it  is  a  libel  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ; 
and,  what  is  worse,  Sir,  it  is  a  libel  upon  the  great  and  good 
men  who  framed,  adopted,  and  ratified  it ;  it  is  a  libel  upon 
Washington,  and  Franklin,  and  Hamilton,  and  Madison,  upon 
John  Adams,  and  John  Jay,  and  Rufus  King ;  it  is  a  libel  upon 
them  all,  and  upon  the  whole  American  people  of  1789,  who 
sustained  them  in  their  noble  work ;  and  upon  all  who,  from  that 
time  to  this,  generation  after  generation,  in  any  capacity,  national, 
municipal,  or  state,  have  lifted  their  hands  to  heaven,  in  attest- 
ation of  their  allegiance  to  the  Government  of  their  country  ;  —  it 
is  a  gross  libel  upon  every  one  of  them,  to  assert  or  insinuate 
that  there  is  any  such  inconsistency!  Let  us  not  do  such  dis- 
honor to  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic,  and  to  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution.  It  is  a  favorite  policy,  I  know,  of  some  of  the 
ultraists  in  my  own  part  of  the  country,  to  stigmatize  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  as  a  pro-slavery  compact.  I  deny 
it,  Sir.  I  hold,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  is  a  pro-liberty  com- 
pact; the  most  effective  pro-liberty  compact  which  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  Magna  Charta  not  excepted;  and  one  which  every 
friend  to  liberty  —  human  liberty,  or  political  liberty  —  ought 
steadfastly  to  maintain  and  support. 

"  To  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity,"—  this  was  the  grand  climax  in  that  enumeration  of  its 
objects  which  constitutes  its  well-remembered  preamble.     This 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OP  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    673 

was  the  object  for  which  it  was  avowedly,  and  for  which  it  was 
really,  framed  ;  and  this  is  the  object  which  it  has,  in  fact,  beyond 
all  other  instruments,  advanced  and  promoted. 

The  Convention  which  framed  that  instrument  found  African 
slavery,  indeed,  a  fixed  fact  upon  our  soil ;  and  some  of  the  pro- 
visions which  they  adopted,  had  undoubted  and  admitted  refer- 
ence to  that  fact.  But  what  is  the  legitimate  interpretation  of 
these  provisions?  It  is  a  remark,  I  think,  as  old  as  Epictetus, 
that  every  thing  has  two  handles  ;  and  it  is  as  true  of  these  pro- 
visions as  of  every  thing  else,  that  we  must  take  hold  of  them 
by  the  right  handle,  in  order  to  understand  their  true  design. 

We  are  told  that  the  Constitution  encouraged  slavery,  by  pro- 
viding for  the  toleration  of  the  African  slave  trade  for  twenty 
years.  In  my  judgment,  Sir,  it  should  rather  be  said,  that  the 
Constitution  struck  a  strong,  and,  as  its  framers  undoubtedly 
believed,  a  fatal  blow  at  slavery,  by  securing  to  the  Federal 
Government  the  power,  which  it  never  before  possessed,  to  pro- 
hibit that  trade  at  the  end  of  twenty  years. 

We  are  told  that  it  encouraged  slavery,  by  making  it  the  basis 
of  representation  in  this  House.  In  my  judgment  it  should 
rather  be  said,  that  it  discouraged  slavery,  by  taking  away  two 
fifths  of  that  representation  to  which  the  Southern  States  would 
have  been  entitled  on  their  black  population,  if  that  population 
had  been  a  wholly  free  population. 

We  are  told  that  it  encouraged  slavery,  by  providing  for  the 
suppression  of  insurrections.  But  everybody  knows,  that  this 
provision  had  as  much  reference  to  insurrections  in  the  free  States 
as  in  the  slave  States ;  and  that,  in  point  of  fact,  it  was  Shays's 
rebellion  in  Massachusetts,  which,  being  in  progress  at  the  very 
period  when  the  Constitution  was  under  consideration,  gave  an 
immediate  impulse  to  the  movement  by  which  the  power  of  in- 
terfering in  such  cases  was  conferred  on  the  Federal  Government. 
"  Among  the  ripening  incidents,"  said  Mr.  Madison,  in  his  ac- 
count of  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  "  was  the  insurrection  of  Shays,  in  Massachusetts, 
against  her  government,  which  was  with  difficulty  suppressed, 
notwithstanding  the  influence  on  the  insurgents  of  an  appre- 
hended interposition  of  the  Federal  troops." 

57 


674  THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

We  are  told,  finally,  that  the  Constitution  encouraged  slavery, 
by  a  provision  for  the  surrender  of  persons  "  held  to  service  or 
labor."  Now,  Sir,  even  this  provision  fulfils  the  suggestion 
which  was  made  by  Mr.  Madison  at  the  time  the  Constitution 
was  framed,  and  "  avoids  the  idea  that  there  can  be  property  in 
man."  It  demands  of  us  only  a  recognition  of  the  admitted 
and  familiar  fact,  that  there  may  be  property  in  "  the  service  or 
labor"  of  man.  It  provides  for  the  restoration  of  all  runaways 
alike,  white  or  black,  who  may  be  "  held  to  service  or  labor  "  for 
life  or  for  years,  as  indented  apprentices  or  otherwise,  in  any 
part  of  the  country,  —  precluding  all  right  on  the  part  of  any  of  the 
States  to  inquire,  for  any  purpose  of  discrimination  in  regard  to 
fugitives  from  other  States,  by  what  tenure,  of  temporary  con- 
tract or  of  hereditary  bondage,  they  are  held  to  such  "  service  or 
labor."  If  by  some  emancipation  act,  like  that  which  was 
adopted  many  years  ago  by  Great  Britain  in  reference  to  her 
"West  India  colonies,  the  slaves  in  our  Southern  States  should  be 
converted  into  apprentices  for  a  term  of  years,  this  article  of  the 
Constitution  would  be  just  as  applicable  to  that  state  of  things, 
as  it  is  to  the  state  of  things  now  existing.  It  has  no  necessary  or 
exclusive  relation  to  the  existence  of  slavery.  But  taking  it,  as 
it  was  unquestionably  intended,  as  a  provision  for  the  restoration 
of  slaves,  as  long  as  slavery  shall  exist,  is  there  enough  in  this 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  to  justify  any  one  in  branding  that 
instrument  with  the  abhorrent  title  of  a  pro-slavery  compact  ? 

Sir,  the  Constitution  is  to  be  considered  and  judged  of  as  a 
whole.  The  provisions  which  relate  to  the  same  subject-matter, 
certainly,  are  to  be  examined  together,  and  compared  with  each 
other,  in  order  to  obtain  a  just  interpretation  of  its  real  charac- 
ter and  intent.  Let  this  clause,  then,  be  taken  in  connection 
with  that  which  has  authorized  and  effected  the  annihilation  of 
the  African  slave  trade,  as  a  lawful  trade,  from  any  part  of  this 
vast  American  Union.  Let  the  few  cases  in  which  individual 
fugitives  may  be  remanded  to  their  captivity,  in  conformity  with 
one  of  these  provisions,  be  compared  with  the  countless  instances 
in  which  whole  shiploads  of  freemen  would  have  been  torn  from 
their  native  soil  and  transported  into  slavery,  but  for  the  other ; 
and  then  tell  me,  what  is  the  just  designation  of  the  compact 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.     675 

which  contains  them  both !  Suppose,  Sir,  for  a  moment,  that 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution  had  resolved  to  ignore  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery  altogether ;  suppose  that  the  idea,  which  I  have 
sometimes  heard  suggested  as  a  desirable  one,  had  been  adopted 
by  them  at  the  outset,  and  that  all  the  preexisting  rights  of  the 
States  in  regard  to  slavery  and  all  its  incidents  had  been  left 
unrestricted  and  unaltered ;  would  that  have  better  subserved 
the  great  cause  of  human  liberty  ?  "We  should  have  had,  indeed, 
no  fugitive  slave  clause.  But  for  every  slave  who  made  his 
escape,  we  should  have  had  a  hundred  slaves,  freshly  brought 
over  from  Africa,  Brazil,  or  the  West  Indies,  as  long  as  there 
was  a  foot  of  soil  on  which  they  could  be  profitably  employed ; 
and  every  one  of  them  must  have  been  counted,  not  as  three 
fifths,  but  as  a  whole  man*  to  swell  the  basis  of  that  represent- 
ation in  this  House  and  in  the  Electoral  Colleges,  by  which  the 
slave  interest  would  have  been  rendered  predominant  forever  in 
our  land ! 

Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  provisions  in  the  Con- 
stitution which  involve  us  in  painful  obligations,  and  from  which 
some  of  us  would  rejoice  to  be  relieved,  and  this  is  one  of  them. 
But  there  is  none,  none,  in  my  judgment,  which  involves  any 
conscientious  or  religious  difficulty.  I  know  no  reservation, 
equivocation,  or  evasion,  in  the  oath  which  I  have  so  often 
taken  to  support  that  Constitution  ;  and  whenever  any  measure 
is  proposed  to  me  for  fulfilling  or  enforcing  any  one  of  its  clear 
obligations  or  express  stipulations,  I  shall  give  to  it  every  degree 
of  attention,  consideration,  and  support,  which  the  justice,  the 
wisdom,  the  propriety,  and  the  practicability  of  its  peculiar  pro- 
visions may  demand  or  warrant.  In  legislating,  however,  for 
the  restoration  of  Southern  slaves,  I  shall  not  forget  the  security 
of  Northern  freemen.  Nor,  in  testifying  my  allegiance  to  what 
has  been  termed  the  extradition  clause  of  the  Constitution,  shall 
I  overlook  those  great  fundamental  principles  of  all  free  govern- 
ments —  the  Habeas  Corpus  and  the  Trial  by  Jury. 

But  I  repeat,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  am  for  giving  a  separate 
and  independent  consideration  to  separate  and  independent 
measures.  I  am  for  dealing  with  present  and  pressing  difficul- 
ties by  themselves,  and  for  acting  upon  others  afterwards  as 
they  arise. 


676  THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

The  great  questions,  which  demand  our  consideration  at  this 
moment,  are  those  which  relate  to  our  new  territorial  acquisi- 
tions ;  and  to  them,  and  them  alone,  I  am  now  for  devoting 
myself.  And  the  first  of  these  questions  is  that  which  relates  to 
California. 

What  is  California?  But  yesterday,  Sir,  it  was  a  colony  in 
embryo.  But  yesterday  —  to  use  the  language  which  Mr.  Burke 
once  applied  to  America — it  was  "  a  little  speck,  scarce  visible 
in  the  mass  of  national  interest;  a  small  seminal  principle, 
rather  than  a  formed  body."  To-day,  it  presents  itself  to  us  as  an 
established  Commonwealth,  and  is  knocking  at  our  doors  for 
admittance  to  the  Union  as  a  free  and  independent  State.  Shall 
it  be  turned  away  ?  Shall  it  be  remanded  to  its  colonial  condi- 
tion ?  Shall  we  attempt  to  crowd  back  this  full  grown  man 
into  the  cradle  of  infancy  ?  And  that,  too,  in  spite  of  the  ex- 
press provisions  of  the  treaty  by  which  it  was  acquired,  "  that, 
at  the  proper  time,  it  shall  be  incorporated  into  the  Union  ?" 

Upon  what  pretence  shall  such  a  step  be  taken  ?  Why  is  not 
this  the  proper  time  ?  Is  it  said  that  there  has  been  some  viola- 
tion of  precedents  in  her  preparatory  proceedings  ?  Where  will 
you  find  a  precedent  in  any  degree  applicable  to  her  condition  ? 
When  has  such  a  case  been  presented  in  our  past  history  ? 
When  may  we  look  for  another  such  in  our  future  progress  ? 
"  Who  hath  heard  such  a  thing  ?  Who  hath  seen  such  things  ? 
Shall  the  earth  be  made  to  bring  forth  in  one  day  ?  Or  shall  a 
nation  be  born  at  once  ?  " 

Is  it  said  that  she  has  not  population  enough  ?  The  best 
accounts  which  we  can  obtain  estimate  her  population  at  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  souls  ;  and  these,  be  it  remembered, 
are  nearly  all  full  grown  persons,  and  a  vast  majority  of  them 
men  and  voters.  And  what,  after  all,  are  any  estimates  of  popu- 
lation worth,  in  such  a  case  ?  As  the  same  great  British  ora- 
tor, whom  I  have  just  quoted,  said  of  the  American  colonies  in 
1775 :  "  Such  is  the  strength  with  which  population  shoots  in 
that  part  of  the  world,  that,  state  the  numbers  as  high  as  we 
will,  whilst  the  dispute  continues,  the  exaggeration  ends.  Whilst 
we  are  discussing  any  given  magnitude,  they  are  grown  to  it." 

Is  it  said  that  her  boundaries  are  too  extensive  ?     You  did 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OP  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    677 

not  find  this  fault  with  Texas.  Texas,  with  the  boundaries 
which  are  claimed  by  her,  has  three  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty  square  miles ;  and,  with  any 
boundaries  which  are  likely  to  be  assigned  to  her,  she  will  have 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  square  miles.  California, 
under  her  own  Constitution,  has  but  one  hundred  and  fifty-five 
thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles  of  territory,  of 
which  one  half  are  mere  mountains  of  rock  and  ice,  and  another 
quarter  a  desert  waste  ! 

Do  you  complain  of  the  length  of  her  sea-coast  ?  You  did 
not  find  this  fault  with  Florida,  whose  sea-coast  and  gulf-coast 
together,  (if  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,)  are  more  than  one  third 
longer  than  that  of  California.  And  where  will  you  divide  the 
great  valley  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin,  without  the 
greatest  injury  and  injustice  to  those  who  dwell  in  it  ?  And  for 
what  will  you  divide  it,  except  to  make  two  free  States,  where 
only  one  is  now  proposed,  and  thus  to  double  the  cause  of 
Southern  jealousy  and  sectional  opposition  ? 

I  declare  to  you,  Sir,  that,  in  my  judgment,  if  any  fault  is  to 
be  found  with  the  dimensions  of  California,  it  is  to  be  found  by 
the  free  States,  who  might  reasonably  look  to  have  two  States, 
instead  of  one,  added  to  their  number,  from  so  vast  a  territory. 

Is  it  said  that  her  Constitution  has  been  cooked?  "Who 
cooked  it  ?  That  her  people  have  been  tampered  with  ?  Who 
tampered  with  them  ?  As  has  been  truly  said,  we  have  a 
Southern  President  and  a  majority  of  Southern  men  in  the 
Cabinet;  and  they  sent  a  Southern  agent  —  a  Georgia  member 
of  Congress*  —  a  gentleman,  let  me  say,  for  whose  character  and 
conduct  I  have  the  highest  respect  —  to  bear  their  despatches 
and  communicate  their  views  to  the  California  settlers. 

Is  it  said  that  these  settlers  are  a  wild,  reckless,  floating  popu- 
lation, bent  only  upon  digging  gold,  and  unworthy  to  be  trusted 
in  establishing  a  government?  Sir,  I  do  not  believe  a  better 
class  of  emigrants  was  ever  found  flocking  in  such  numbers  to 
any  new  settlement  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  immense 
distance,  the  formidable  difficulties,  and  the  onerous  expense  of 
the  pilgrimage  to  California,  necessarily  confined  the  emigration 

*  Hon.  T.  Butler  King. 
57* 


678  THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

to  men  of  some  pecuniary  substance,  as  well  as  to  men  of  more 
than  ordinary  physical  endurance.  We  have  all  seen  going  out 
from  our  own  respective  neighborhoods,  not  a  few  hardy,  honest, 
industrious,  patriotic  young  men, 

"  Bearing  their  birthrights  proudly  on  their  backs, 
To  make  a  hazard  of  new  fortunes  there : " 

and,  in  their  name,  Sir,  I  protest  against  the  Constitution  which 
they  have  adopted  being  condemned  on  any  score  of  its  paternity. 

Is  it  said,  finally,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  a  ground  for  rejecting 
California,  that  she  has  prohibited  slavery  in  her  Constitution  ? 
No,  no,  Sir ;  nobody  will  venture  to  urge  that  as  an  objection 
to  her  admission  into  the  American  Union.  Even  those  who 
would  willingly  have  had  it  otherwise,  must  be  glad  in  their  own 
hearts,  whether  they  confess  it  or  not,  that  she  has  settled  that 
question  for  herself ;  that  she  has  saved  us  from  the  difficulties 
and  dangers  which  would  have  attended  an  attempt  to  settle  it 
for  her  here.  While  some  of  us  will  go  still  further,  and,  with- 
out intending  any  offence  to  others,  will  thank  God  openly,  that 
this  infant  Hercules  of  the  West  has  strangled  the  serpents  in 
the  cradle ;  that  this  youthful  giant  of  the  Pacific  presents  him- 
self to  us  self-dedicated  to  freedom ;  and  stands  a  self-pledged 
and  self-posted  sentinel  —  side  by  side  with  Oregon  —  against 
the  introduction  of  slavery,  by  sea  or  by  land,  into  any  part  of 
that  trans- Alpine  territory !  Had  it  been  otherwise,  Sir,  and 
had  the  soil  and  climate  proved  in  any  degree  favorable,  who  can 
tell  what  renewal  of  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage  might 
have  been  witnessed,  in  transporting  slaves  under  the  American 
flag  into  regions  so  remote  and  difficult  of  access ! 

"  But  what  is  to  become  of  our  equilibrium?"  says  an  hono- 
rable friend  from  South  Carolina  or  Alabama.  "  What  security 
are  the  Southern  States  to  have  against  the  growing  preponde- 
rance of  Northern  power." 

Mr.  Chairman,  half  the  troubles  which  have  convulsed  the  old 
world  for  two  centuries  past,  have  grown  out  of  an  imagined 
necessity  of  preserving  the  balance  of  power,  or  maintaining 
what  is  now  denominated  a  sectional  equilibrium.  And  so  it 
will  be  here.     The  very  idea  of  this  equilibrium  is  founded  on 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OP  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    679 

views  of  sectional  jealousy,  sectional  fear,  sectional  hostility  and 
hate.  It  presupposes  an  encroaching  and  oppressive  spirit  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  which  waits  only  for  the  power  and  the 
opportunity  to  make  itself  felt ;  and,  depend  upon  it,  Sir,  it  will 
produce  the  very  state  of  things  which  it  supposes.  But  no 
such  state  of  things  exists  now. 

Nothing,  certainly,  can  be  more  unfounded  than  the  idea,  that 
the  North  has  any  hostility  to  the  South ;  or  that  Northern  men, 
as  a  class,  are  desirous  of  injuring,  or  even  of  irritating,  their 
Southern  brethren.     They  know  that  the  interests  of  all  parts  of 
the  country  are  bound  up  together  in  the  same  bundle  of  life  or 
death,  for  the  same  good  or  evil  destiny,  and  that  no  one  mem- 
ber  of   the    Confederacy  can    suffer  without   the  whole   body 
suffering  with   it.     "  Unum  et  commune  periclum  :  una  salusP 
They  desire  —  from  a  mere  selfish  interest  of  their  own,  if  you 
will  have  it  so  —  the  prosperity   and  welfare  of  the  Southern 
States,  and  rejoice  at  every  indication  of  their  increasing  wealth 
and   power.     They  believe,   indeed,   that   the  worst   enemy  of 
these   States,  is  that  which  they  cherish   so  jealously  and    so 
passionately  within  their  own  bosom.     They  believe  slavery  to 
have  originated  in  a  monstrous  wrong.    They  believe  its  continu- 
ance to  be  a  great  evil.     They  are,  undoubtedly,  of  opinion,  that 
in  this  day  of  civilization  and  Christianity,  it  would  well  become 
those  who  are  responsible  for  its   continuance,  to  be  looking 
about  at  least  for  some  prospective  and  gradual  system,  by  which 
at  some  far  distant,  if  not  at  some  earlier  day,  it  may  be  brought 
to  an  end.     They  are  ready,  as  I  believe,  to  bear  their  share  of 
the   cost  and  sacrifice  of  any  such    system.     But   they  know 
that  they  themselves   have  no  power  over  the  subject.     They 
acknowledge,  that  so  far  as  slavery  in  the  States  is  concerned, 
they  possess  no  constitutional  right  to  interfere  with  it  in  any 
way  whatever.      If  there  be  any  thing  upon  which  the  whole 
North  is  united,  and  in  which  men  of  all  parties,  of  all  profes- 
sions, of  all  conditions,  agree,  it  is  in  recognizing,  in  clear  and 
unmistakable  characters,  as  to  slavery  within  the  States,  a  con- 
stitutional prohibition  of  interference. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  idea  that  a  free  State  is  never  to  be 
admitted  to  the  Union  without  a  slave  State  to  match  it,  is,  in 


I 
680  THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

my  judgment,  as  impracticable  as  it  is  unjustifiable.  We  shall 
have  to  enter  upon  a  fresh  career  of  annexation  and  conquest  to 
carry  it  out,  —  if  it  is  to  be  carried  out  at  all.  When  Texas 
shall  have  been  exhausted  by  the  admission  of  the  two  or  three 
more  slave  States,  which  it  has  been  so  strongly  contended  that 
we  have  already  stipulated  to  admit,  you  will  have  to  go  farther 
and  farther  South  to  find  fresh  material  to  manufacture  slave 
States  out  of,  for  the  sake  of  equilibrium. 

Walter  Scott,  in  one  of  his  inimitable  essays,  under  the  sobri- 
quet of  Malachi  Malagrowther,  tells  us  of  a  castle  of  the  olden 
time,  the  steward  of  which  had  such  a  passion  for  regularity, 
that  when  a  poacher,  or  a  rogue  of  any  sort,  was  caught  and  put 
in  the  pillory  on  one  side  of  the  gate,  he  gave  half  a  crown  to 
an  honest  laborer  to  stand  in  the  other  pillory  opposite  to  him ! 
This,  Sir,  was  all  for  uniformity's  sake,  and  to  preserve  the  equi- 
librium. And  we  shall  have  to  adopt  a  similar  course,  if  this 
idea  of  equilibrium  is  to  be  adopted  ;  we  shall  be  called  on 
systematically  to  plant  slavery  upon  free  soil,  if  not  to  put 
manacles  upon  free  men,  for  uniformity's  sake. 

Sir,  you  did  not  wait  for  a  free  State  to  come  in  hand-in-hand 
with  Texas.  You  regarded  no  principles  of  equilibrium  or 
uniformity  on  that  occasion.  You  brought  her  in  to  disturb  the 
equilibrium  then  existing,  and  to  secure  for  the  South  a  pre- 
ponderance in  at  least  one  branch  of  the  Government.  And 
with  this  example  in  our  immediate  view,  the  North,  the  free 
States,  cannot  but  feel  aggrieved,  if  the  admission  of  California 
is  to  be  made  in  any  degree  dependent  upon  considerations  of 
this  sort.  We  do  not  say  that  she  has  an  absolute  right  to  be 
admitted  to-day  or  to-morrow.  But  we  do  say,  that  a  rejection 
or  a  postponement  of  her  admission,  on  mere  grounds  of  sec- 
tional equilibrium,  would  be  an  offence  without  either  provoca- 
tion or  justification. 

And  now,  Sir,  entertaining  such  views,  I  need  hardly  add  that, 
in  my  judgment,  California  ought  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union 
without  more  delay,  as  a  separate,  independent  measure.  I  am 
opposed  to  any  scheme  for  qualifying  or  coupling  it  with  other 
arrangements.  I  am  opposed  to  all  omnibus  bills,  and  all  amal- 
gamation projects.     It  is  unjust  to  California  to  embarrass,  and 


AND   THE  ADJUSTMENT   OF  THE   SLAVERY  QUESTION.         681 

perhaps  peril,  her  admission,  by  mixing  her  up  with  matters  of  a 
controverted  character.  It  is  still  more  unjust  to  a  large  majority 
of  this  House,  who  desire  to  record  their  names  distinctly  for  her 
admission  as  a  State,  to  deny  them  the  proper,  legitimate,  parlia- 
mentary mode  of  doing  so,  by  annexing  to  the  same  bill  pro- 
visions against  which  not  a  few  of  them  are  solemnly  pledged. 
"What  would  Southern  gentlemen  say,  if  we  were  wantonly  to 
insist  on  inserting  a  Wilmot  proviso  in  the  California  bill?  Let 
them  forbear  to  teach  us  bloody  instructions,  which  may  return 
to  plague  the  inventor.  The  ingredients  of  the  poisoned  chalice 
may  yet  be  commended  to  their  own  lips.  Let  them  remember, 
that  there  may  be  a  point  of  honor  at  the  North  as  well  as  at 
the  South.  Let  them  remember,  that  the  same  voice  of  patriot- 
ism which  cries  to  the  North  "  give  up,"  says  to  the  South  also 
"  keep  not  back."  Let  them  reflect,  how  far  it  is  generous 
towards  those  Northern  members  who  have  consented  thus  far 
to  waive  any  struggle  for  the  proviso,  to  drive  them  to  the  odious 
alternative  of  rejecting  what  they  desire  to  adopt,  or  of  adopting 
what  they  may  feel  constrained  to  reject. 

And  now,  Sir,  turning  from  California,  what  remains  ?  New 
Mexico  and  Utah.  And  what  are  we  to  do  with  them? 
Nothing,  nothing,  I  reply,  which  shall  endanger  the  harmony 
and  domestic  peace  of  these  United  States. 

Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Chairman,  my  own  honest  impulse  and 
earnest  disposition  would  be  to  organize  territorial  governments 
over  both  of  them,  and  to  ingraft  upon  those  governments  the 
principles  of  the  ordinance  of  1787.  If  I  were  consulting  only 
my  own  feelings,  or  what  I  believe  to  be  the  wishes  and  views 
of  the  people  of  New  England,  this  would  be  my  unhesitating 
course.  Though  believing,  as  I  do,  that  the  laws  of  Mexico, 
abolishing  slavery,  are  still  in  force  there,  I  would  yet  make 
assurance  doubly  sure,  and  take  a  bond  of  fate,  against  the  intro- 
duction of  slavery  into  any  territory  where  it  does  not  already 
exist. 

But,  Sir,  I  am  not  for  overturning  the  government  of  my 
country,  or  for  running  any  risk  of  so  disastrous  a  result,  in 
order  to  accomplish  this  object  in  the  precise  mode  which  would 
be  most  satisfactory  to  myself.     No,   Sir;  nor  would  I  press 


682  THE  ADMISSION   OP   CALIFORNIA 

such  a  course  pertinaciously  upon  Congress,  even  although  the 
consequences  should  be  nothing  more  serious  than  to  plant  a 
sting  in  the  bosoms  of  the  people  of  the  South,  or  to  leave  an 
impression  in  their  minds  that  they  had  been  wronged  and 
humiliated  by  the  government  of  their  own  country. 

I  hold  to  the  entire  equality  of  all  the  citizens  of  this  Repub- 
lic, and  of  all  the  States  of  this  Union.  And  while  I  wholly 
deny  that  the  course  which  I  have  suggested  would  in  any 
degree  infringe  upon  this  equality,  while  I  can  by  no  means 
admit  that  a  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  territories  would 
encroach  a  hair's  breadth  upon  the  just  rights  of  the  Southern 
States  or  the  Southern  people,  I  would  yet  willingly  and  gladly 
forbear  from  any  unnecessary  act,  which  could  even  give  color  to 
such  an  idea.  So  far  as  my  own  sense  of  duty  will  allow  me 
to  go,  or  to  forbear  from  going,  it  shall  never  be  my  fault,  if 
any  human  being  in  this  wide-spread  Republic  shall  even  ima- 
gine that  he  has  been  injured  or  assailed  either  in  his  person, 
his  property,  or  his  feelings. 

What,  then,  am  I  ready  to  do  ?  Sir,  I  have  already  expressed 
my  intention  to  stand  by  the  President's  plan  on  this  subject ; 
and  nothing  has  since  occurred  to  change  that  intention.  I 
have  heard  this  plan  stigmatized  as  a  weak  and  contemptible 
plan  ;  but  I  believe  it  to  be  a  wise  and  patriotic  plan,  and  one 
which,  whether  it  succeeds  or  fails,  will  have  entitled  the  Presi- 
dent to  the  unmingled  respect  and  gratitude  of  the  American 
people. 

My  honorable  friend  from  New  York  (Mr.  Duer)  has  antici- 
pated me  in  most  of  the  views  which  I  had  intended  to  take  of 
this  plan,  and  I  should  only  weaken  their  impression  by  pre- 
senting them  over  again.  But  I  cannot  forbear  dwelling  for  a 
moment  upon  a  single  consideration  connected  with  it. 

The  President,  in  his  annual  message,  after  stating  his  belief 
that  "  the  people  of  New  Mexico  would,  at  no  very  distant  day, 
present  themselves  for  admission  into  the  Union,"  says  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  By  awaiting  their  action,  all  causes  of  uneasiness  may  be  avoided,  and  confidence 
and  kind  feeling  preserved.  With  a  view  of  maintaining  the  harmony  and  tranquillity 
so  dear  to  all,  we  should  abstain  from  the  introduction  of  those  exciting  topics  of  a 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.     683 

sectional  character  which  have  hitherto  produced  painful  apprehensions  in  the  public 
mind  ;  and  I  repeat  the  solemn  warning  of  the  first  and  most  illustrious  of  my  prede- 
cessors against  furnishing  '  any  ground  for  characterizing  parties  by  geographical  dis- 
criminations.' " 

Again,  in  his  message  of  January  21,  communicating  his 
views  in  more  detail  upon  the  subject  before  us,  he  says : 

"  No  material  inconvenience  will  result  from  the  want,  for  a  short  period,  of  a 
government  established  by  Congress  over  that  part  of  the  territory  which  lies  east- 
ward of  the  new  State  of  California ;  and  the  reasons  for  my  opinion,  that  New  Mex- 
ico will  at  no  very  distant  period  ask  for  admission  into  the  Union,  are  founded  on 
unofficial  information,  which  I  suppose  is  common  to  all  who  have  cared  to  make 
inquiries  on  that  subject. 

"  Seeing,  then,  that  the  question  which  now  excites  such  painful  sensations  in  the 
country,  will  in  the  end  certainly  be  settled  by  the  silent  effect  of  causes  independent 
of  the  action  of  Congress,  I  again  submit  to  your  wisdom  the  policy  recommended  in 
my  annual  message,  of  awaiting  the  salutary  operation  of  those  causes,  believing  that 
we  shall  thus  avoid  the  creation  of  geographical  parties,  and  secure  the  harmony  of 
feeling  so  necessary  to  the  beneficial  action  of  our  political  system." 

This,  Sir,  is  the  great  beauty,  the  crowning  grace  of  the  Presi- 
dent's proposition.  His  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  only  plan  which 
gives  a  triumph  to  neither  side  of  this  controversy,  and  to 
neither  section  of  the  Union,  and  which,  thus,  leaves  no  just 
pretence  for  the  formation  of  geographical  parties. 

The  passage  of  what  has  been  called  the  Wilmot  proviso 
would,  we  all  understand,  under  present  circumstances,  unite 
the  South  as  one  man,  and  if  it  did  not  actually  rend  the  Union 
asunder,  would  create  an  alienation  and  aversion  in  that  quarter 
of  the  country,  which  would  render  the  Union  hardly  worth  pre- 
serving. 

On  the  other  hand,  Sir,  I  cannot  suppress  my  apprehensions, 
that  the  organization  of  territorial  governments  by  Congress 
without  any  anti-slavery  clause,  would  only  transfer  the  agita- 
tion and  indignation  to  the  other  end  of  the  Republic,  and 
would  tend  freshly  to  inflame  a  spirit  which  we  all  desire,  and 
which  Southern  men,  especially,  cannot  fail  to  desire,  to  see  for- 
ever extinguished. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  must  be  something  of  reciprocity  in  any 
arrangement  by  which  this  question  is  to  be  settled.  But  I  can 
see  none,  none  whatever,  in  the  plan  of  admitting  California, 
organizing  the  two  territories  without  condition,  and  settling  the 


684  THE  ADMISSION   OP  CALIFORNIA 

boundaries  of  Texas,  as  proposed  in  the  same  bill.  What  con- 
cession does  the  South  make  in  such  an  arrangement?  The 
admission  of  California?  I  cannot  admit  that  there  is  any  con- 
cession in  that.  If  there  be  any  objections  to  the  admission  of 
California,  they  are  national  and  not  sectional  in  their  character, 
arising  out  of  irregularities  in  her  preparatory  proceedings,  and 
not  out  of  the  substantial  provisions  of  her  Constitution.  And 
yet,  in  consideration  of  this  admission,  the  North  is  called  on 
not  merely  to  waive  any  anti-slavery  action  in  regard  to  two 
territories,  but  to  sanction,  as  I  understand  it,  the  positive  intro- 
duction of  slavery  where  the  South  itself  has  already  prohibited 
it.  By  the  resolutions  of  annexation,  all  of  Texas  above  36° 
30'  is  to  be  free  soil ;  but,  by  this  plan,  we  are  to  purchase  all 
this,  and  unite  it  to  New  Mexico,  and  then  abrogate  the  prohi- 
bition ! 

Sir,  the  true  ground  for  conciliation  is  the  middle  ground,  on 
which  both  sides  can  meet  without  the  abandonment  of  any 
principle,  or  the  sacrifice  of  any  point  of  honor.  Such,  in  my 
judgment,  is  the  ground  upon  which  the  President  has  planted 
himself;  and  I  cannot  hesitate  to  express  my  belief,  that  if  party 
feelings  had  never  entered  into  this  question ;  if  these  pernicious 
and  poisonous  elements  could  have  been  eliminated  from  the 
controversy  in  which  we  are  engaged,  the  great  mass  of  the 
American  people,  from  the  South  and  from  the  North,  from  the 
West  and  from  the  East,  would  have  been  found  rallying  round 
the  Executive  upon  this  precise  ground,  and  settling  all  their 
differences  in  harmony  and  concord. 

Tell  me  not  that  New  Mexico  and  Utah  may  be  left  a  little 
while  longer  without  a  government  by  such  a  course.  Better 
that  they  should  go  without  a  government  forever,  than  that  our 
own  Government  should  be  broken  up !  Better  that  they  should 
be  sundered  from  us  eternally,  than  that  they  should  be  instru- 
mental in  sundering  us  from  each  other !  But  no  such  alterna- 
tive is  involved  in  this  policy.  The  people  who  occupy  those 
territories  are  capable  of  self-government,  and  no  sooner  shall 
we  have  finally  announced  to  them  this  policy,  than  they  will 
follow  the  example  of  California,  and  relieve  us  of  all  further 
responsibility. 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.     685 

It  has  been  suggested  in  some  quarters  that  the  President  has 
changed  his  position,  and  deserted  his  original  platform.  This  is 
not  the  first  time,  Sir,  that  such  a  charge  has  been  brought  against 
General  Taylor.  The  Mexicans  proclaimed  that  he  had  changed 
his  plan,  and  deserted  his  post,  and  fled  from  the  defence  of  his 
friends,  when  he  made  that  masterly  and  matchless  movement 
from  Fort  Brown  to  Point  Isabel.  But  they  discovered  their 
error  before  many  days  were  over,  and  found,  to  their  cost,  that 
they  had  mistaken  their  man.  I  have  not  the  slightest  authority 
to  speak  for  the  President,  nor  would  it  be  parliamentary  for  me 
to  do  so,  if  I  had ;  but  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  the  belief,  that 
those  who  imagine  that  he  either  has  changed,  or  means  to 
change,  his  views  on  this  subject,  will  be  equally  disappointed. 

For  myself,  Sir,  I  can  truly  say  that  I  adopt  this  plan  in  a 
spirit  of  conciliation  and  concession,  regarding  it  as  a  compro- 
mise worthy  of  a  Southern  President  to  offer,  and  worthy  of  both 
the  Southern  and  the  Northern  people  to  accept. 

I  know  that  there  have  been  many  reproaches  and  criminations 
dealt  out  against  some  of  us  by  the  ultraists  of  the  free  States, 
for  being  willing  to  make  even  this  compromise.  Because  we 
are  not  quite  so  clamorous  and  rampant  in  regard  to  the  anti- 
slavery  proviso  as  some  of  its  peculiar  friends,  we  are  charged 
with  inconsistency,  desertion,  and  treachery.  Now,  Sir,  I  am 
one  of  those  who  think  that  Northern  men  can  afford  to  be  a 
little  forbearing  upon  this  subject,  without  incurring  any  just 
liability  to  such  imputations.  I  am  of  opinion  that  there  is 
ample  reason  to  be  found  in  the  changed  condition  of  public 
affairs,  in  the  altered  circumstances  of  the  case,  for  the  evident 
relaxation  of  the  Northern  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  this  pro- 
viso, and  for  the  manifest  willingness  of  the  Northern  mind  to 
acquiesce  in  what  has  been  called  the  non-action  policy  of  the 
President. 

Why,  Sir,  at  the  time  that  proviso  was  originally  proposed, 
at  the  time  it  was  made  the  subject  of  such  ardent  protestations 
of  uncompromising  devotion,  what  was  the  state  of  the  country 
and  of  the  question  ?  We  were  then  at  war  with  Mexico,  and 
with  the  strongest  reason  to  apprehend  that  this  war  was  to 
be  pressed  even  to  the  extinction  and  absorption  of  the  whole 

58 


686  THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

Mexican  Republic.  A  vast,  undefined  extension  of  territory  was 
thus  in  prospect,  upon  which  slavery  was,  or  was  not,  to  be 
planted  and  established.  That  war,  thank  Heaven,  has  been 
brought  to  a  close.  We  are  now  at  peace  ;  and  what  is  more? 
the  treaty  of  peace  has  been  so  arranged,  and  the  boundary 
line  so  run,  that  though  we  may  hesitate  to  admit  that  Nature 
has  everywhere  settled  the  question  against  slavery,  we  must, 
yet,  all  perceive  and  acknowledge  that  the  territory  which  has 
been  acquired  holds  out  but  little  comparative  temptation  or 
inducement  to  its  introduction. 

What  else  has  occurred  ?  Why,  Sir,  at  the  time  we  all  com- 
mitted ourselves  so  hotly  to  the  support  of  the  proviso,  no  govern- 
ment had  yet  been  established  in  Oregon,  and  a  purpose  had 
been  exhibited  to  insist  upon  the  right  of  slavery  to  go  there. 
Since  then,  the  principles  of  the  ordinance  of  1787  have  been 
extended,  by  solemn  enactment,  over  that  whole  territory. 

What  further  have  we  witnessed  ?  Why,  Sir,  California, 
California,  a  thousand-fold  the  most  important  and  valuable 
part  of  the  territories  acquired  from  Mexico,  has  settled  the  ques- 
tion for  herself,  and  spontaneously  dedicated  the  treasures  of  her 
virgin  soil,  and  the  riches  of  her  magnificent  mines,  to  the  labor 
of  freemen  forever! 

Now,  I  do  not  say  that  there  is  to  be  found  in  all  this  the  slight- 
est justification  for  an  abandonment  of  Northern  principle.  But 
is  there  not,  is  there  not,  ample  reason  for  an  abatement  of  the 
Northern  tone,  for  a  forbearance  of  Northern  urgency,  upon  this 
subject,  without  the  imputation  of  tergiversation  and  treachery? 

I  think  that  I  do  not  undervalue  the  importance  of  the 
great  principles  of  the  ordinance  of  1787,  and  of  that  proviso 
which  I  prefer  henceforth  to  associate  with  the  great  names  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and  Nathan  Dane,  and  Rufus  King,  rather 
than  with  that  of  any  public  man  of  the  present  day,  however 
distinguished  or  notorious  he  may  have  become.  But  I  can 
never  put  the  question  of  extending  slave  soil  on  the  same  foot- 
ing with  one  of  directly  increasing  slavery  and  multiplying  slaves. 
If  a  positive  issue  could  ever  again  be  made  up  for  our  decision, 
whether  human  beings,  few  or  many,  of  whatever  race,  complex- 
ion, or  condition,  should  be  freshly  subjected  to  a  system  of  here- 


AND  THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.    687 

ditary  bondage,  and  be  changed  from  freemen  into  slaves,  I  can 
conceive  that  no  bonds  of  union,  no  ties  of  interest,  no  chords 
of  sympathy,  no  considerations  of  past  glory,  present  welfare, 
or  future  grandeur,  would  be  suffered  to  interfere  for  an  instant 
with  our  resolute  and  unceasing  resistance  to  a  measure  so  ini- 
quitous and  abominable.  There  would  be  a  clear,  unquestion- 
able, moral  element  in  such  an  issue,  which  would  admit  of  no 
compromise,  no  concession,  no  forbearance  whatever.  We  could 
never  sanction  such  a  policy ;  we  could  never  submit  to  it.  A 
million  of  swords  would  leap  from  their  scabbards  to  arrest  it, 
and  the  Union  itself  would  be  shivered  like  a  Prince  Rupert's 
drop  in  the  shock. 

But  the  question  whether  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  it 
already  exists,  shall  be  permitted  to  extend  itself  over  a  hundred, 
or  a  hundred  thousand,  more  square  miles  than  it  now  occupies, 
is  a  very  different  question.  The  influences  of  such  a  policy  upon 
the  ultimate  extinction  of  slavery,  and  upon  the  condition  of  its 
unfortunate  victims  as  long  as  it  lasts,  may  well  be  a  subject  for 
careful  consideration.  There  may  be  two  sides  even  to  some  of 
the  moral  aspects  of  the  question.  At  any  rate,  Sir,  it  is  not,  in 
my  judgment,  such  an  issue,  that  conscientious  and  religious  men 
may  not  be  free  to  acquiesce  in  whatever  decision  may  be 
arrived  at  by  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  country. 

For  myself,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  can  truly  say,  that  it  is  not  with 
a  view  of  cooping  up  slavery,  as  it  has  been  termed,  within 
limits  too  narrow  for  its  natural  growth  ;  that  it  is  not  for  the 
purpose  of  girding  it  round  with  lines  of  fire  till  its  sting,  like 
that  of  the  scorpion,  shall  be  turned  upon  itself ;  that  it  is  not 
for  the  sake  of  subjecting  it  to  a  sort  of  experimentum  cruris  ; 
that  I,  for  one,  have  ever  advocated  the  principles  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787.  Nor  have  I  the  slightest  imagination  that  such 
would  be  the  result  of  enforcing  those  principles,  within  any 
estimable  period  of  time. 

Why,  are  you  aware,  Sir,  do  Southern  gentlemen  remember, 
that  what  are  called  the  slave  States  of  this  Union,  Texas  to  the 
Rio  Grande  being  included,  contain  about  nine  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  square  miles  of  territory,  with  a  white  population, 
by  the  census  of  1840,  of  considerably  less  than  five  millions  of 


688  THE  ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

people  ?  Allow,  if  you  please,  that  this  population  has  increased, 
during  the  last  ten  years,  sufficiently  to  bring  up  the  whole  exist- 
ing population,  slaves  included,  to  nine  millions  of  people.  Tou 
have  then  less  than  ten  persons,  black  and  white,  bond  and  free, 
to  a  square  mile  of  territory !  Is  there  not  room  enough  here 
for  every  degree  of  expansion  which  can  be  predicted,  upon  the 
largest  calculation,  for  a  century  to  come? 

Meantime,  Sir,  do  not  forget,  that  the  free  States,  with  a 
population,  by  the  census  of  1840,  of  more  than  nine  millions 
and  a  half,  and  which  must  now  have  run  up  to  not  less  than 
thirteen  or  fourteen  millions,  have  only  about  four  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  square  miles.  In  other  words,  the  free  States,  at 
this  moment,  have  thirty  persons  to  a  square  mile,  while  the 
slave  Stated  have  only  ten ! 

I  exclude  all  the  territories  in  this  calculation.  But  it  is  a 
striking  fact,  that  if  all  the  territories,  without  exception,  not 
included  within  the  "limits  of  any  State,  were  added  to  the  free 
States,  and  a  proportion  were  then  instituted  between  the  num- 
ber of  square  miles  occupied  by  the  free  white  population  of  the 
two  classes  of  States,  it  would  be  found  that  the  slave  States 
would  fall  but  little  short  of  their  full  share.  And  this,  Sir,  with- 
out making  any  allowance  for  the  uninhabitable  deserts  and 
frozen  wastes  and  mountains  of  rock  and  ice,  by  which  these 
territories  are  so  greatly  curtailed  in  their  dimensions,  so  far  as 
any  practical  purposes  of  occupation  or  enjoyment  are  con- 
cerned. 

I  repeat,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  not  with  the  vain  idea  of 
crowding  slavery  out  of  existence,  that  I  adhere  to  the  principles 
of  the  ordinance  of  1787. 

Nor  is  it,  Sir,  upon  any  consideration  of  local  power,  or  with 
any  view  of  securing  a  sectional  preponderance.  For  one,  I  see 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  an  ample  security 
against  any  real  aggression  which  either  section  of  the  Union 
could  be  tempted  to  commit  against  the  other.  And  even  if  it 
were  not  so,  there  is  a  peculiar  tie  of  common  interest  among 
the  slave  States,  growing  out  of  this  very  institution  of  slavery, 
which  always  has  made  them,  and  always  will  make  them,  a 
full  match  for  any  number  of  free  States  which  may  be  included 


AND   THE  ADJUSTMENT   OF  THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION.  689 

within  the  limits  of  this  Union.  In  our  local  competitions  and 
party  differences,  they  will  find  ample  room  for  the  exercise  of  a 
controlling  influence.  I  am  not  sure  that  it  is  not  their  destiny 
always  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  among  States  and  between 
parties,  and  thus  to  be  able  to  adopt  the  proud  motto,  —  prceest 
cui  adhoereo,  —  which  may  be  liberally  interpreted  "  he  shall  be 
President,  to  whom  I  adhere  ! " 

Sir,  the  territories  which  have  come  under  our  guardianship 
are,  in  my  judgment,  of  more  worth  than  to  be  made  the  mere 
make-weights  in  the  scales  of  sectional  equality.  They  are 
entitled  to  another  sort  of  consideration,  than  to  be  cut  up  and 
partitioned  off,  like  down-trodden  Poland,  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
longings,  and  appease  the  jealousies,  of  surrounding  States. 
They  are  —  they  ought  certainly  —  to  be  disposed  of  and  regu- 
lated by  us,  with  a  primary  regard  to  the  prosperity  and  welfare 
of  those  who  occupy  them  now,  and  of  those  who  are  destined  to 
occupy  them  hereafter,  and  not  with  the  selfish  view  of  augment- 
ing the  mere  local  power  or  pride  of  any  of  us. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  see  in  the  territorial  possessions  of  this 
Union,  the  seats  of  new  States,  the  cradles  of  new  Common- 
wealths, the  nurseries,  it  may  be,  of  new  Republican  empires.  I 
see,  in  them,  the  future  abodes  of  our  brethren,  our  children,  and 
our  children's  children,  for  a  thousand  generations.  I  see,  grow- 
ing up  within  their  borders,  institutions  upon  which  the  charac- 
ter and  condition  of  a  vast  multitude  of  the  American  family, 
and  of  the  human  race,  in  all  time  to  come,  are  to  depend.  I 
feel,  that  for  the  original  shaping  and  moulding  of  these  institu- 
tions, you  and  I,  and  each  one  of  us  who  occupy  these  seats,  are 
in  part  responsible.  And  I  cannot  omit  to  ask  myself,  what 
shall  I  do,  that  I  may  deserve  the  gratitude  and  the  blessing,  and 
not  the  condemnation  and  the  curse,  of  that  posterity,  whose 
welfare  is  thus  in  some  degree  committed  to  my  care  ? 

As  I  pursue  this  inquiry,  Sir,  I  look  back  instinctively  to  the 
day,  now  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  Atlantic 
coast  was  the  scene  of  events  like  those  now  in  progress  upon 
the  Pacific ;  when  incited,  not,  indeed,  by  a  love  of  gold,  but 
by  a  devotion  to  that  which  is  better  than  gold,  and  whose  price 
is  above  rubies,  the  forefathers  of  New  England  were  planting 
58* 


690  THE   ADMISSION   OF   CALIFORNIA 

their  little  colony  upon  that  rock -bound  shore.  I  look  back  to 
the  day  when  slavery  existed  nowhere  upon  the  American  con- 
tinent, and  before  that  first  Dutch  ship,  "  built  in  the  eclipse,  and 
rigged  with  curses  dark,"  had  made  its  way  to  Jamestown,  with 
a  cargo  of  human  beings  in  bondage.  I  reflect  how  much  our 
fathers  would  have  exulted,  could  they  have  arrested  the  pro- 
gress of  that  ill-starred  vessel,  and  of  all  others  of  kindred 
employment.  I  remember  how  earnestly  the  patriots  of  Virgi- 
nia and  South  Carolina  again  and  again  pleaded  and  protested 
against  the  policy  of  Great  Britain  in  forcing  slaves  upon  them 
against  their  will.  I  recall  the  original  language  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  itself,  as  first  drafted  by  Thomas  Jefferson, 
assigning  it  as  one  of  the  moving  causes  for  throwing  off  our 
allegiance  to  the  British  monarch,  that  "  he  had  waged  cruel  war 
against  human  nature  itself,  violating  its  most  sacred  rights  of 
life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people  who  never 
offended  him,  captivating  and  carrying  them  into  slavery  in 
another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in  their  trans- 
portation thither ; "  and  that,  "  determined  to  keep  open  a 
market  where  men  should  be  bought  and  sold,  he  had  prostitu- 
ted his  negative  for  suppressing  every  legislative  attempt  to 
prohibit  or  to  restrain  this  execrable  commerce." 

I  remember,  too,  that  whatever  material  advantages  may  have 
since  been  derived  from  slave  labor,  in  the  cultivation  of  a  crop 
which  was  then  unknown  to  our  country,  the  moral  character 
and  social  influences  of  the  institution  are  still  precisely  what 
they  were  described  to  be,  by  those  who  understood  them  best, 
in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Republic.     And  I  see,  too,  as  no  man 
can  help  seeing,  that  almost  all  the  internal  dangers  and  domes- 
tic dissensions  which  cast  a  doubt,  or  a  shadow  of  doubt,  upon 
the  perpetuity  of  our  glorious  Union,  have  been,  and  still  are, 
the  direct  or  indirect  consequences  of  the  existence  of  this  insti- 
tution.    And  thus  seeing,  thus  remembering,  thus  reflecting,  how 
can  I  do  otherwise  than  resolve,  that  it  shall  be  by  no  vote  of 
mine,  that  slavery  shall  be  established  in  any  territory  where  it 
does  not  already  exist  ? 

These,  Mr.  Chairman,  are  the  considerations  which  influence 
and  control  my  action  on  the  questions  before  us.     I  do  not  ask, 


AND   THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION.  691 

what  the  Northern  States,  or  what  the  Southern  States,  might 
find  most  agreeable  to  their  feelings,  or  most  advantageous  to 
their  interests.  I  ask  only,  —  what  is  right,  what  is  just,  what  is 
best,  for  the  permanent  welfare  of  the  people  of  those  future 
commonwealths,  whose  foundations  are  now  about  to  be  laid, 
and  whose  destinies  are  now  about  to  be  determined  ?  And  all 
my  observation,  all  my  experience,  all  the  convictions  of  my 
mind  and  of  my  heart,  unite  in  replying  to  this  question,  that 
slavery  is  not  only  an  injustice  and  a  wrong  to  those  who  are 
under  its  immediate  yoke,  but  that  it  is  an  evil  and  an  injury  to 
the  highest  social,  moral,  and  political  interests  of  any  State  in 
which  it  exists. 

Here,  then,  Sir,  I  bring  these  remarks  to  a  close.  I  have  ex- 
plained, to  the  best  of  my  ability,  the  views  which  I  entertain 
of  the  great  questions  of  the  day.  Those  views  may  be  mis- 
represented hereafter,  as  they  have  been  heretofore ;  but  they 
cannot  be  misunderstood  by  any  one  who  desires,  or  who  is  even 
willing,  to  understand  them.  Most  gladly  would  I  have  found 
myself  agreeing  more  entirely  with  some  of  the  friends  whom  I 
see  around  me,  and  with  more  than  one  of  those  elsewhere,  with 
whom  I  have  always  been  proud  to  be  associated,  and  whose 
lead,  on  almost  all  occasions,  I  have  rejoiced  to  follow. 

One  tie,  however,  I  am  persuaded,  still  remains  to  us  all —  a 
common  devotion  to  the  Union  of  these  States,  and  a  common 
determination  to  sacrifice  every  thing  but  principle  to  its  preser- 
vation. Our  responsibilities  are  indeed  great.  This  vast  Re- 
public, stretching  from  sea  to  sea,  and  rapidly  outgrowing  every 
thing  but  our  affections,  looks  anxiously  to  us,  this  day,  to  take 
care  that  it  receives  no  detriment.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say, 
that  the  eyes  and  the  hearts  of  the  friends  of  constitutional  free- 
dom throughout  the  world,  are  at  this  moment  turned  eagerly 
here  —  more  eagerly  than  ever  before  —  to  behold  an  example  of 
successful  republican  institutions,  and  to  see  them  come  out 
safely  and  triumphantly  from  the  fiery  trial  to  which  they  are 
now  subjected ! 

I  have  the  firmest  faith  that  these  eyes  and  these  hearts  will 
not  be  disappointed.  I  have  the  strongest  belief  that  the  visions 
and  phantoms  of  disunion  which  now  appall  us,  will  soon  be 


92  THE  ADMISSION  OP  CALIFORNIA,  ETC. 

remembered  only  like  the  clouds  of  some  April  morning,  or  "the 
dissolving  views  "  of  some  evening  spectacle.  I  have  the  fullest 
conviction  that  this  glorious  Republic  is  destined  to  outlast  all, 
all,  at  either  end  of  the  Union,  who  may  be  plotting  against  its 
peace,  or  predicting  its  downfall. 

"  Fond,  impious  man!  think'st  thou,  yon  sanguine  cloud, 
Kais'd  by  thy  breath,  has  quench'd  the  orb  of  day  ? 
To-morrow,  he  repairs  the  golden  flood, 
And  warms  the  nations  with  redoubled  ray ! " 

Let  us  proceed  in  the  settlement  of  the  unfortunate  contro- 
versies in  which  we  find  ourselves  involved  in  a  spirit  of  mutual 
conciliation  and  concession.  Let  us  invoke  fervently  upon  our 
efforts  the  blessing  of  that  Almighty  Being  who  is  "  the  author 
of  peace  and  the  lover  of  concord."  And  we  shall  still  find 
order  springing  out  of  confusion,  harmony  evoked  from  discord, 
and  Peace,  Union,  and  Liberty,  once  more  reassured  to  our  land ! 


THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  TAYLOR. 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  ON  THE  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  GENERAL  TAYLOR, 
JULY  10,  J  850. 


It  would  not  be  easily  excused,  Mr.  Speaker,  by  those  whom 
I  represent  in  this  Hall,  if  there  were  no  Massachusetts  voice  to 
respond  to  the  eulogy  which  has  been  pronounced  by  Louisiana 
upon  her  illustrious  and  lamented  son.  Indeed,  neither  my  per- 
sonal feelings  nor  my  political  relations,  either  to  the  living  or  to 
the  dead,  would  permit  me  to  remain  altogether  silent  on  this 
occasion.  And  yet,  Sir,  I  confess,  I  know  not  how  to  say  any 
thing  satisfactory  to  myself,  or  suitable  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  hour. 

The  event  which  has  just  been  officially  announced,  has  come 
upon  us  so  suddenly  —  has  so  overwhelmed  us  with  mingled 
emotions  of  surprise  and  sadness  —  that  all  ordinary  forms  of 
expression  seem  to  lose  their  significance,  and  one  would  fain 
bow  his  head  to  the  blow  in  silence,  until  its  first  shock  has  in 
some  degree  passed  away. 

Certainly,  Sir,  no  one  can  fail  to  realize  that  a  most  moment- 
ous and  mysterious  Providence  has  been  manifested  in  our 
midst.  At  a  moment  when,  more  than  almost  ever  before  in 
our  history,  the  destinies  of  our  country  seemed,  to  all  human 
sight,  to  be  inseparably  associated  with  the  character  and  con- 
duct of  its  Chief  Executive  Magistrate,  that  Magistrate  has  been 
summoned  from  his  post,  by  the  only  messenger  whose  man- 
dates he  might  not  have  defied,  and  has  been  withdrawn  forever 
from  the  sphere  of  human  existence ! 


694  THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  TAYLOR. 

There  are  those  of  us,  I  need  not  say.  Sir,  who  had  looked  to 
him  with  affection  and  reverence  as  our  chosen  leader  and  guide 
in  the  difficulties  and  perplexities  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 
There  are  those  of  us,  who  had  relied  confidently  on  him,  as 
upon  no  other  man,  to  uphold  the  Constitution  and  maintain  the 
Union  of  the  country  in  that  future,  upon  which  "  shadows,  clouds 
and  darkness"  may  well  be  said  to  rest.  And,  as  we  now 
behold  him,  borne  away  by  the  hand  of  God  from  our  sight,  in 
the  very  hour  of  peril,  we  can  hardly  repress  the  exclamation, 
which  was  applied  to  the  departing  prophet  of  old :  "  My  father, 
my  father!  the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof." 

Let  me  not  even  seem  to  imply,  however,  that  the  death  of 
General  Taylor  is  any  thing  less  than  a  national  loss.  There 
may  be,  and  we  know  there  is,  in  this  event,  a  privileged  and 
preeminent  grief  for  his  immediate  family  and  relatives,  to  which 
we  can  only  offer  the  assurance  of  our  heartfelt  sympathy.  There 
is,  too,  a  peculiar  sorrow  for  his  political  friends  and  supporters, 
which  we  would  not  affect  to  conceal.  But  the  whole  people  of 
the  United  States  will  feel,  and  will  bear  witness,  when  they 
receive  these  melancholy  tidings,  that  they  have  all  been  called 
to  sustain  a  most  afflicting  national  bereavement. 

I  hazard  nothing,  Sir,  in  saying,  that  the  roll  of  our  Chief 
Magistrates,  since  1789,  illustrious  as  it  is,  presents  the  name  of 
no  man  who  has  enjoyed  a  higher  reputation  with  his  contem- 
poraries, or  who  will  enjoy  a  higher  reputation  with  posterity, 
than  Zachary  Taylor,  for  some  of  the  best  and  noblest  qualities 
which  adorn  our  nature. 

His  indomitable  courage,  his  unimpeachable  honesty,  his 
Spartan  simplicity  and  sagacity,  his  frankness,  kindness,  mode- 
ration, and  magnanimity,  his  fidelity  to  his  friends,  his  generosity 
and  humanity  to  his  enemies,  the  purity  of  his  private  life,  the 
patriotism  of  his  public  principles,  will  never  cease  to  be  che- 
rished in  the  grateful  remembrance  of  all  just  men  and  all  true- 
hearted  Americans. 

As  a  Soldier  and  a  General,  his  fame  is  associated  with  some 
of  the  proudest  and  most  thrilling  scenes  of  our  military  history. 
He  may  be  literally  said  to  have  conquered  every  enemy  he  has 
met,  save  only  that  last  enemy,  to  which  we  must  all,  in  turn, 
surrender. 


THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  TAILOR.  695 

As  a  Civilian  and  Statesman,  during  the  brief  period  in  which 
he  has  been  permitted  to  enjoy  the  transcendent  honors  which  a 
grateful  country  had  awarded  him,  he  has  given  proof  of  a  devo- 
tion to  duty,  of  an  attachment  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union,  of  a  patriotic  determination  to  maintain  the  peace  of 
our  country,  which  no  trials  or  temptations  could  shake.  He 
has  borne  his  faculties  meekly,  but  firmly.  He  has  been  "  clear 
in  his  great  office."  He  has  known  no  local  partialities  or  pre- 
judices, but  has  proved  himself  capable  of  embracing  his  whole 
country,  in  the  comprehensive  affections  and  regards  of  a  large 
and  generous  heart. 

But  he  has  fallen  almost  at  the  threshold  of  his  civil  career, 
and  at  a  moment  when  some  of  us  were  looking  to  him  to  ren- 
der services  to  the  country,  which  we  had  thought  no  other  man 
could  perform.  Certainly,  Sir,  he  has  died  too  soon  for  every 
body  but  himself.  We  can  hardly  find  it  in  our  hearts  to  repine 
that  the  good  old  man  has  gone  to  his  rest.  We  would  not 
disturb  the  repose  in  which  the  brave  old  soldier  sleeps.  His 
part  in  life  had  been  long  and  faithfully  performed.  In  his  own 
last  words,  "  he  had  always  done  his  duty,  and  he  was  not  afraid 
to  die."  But  our  regrets  for  ourselves  and  for  our  country  are 
deep,  strong,  and  unfeigned.     "  He  should  have  died  hereafter." 

Sir,  it  was  a  fit  and  beautiful  circumstance  in  the  close  of 
such  a  career,  that  his  last  official  appearance  was  at  the 
celebration  of  the  birthday  of  our  National  Independence,  and 
more  especially,  that  his  last  public  act  was  an  act  of  homage 
to  the  memory  of  him,  whose  example  he  had  ever  revered  and 
followed,  and  who,  as  he  himself  so  well  said,  "  was,  by  so  many 
titles,  the  Father  of  his  Country." 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  let  us  hope  that  this  event  may  teach 
us  all  how  vain  is  our  reliance  upon  any  arm  of  flesh.  Let  us 
hope  that  it  may  impress  us  with  a  solemn  sense  of  our  national 
as  well  as  individual  dependence  on  a  higher  than  human  Power. 
Let  us  remember  that  "  the  Lord  is  king,  be  the  people  never  so 
impatient ;  that  He  sitteth  between  the  cherubim,  be  the  earth 
never  so  unquiet."  Let  us,  in  language  which  is  now  hallowed 
to  us  all,  as  having  been  the  closing  and  crowning  sentiment  of 
the  brief  but  admirable  Inaugural  Address  with  which  this  illus- 


696  THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  TAYLOR. 

trious  Patriot  opened  his  Presidential  term,  and  which  it  is  my 
privilege  to  read  at  this  moment  from  the  very  copy  from  which 
it  was  originally  read  by  himself  to  the  American  people,  on 
the  4th  day  of  March,  1849,  —  "  Let  us,"  in  language  in  which 
"  he,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh" —  "let  us  invoke  a  continuance 
of  the  same  Protecting  Care  which  has  led  us  from  small  begin- 
nings to  the  eminence  we  this  day  occupy ;  and  let  us  seek  to 
deserve  that  continuance  by  prudence  and  moderation  in  our 
councils ;  by  well-directed  attempts  to  assuage  the  bitterness 
which  too  often  marks  unavoidable  differences  of  opinion ;  by 
the  promulgation  and  practice  of  just  and  liberal  principles ; 
and  by  an  enlarged  patriotism,  which  shall  acknowledge  no 
limits  but  those  of  our  own  wide-spread  Republic  " 


THE   DEATH   OF   DANIEL   P.   KING. 


REMARKS  MADE  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  ON  THE  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  MR.  KING,  A 
REPRESENTATIVE   FROM   MASSACHUSETTS,   JULY  27,1850. 


If  mere  custom  had  prevailed  on  this  occasion,  Mr.  Speaker, 
it  would  have  fallen  to  me,  as  the  senior  member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Delegation  in  this  Hall,  to  perform  the  sad  duty,  which 
has  been  so  faithfully  and  feelingly  discharged  by  my  friend  and 
colleague,  (Hon.  Julius  Rockwell,)  who  has  just  taken  his  seat. 
I  trust,  therefore,  that  I  may  be  allowed  to  say,  that,  in  yielding, 
as  I  readily  have  done,  to  the  claims  of  a  more  intimate  associa- 
tion and  immediate  companionship  with  the  excellent  person 
whose  death  has  been  announced  to  us,  I  have  not  been  wanting 
in  the  deepest  regret  for  his  loss,  or  in  the  most  sincere  respect 
for  his  memory. 

It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  be  connected  with  Mr.  King 
for  many  years  in  the  Legislature  of  our  own  Commonwealth, 
as  well  as  to  be  with  him  here,  during  the  whole  period  of  his 
seven  years'  service  as  a  member  of  this  House ;  and  I  can  truly 
say,  that  I  have  seldom  met  with  a  more  just  and  worthy  man, 
or  with  one  more  scrupulously  faithful  to  every  obligation  to  his 
neighbor,  his  country,  and  his  God. 

His  devotion  as  a  public  servant,  his  integrity  as  a  private 
citizen,  and  the  high  moral  and  religious  character  which  he 
sustained  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  had  endeared  him  not 
merely  to  his  immediate  constituents,  but  to  the  whole  people  of 
Massachusetts ;  and  there  is  no  one  who  was  more  likely  to 
have  received  at  their  hands,  at  no  distant  day,  the  reward  of  an 
honorable  ambition,  in  the  highest  honors  of  his  native  State. 
59 


698  THE  DEATH   OP  DANIEL  P.   KING. 

Though  he  had  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  an  education,  which 
would  have  fitted  him  for  entering  upon  either  of  what  are  com- 
monly called  the  learned  professions,  his  tastes  had  led  him  to 
agricultural  pursuits.  He  prided  himself,  as  any  one  may  well 
pride  himself,  on  being  a  good  farmer ;  and  the  farmers  of  his 
neighborhood  were  justly  proud  of  him,  as  one  of  the  most  intel- 
ligent, observing,  and  scientific  of  their  number. 

We  may  well  count  it,  Sir,  among  the  consolations  of  this 
hour,  that  he  was  permitted  by  a  kind  Providence,  after  so  long 
a  detention  amid  these  scenes  of  strife,  to  revisit  his  native  fields, 
to  die  under  his  own  roof,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  friends, 
and  to  lie  down  at  last  beneath  the  soil  which  he  had  adorned 
with  his  hand,  and  which  was  so  dear  to  his  heart. 

In  the  beautiful  village  in  which  he  lived,  and  which  is  now 
the  scene  of  so  much  unaffected  sorrow  for  his  loss,  I  venture  to 
say  that  no  sod  will  be  kept  greener  than  that  which  covers  his 
ashes,  and  that  his  name  will  long  be  sadly  but  fondly  associa- 
ted with  the  "  Flower  of  Essex." 


TO   THE   PEOPLE   OF   BOSTON. 

LETTER   OF  ACKNOWLEDGMENT    TO    THE    PEOPLE    OF  BOSTON    ON   RETIRING 
FROM    THEIR    SERVICE,   JULY   CO,  1850.   . 


Fellow-Citizens,  — 

Having  this  day  accepted  the  commission,  with  which  I  have 
been  honored  by  the  Executive  of  the  Commonwealth,  to  supply 
the  vacancy  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  created  by  the 
appointment  of  the  Honorable  Daniel  Webster  to  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State,  my  relations  to  you,  as  your  immediate  Repre- 
sentative in  Congress,  are  dissolved. 

I  cannot  allow  the  occasion  to  pass,  without  expressing  to  you 
all,  the  deep  sense  which  I  entertain  of  the  kindness  and  confi- 
dence which  you  have  manifested  towards  me,  during  the  whole 
period  of  my  public  career. 

It  is  nearly  sixteen  years  since  I  entered  your  service  as  one 
of  your  representatives  in  the  State  Legislature,  and  nearly  ten 
years  have  now  elapsed,  since  I  was  transferred  as  your  sole 
representative  to  the  National  Councils. 

I  should  be  ungrateful  indeed,  were  I  to  return  no  word  of 
acknowledgment  for  the  generous  continuance  of  your  favor 
and  regard,  which  I  have  experienced  during  so  long  a  service. 

The  appointment  with  which  the  Governor  and  Council  of 
Massachusetts  have  now  honored  me  above  my  deserts,  has  only 
anticipated  by  a  few  months  the  time  when  our  relations  were 
to  end,  —  as  my  intention  to  retire  from  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives had  been  openly  declared,  and  was  unalterably  fixed. 

Indeed,  it  was  my  earnest  wish,  as  many  of  you  are  aware, 
to  withdraw  my  name  from  the  candidacy,  at  the  close  of  the  last 
Congressional  term.     Having  then  already  represented  the  Bos- 


700  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  BOSTON. 

ton  District  longer  than  any  one  of  my  predecessors  since  the 
organization  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  having  enjoyed 
the  highest  honors,  and,  I  may  add,  the  heaviest  labors  of  the 
House  of  which  I  was  a  member,  it  was  my  sincere  desire  and 
purpose  to  decline  another  election.  But  my  design  was  over- 
ruled, for  reasons  of  which  I  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  deny  the 
force,  and  by  those  to  whose  judgment  and  authority  I  was  bound 
to  defer. 

In  retiring  now,  fellow-citizens,  from  your  immediate  service, 
I  will  enter  into  no  formal  account  of  my  stewardship,  nor  detain 
you  with  any  discussion  of  the  existing  state  of  public  affairs. 
Other  opportunities  for  such  topics  may  occur  hereafter. 

I  desire  only  to  assure  you,  that  I  shall  bear  with  me  to  other 
scenes  of  duty,  the  proudest  and  most  grateful  recollection  of 
the  constant  indulgence  and  support  which  I  have  received  at 
your  hands ;  and  that  I  shall  never  cease  to  cherish,  whether  in 
public  or  private  life,  the  most  cordial  wishes  for  the  prosperity 
and  welfare  of  my  native  city,  and  for  the  health  and  happiness 
of  all  its  inhabitants. 

Robert  C.  Winthrop. 
Washington,  30th  July,  1850. 


THE 

BOUNDARY  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND  TEXAS. 

REMARKS  IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  ON  THE  BILL  FOR 
ORGANIZING  A  TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  NEW  MEXICO,  AUGUST, 
14,  1850. 


Mr.  President,  — 

The  Senator  from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Chase,)  has  now  for  the  second 
time  indulged  in  a  course  of  remark  on  this  subject,  which,  reluc- 
tant as  I  am  to  trouble  the  Senate,  I  cannot  allow  to  pass  without 
some  notice.  I  understood  him  to  say  at  the  outset,  and  to 
repeat  at  the  close  of  his  remarks,  that  the  main  objection  to  the 
late  compromise  bill  was  the  boundary  line  which  it  proposed  to 
run  between  New  Mexico  and  Texas,  and  the  ten  millions  of 
dollars  which  it  proposed  to  pay  to  the  State  of  Texas  for 
agreeing  to  that  boundary  line. 

Mr.  Chase.  The  statement  which  I  made  was  that  the  main  objection  to  the  series 
of  measures  proposed  by  the  compromise  bill  was,  as  I  understood  it,  the  great  conces- 
sion made  to  Texas  of  territory  believed  to  belong  to  the  United  States  ;  or,  to  speak 
more  accurately,  it  was  the  bargain  proposed  to  be  made  between  the  United  States 
and  Texas  in  reference  to  their  reciprocal  cession  of  territory  by  which  the  United 
States  were  to  pay  ten  millions.  I  did  not  say  there  were  not  other  serious  objections 
to  that  series  of  measures.  There  were  other  objections.  But  this  was  most  urged ; 
it  was  most  dwelt  upon;  it  was  most  considered.  The  other  principal  objection  to 
the  bill  was  that  it  was  a  bill  of  incongruous  elements. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  Mr.  President,  I  understood  the  Senator  from 
Ohio  pretty  distinctly  to  imply,  not  merely  that  members  of  the 
Senate  who  had  opposed  the  compromise  bill  mainly  upon  this 
ground,  had  now  yielded  to  terms  which  were  much  less  advan- 
tageous to  the  United  States ;  but  that  there  was  something  in 
the  fact  of  a  recent  change  of  Administration  to  which  this  con- 
59* 


702  THE   BOUNDARY   OP  NEW  MEXICO   AND   TEXAS. 

cession  was  to  be  attributed.  The  Senator  even  now  has  hardly 
modified  the  idea  which  he  then  suggested.  He  certainly  stated 
that  one  of  the  main  objections  to  the  compromise  bill  was  the 
running  of  this  boundary  line  and  the  appropriation  of  these  ten 
millions  of  dollars.  He  also  intimated,  that  owing  to  the  influ- 
ence of  some  change  of  administration,  gentlemen  had  been 
willing  to  assent  to  measures  which  they  had  previously  opposed. 

Now,  Sir,  I  had  really  imagined  that  the  honorable  Senator 
from  Ohio  would  be  one  of  the  last  Senators  on  this  floor  to 
assert,  or  even  to  intimate,  that  one  of  the  main  objections  to 
the  compromise  bill  was  this  adjustment  of  boundary  between 
Texas  and  New  Mexico.  Certainly,  I  can  conceive  that  Sena- 
tors should  have  objected  to  that  boundary  line,  and  to  the  con- 
sideration which  it  was  proposed  to  pay  for  it,  as  an  element  in 
a  bill  of  that  mixed  and  composite  character  ;  —  a  bill  made  up, 
as  I  think,  of  many  incongruous  ingredients,  and  into  which  this 
particular  ingredient  was  liable  to  the  suspicion,  to  say  the  least, 
of  having  been  inserted,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  through 
Congress  measures  which  could  not  have  been  carried  without 
it.  So  far,  many  of  us  may  have  objected  to  that  element  of 
the  bill. 

But,  Sir,  the  honorable  Senator  knows  well,  that  on  the  part 
of  his  own  State  of  Ohio,  and  on  the  part  of  the  State  which  I 
have  the  honor  to  represent,  the  main  objection  to  that  bill, 
above  all  other  considerations,  and  in  comparison  with  which 
any  mere  matter  of  boundary  or  of  bonus,  of  acres  or  of  dol- 
lars, was  but  as  the  light  dust  of  the  balance,  was  found  in  the 
fact,  that  it  undertook  to  establish  governments  for  vast  territo- 
rial possessions  which  had  been  acquired  to  the  United  States  as 
free  soil,  without  any  restriction  as  to  the  admission  of  slavery. 
The  honorable  Senator  knows  that  perfectly  well.  And  he 
knows  that  upon  that  subject  we  have  yielded  nothing,  and 
proposed  to  yield  nothing,  in  the  passage  of  this  Texan  boundary 
bill,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  taken  the  first  and 
most  indispensable  step  towards  securing  the  existence  of  a  free 
State,  or  indeed  of  any  State,  on  the  Rio  Grande. 

Mr.  President,  it  required  no  change  of  administration  to 
convince  any  of  us,  I  think,  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  running 


THE  BOUNDARY  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND  TEXAS.  703 

a  boundary  line  of  some  sort  between  New  Mexico  and  Texas. 
And  that,  Sir,  not  by  the  slow  process  of  judicial  adjustment, 
nor  by  the  dilatory  decision  of  a  board  of  commissioners,  as 
proposed  by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Maine,  (Mr.  Bradbury,) 
but  by  the  prompt  and  immediate  action  of  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  You  may  call  it  timidity;  you  may  call  it 
cowardice,  if  you  will;  but  I  confess  to  have  believed  that 
upon  this  question  we  were  brought  at  last  to  the  alternative  of 
drawing  the  line,  or  of  drawing  the  sword.  I  confess  to  have 
believed,  that  unless  some  measure  of  this  sort  were  speedily 
adopted,  we  should  not  have  a  foot  of  free  soil  this  side  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  without  righting  for  it.  Now,  Sir,  for  my  own  part, 
I  had  rather  that  this  boundary  between  sister  States  should  be 
run  by  gold  than  by  steel ;  by  money  than  by  blood ;  and  that  it 
should  be  marked  upon  the  map  of  our  Union  in  all  time  to 
come,  by  any  other  lines  rather  than  red  lines. 

Sir,  always  from  the  beginning  of  the  session,  I  believe  that 
both  my  colleague  and  myself  have  agreed  in  the  idea,  that  this 
boundary  line  must  be  settled  as  a  separate  and  independent 
question,  and  that  it  was  to  be  settled,  if  possible,  by  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  upon  fair  and  liberal  terms  towards  Texas, 
—  not  in  a  spirit  of  unworthy  concession,  but  in  a  spirit  of  just 
and  liberal  accommodation.  And,  when  it  shall  be  so  settled,  the 
only  cloud  which  casts  a  serious  shadow  over  the  domestic  peace 
of  our  country  will,  in  my  judgment,  have  disappeared.  But 
how  is  it,  Sir,  with  the  precise  boundary  which  the  bill  which 
has  passed  this  body  has  proposed  to  run  ?  The  Senator  from 
Ohio  has  alluded  to  the  line  proposed  by  the  Senator  from 
Missouri,  (Mr.  Benton,)  as  one  greatly  preferable.  I  acknow- 
ledge that  it  is  so,  in  many  respects ;  but  how  far  was  it  a 
practicable  line  ?  It  will  be  remembered  by  the  Senate  that  I 
offered  that  line  myself,  just  before  the  Senate  adjourned  on  the 
day  before  the  bill  was  put  on  its  final  passage,  and  that  I  with- 
drew it  the  next  morning.  And  why  did  I  withdraw  it  ?  Because 
I  ascertained,  on  examination  and  inquiry,  that  the  convention 
of  New  Mexico  which  framed  that  State  constitution,  which  it 
is  my  earnest  hope  that  Congress  will  one  day  or  other  acknow- 
ledge and  ratify,  had  themselves  cut  off  a  large  portion  of  the 


704  THE  BOUNDARY  OP  NEW  MEXICO  AND  TEXAS. 

territory  included  by  that  boundary  line,  and  had  put  their  own 
line  at  about  the  thirty-second  degree  of  North  Latitude.  Thus 
the  seventy  thousand  square  miles,  spoken  of  by  the  Senator  from 
Missouri,  around  the  sources  of  the  river  Puerco,  had  been 
abandoned  by  New  Mexico  herself. 

Mr.  Benton  (in  his  seat.)     A  part  of  it. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  A  very  large  part  of  it,  Sir.  I  doubt,  under 
these  circumstances,  whether  the  Senator  himself  would  have 
adhered  to  that  part  of  his  proposed  line.  Certainly  he  would 
not  have  done  so,  if  his  views,  like  my  own,  had  been  favorable 
to  receiving  New  Mexico  at  once  as  a  State.  But  what  does 
the  Senator  from  Missouri  tell  us  this  morning  in  regard  to 
another  part  of  this  boundary  question?  He  tells  us,  Sir, — and 
it  is  a  most  important  fact  to  be  taken  in  connection  with  the 
remarks  of  the  Senator  from  Ohio  —  he  tells  us  that  the  thirty 
thousand  square  miles  of  Northern  territory  which  the  line  pro- 
posed by  the  Senator  from  Maryland  (Mr.  Pearce)  left  to  Texas, 
and  which  his  own  bill  would  have  secured  to  the  United  States, 
in  his  judgment  belonged  rightfully  to  Texas,  and  that  he  had 
proposed  to  purchase  it  outright  with  a  part  of  those  fifteen  mil- 
lions of  dollars  which  his  bill  appropriated. 

Mr.  Benton,  (in  his  seat.)     Exactly. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  So  that,  instead  of  our  ceding  to  Texas,  in 
this  quarter,  territory  which  belonged  to  New  Mexico,  it  is  now 
upon  record,  from  the  lips  of  the  distinguished  Senator  from 
Missouri,  —  upon  whose  testimony  I  would  rather  stake  a  ques- 
tion of  geography  than  upon  that  of  any  other  Senator  in  the 
chamber,  —  that  these  thirty  thousand  square  miles,  which  the 
bill  of  the  Senator  from  Maryland  has  left  to  Texas,  were 
already  the  rightful  property  of  Texas. 

Well,  now,  Mr.  President,  let  me  not  be  supposed  to  intimate 
that  I  am  entirely  satisfied  with  the  boundary  line  which  has 
been  adopted.  I  desired  a  very  different  line,  and  I  voted  uni- 
formly for  every  one  of  the  amendments  which  were  offered  with 
a  view  to  improve  it.  Yet  I  must  say  that  the  advantages  of 
that  line  have  not  been  altogether  appreciated,  even  by  the 
honorable  Senator  from  Maine.  Why,  Sir,  where  is  the  most 
valuable  part  of  the  territory  in  dispute  between  the  United 


THE  BOUNDARY  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND  TEXAS.       705 

States  and  Texas,  —  the  most  valuable  for  every  purpose  of  a 
free  and  prosperous  State  ?  Certainly,  it  is  upon  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Rio  Grande.  It  is  upon  the  banks  and  along  the 
sources  of  the  Puerco.  It  is  not  upon  the  Llano  estacado.  It 
is  not  upon  those  barren  heaths  and  buffalo  ranges  which  con- 
stitute the  greater  part  of  this  northern  territory  which  is  to  be 
left  to  Texas.  Now,  the  boundary  line  proposed  by  the  Senator 
from  Maryland  has  secured  to  the  future  State  of  New  Mexico 
a  large  strip  of  land,  —  I  know  not  precisely  how  many  square 
miles,  but  enough,  I  have  reason  to  think,  to  make  a  State 
almost,  if  not  quite,  as  large  as  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  — 
on  the  very  borders  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  in  the  immediate 
valley  of  the  Puerco. 

Sir,  this  is  not  a  question  to  be  settled  by  any  mere  superficial 
measurement,  by  any  mere  calculation  of  acres  or  of  square 
miles.  It  is  the  character,  and  not  the  extent,  of  the  territory 
which  is  to  be  regarded.  And,  for  one,  I  hold  that  this  triangle 
of  territory  on  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Puerco,  which  is  now 
secured  to  New  Mexico,  and  which  the  compromise  bill  would 
have  given  up  to  Texas,  is  worth  the  whole  of  the  thirty  thou- 
sand square  miles,  and  of  thirty  thousand  more  added  to  them, 
upon  that  dreary  and  desolate  plain,  over  which  (as  the  Senator 
from  Missouri  has  told  us)  one  can  only  find  his  way  by  means 
of  the  stakes  which  have  been  driven  down  into  the  soil,  to  take 
the  place  of  those  natural  landmarks,  which  are  to  be  found  in 
abundance  wherever  land  is  fit  for  the  occupation  of  man. 

But,  after  all,  Mr.  President,  the  real  question  before  us  is 
what  is  to  become  of  New  Mexico  ?  That  is  the  question  in- 
volved in  the  bill  under  consideration.  Now,  Sir,  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  detain  the  Senate,  at  this  late  hour  of  the  day  and  of 
the  session,  by  any  formal  speech  on  that  subject.  But,  lest 
my  votes  should  be  misunderstood  hereafter,  I  must  state  my 
opinions  and  purposes  briefly  but  distinctly.  During  the  short 
time  in  which  I  have  had  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  this  body,  I 
have  been  content  with  giving  votes  upon  these  great  questions 
from  day  to  day,  with  but  little  explanation.  I  have  done  so 
from  a  sincere  reluctance  to  delay  the  action  of  the  Senate.  I 
had  at  any  time  rather  "  be  checked  for  silence,  than  taxed  for 


706  THE  BOUNDARY   OF  NEW  MEXICO   AND   TEXAS. 

speech."  I  have  done  so,  however,  the  more  readily,  because  I 
have  already  had  an  opportunity  of  expressing  my  views  else- 
where. It  so  happened,  Sir,  that  on  the  very  day  on  which  the 
compromise  bill  was  introduced  into  this  chamber,  I  was  mak- 
ing a  speech  on  the  same  subject  in  the  other  end  of  this  Capi- 
tol. While  the  distinguished  Senator  from  Kentucky  (Mr. 
Clay)  —  who  is  not  now  among  us,  but  who,  we  all  hope,  will 
soon  return  to  his  place  reinvigorated  by  the  ocean  breezes  of 
New  England  —  was  reading  the  report  of  the  committee  of 
Thirteen  here,  I  was  addressing  the  House  there.  I  remember 
it  the  more  strongly  because  that  distinguished  Senator,  with 
the  resistless  fascination  which  belongs  to  him,  had  drawn  off  a 
large  portion  of  the  audience,  which,  under  other  circumstances, 
I  might  have  reasonably  expected,  and  had  left  me  with  quite 
too  many  empty  seats,  both  on  the  floor  and  in  the  galleries,  for 
the  inspiration  which  is  so  necessary  to  success  in  an  effort  of 
that  kind.  But  so  far  as  it  may  be  important  to  me  to  inform 
my  constituents  of  the  views  and  opinions  which  I  entertain  on 
this  subject,  that  speech  will  answer  my  purpose. 

I  will  only  say,  then,  here  and  now,  that  I  have  changed  no 
opinion  or  intention  which  I  then  expressed.  I  am  in  favor, 
now  as  then,  of  the  unconditional  and  immediate  admission  of 
California  to  the  Union,  and  for  that  measure,  I  rejoice  to  say,  I 
have  at  last  had  the  satisfaction  of  voting.  I  am  in  favor,  now 
as  then,  of  settling  this  boundary  line  between  New  Mexico  and 
Texas  as  a  separate  and  independent  question,  and  for  that 
measure,  also,  my  colleague  (Hon.  John  Davis)  and  myself  have 
already  given  votes,  which  proved  to  be  essential  to  its  passage. 
And  with  regard  to  New  Mexico  herself,  for  the  purpose  of  avoid- 
ing that  strife  and  contention  which,  I  fear,  is  always  destined  to 
spring  up  in  this  country,  whenever  a  Territorial  Government  is 
proposed  to  be  established  on  soil  now  free,  and  in  regard  to  which 
any  question  of  slavery  can  arise,  I  am  in  favor,  now  as  then,  of 
pursuing  the  plan  proposed  by  the  late  lamented  President  of 
the  United  States,  —  the  plan  of  admitting  New  Mexico  as  a 
State,  as  soon  as  she  shall  present  herself  with  a  republican  Con- 
stitution, and  of  postponing  all  consideration  of  this  Territorial 
question  until  that  time  shall  arrive. 

To  these  views,  Sir,  I  still  adhere.     No  change  of  administra- 


THE  BOUNDARY  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND  TEXAS.       707 

tion,  and  no  change  of  my  own  position,  has  altered  them  in 
the  slightest  degree.  If  this  bill,  therefore,  is  pressed  to  a  vote, 
I  shall  vote  against  it.  If,  in  the  mean  time,  however,  a  motion 
shall  be  made  to  apply  to  New  Mexico  the  principle  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787,  I  shall  vote  in  favor  of  that  motion.  I  am 
aware,  Sir,  that  the  revival  of  this  principle  has  been  stigma- 
tized in  some  quarters  as  odious  and  offensive  to  the  South.  I 
can  only  say  that  I  shall  vote  for  it  in  no  spirit  of  offence.  I 
shall  vote  for  it  for  no  mere  purpose  of  obtaining  a  sectional 
preponderance,  and  with  no  vain  view  of  crowding  slavery  out 
of  existence  by  confining  it  within  its  present  limits.  But  I 
shall  vote  for  it  because  I  believe  such  a  restriction  to  be  for  the 
highest  and  best  interests,  for  the  present  and  for  the  permanent 
welfare,  of  the  new  Commonwealth,  whose  destinies  are  now 
about  to  be  determined.  My  own  earnest  desire,  however, 
would  be,  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  should,  at  no 
distant  day,  accept  and  ratify  the  Constitution  which  New 
Mexico  herself  has  framed;  and,  should  thus  settle  this  question, 
once  and  forever,  in  the  only  way  in  which  it  can  be  fully  and 
finally  settled.  It  has  already  been  stated  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States  that  this  Constitution  will  come  here  in  the 
shape  of  a  "  petition  "  to  Congress  to  admit  New  Mexico  into 
the  Union.  Now,  it  would  seem  to  me  nothing  more  than  jus- 
tice that,  instead  of  going  on  with  the  bill  under  consideration, 
we  should  wait  to  receive  this  petition,  in  order  to  have  the 
views  and  wishes  of  the  people  of  New  Mexico  fairly  before  us, 
and  in  order  that  we  may  decide  intelligently  and  deliberately 
upon  the  suggestions  which  they  may  make  in  regard  to  their 
own  future  condition.  At  any  rate,  Sir,  these  are  the  views 
which  I  expressed  elsewhere  many  months  ago,  and  these  are 
the  views  upon  which  I  shall  act  here  to-day. 


PROTEST  AGAINST  THE  ADMISSION  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

REMARKS   IN   THE   SENATE   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES   ON   RECEIVING  A  PRO- 
TEST  FROM   A   NUMBER    OF    SOUTHERN   SENATORS,   AUGUST   14,  1850. 


Mr.  President,  I  would  respectfully  ask  of  the  Chair  whe- 
ther the  question  upon  receiving  this  protest  is  understood  to 
include  the  proposition  to  enter  it  on  the  journal?  In  other 
words,  is  there  to  be  more  than  one  question  upon  this  subject? 
Will  the  question  be  first  on  receiving  the  paper,  and  then  on 
entering  it  upon  the  journal? 

The  President.  The  question  now  is  on  the  reception  of  the 
paper. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  I  think  it  important  that  the  distinction, 
which  I  have  stated,  should  be  taken  by  the  Senate  and  by  the 
Chair.  If  the  question  is  merely  whether  this  paper  shall  be 
received  by  the  Senate,  and  shall  be  placed  with  other  papers 
which  are  respectfully  presented,  on  the  files  of  the  Senate,  with- 
out being  entered  upon  the  journals,  I  should  have  no  objection 
to  such  a  course. 

The  President.  The  Chair,  on  reflection,  would  state  to 
the  Senator,  that  the  reception  of  the  paper  would  carry  it  on 
the  journal. 

Mr.  Winthrop.  I  presumed  that  such  would  be  the  decision 
of  the  Chair.  There  is,  then,  but  one  question  to  be  decided ;  and 
that  is,  shall  the  paper  be  received,  and  entered  upon  the  journals 
of  the  Senate? 

Sir,  I  have  always  been  in  favor  of  the  largest  courtesy,  and 
of  the  most  liberal  construction  of  rules,  in  regard  to  petitions, 
memorials,  and  other  papers,  which  might  be  presented  to  Con- 


PROTEST  AGAINST  THE  ADMISSION  OF   CALIFORNIA.  709 

gress.  My  honorable  friend,  the  Senator  from  Illinois,  (Gen. 
Shields,)  has  compared  this  question  to  a  question  upon  receiv- 
ing a  petition.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  Senator  from  Vir- 
ginia, who  presented  the  paper,  would  be  the  last  who  would 
desire  to  place  it  on  that  ground.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
his  views  with  regard  to  the  reception  of  petitions  are  much 
more  circumscribed  than  my  own.  While  I  should  go  for  the 
largest  liberty  of  presenting  petitions,  properly  so  called,  from 
any  part  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  upon  any  subject 
upon  which  they  may  see  fit  to  address  us,  he  would  be  disposed 
to  limit  that  reception  by  certain  rules,  to  which  I  need  not  allude. 
It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  there  is  no  analogy  whatever 
between  the  question  of  receiving  petitions,  or  memorials,  or 
remonstrances  from  the  people,  and  that  of  receiving  a  protest 
from  honorable  members  of  this  body  —  who  are  privileged  to 
speak  here,  and  to  vote  here,  in  their  own  persons  —  with  a 
view  to  entering  that  protest  upon  the  journal. 

Sir,  the  Constitution  has  already  secured  to  the  honorable 
member  from  Virginia,  and  to  those  who  are  associated  with 
him  in  this  proceeding,  the  privilege  of  entering  upon  the  journal 
the  only  protest  really  worth  making.  That  constitutional  protest 
does  not  consist,  indeed,  of  a  lengthened  argument  or  a  heated 
appeal  on  any  question  which  may  be  submitted  to  us.  But  it 
consists  in  that  which  is  more  potent  than  any  argument  or  any 
appeal  —  the  emphatic  word  "  no."  That  protest  remains  on 
the  journal.  The  Constitution  has  secured  them  the  right  of 
placing  it  there,  and  there  it  stands.  Their  explanations  are  for 
themselves,  and  for  the  States  which  they  represent. 

I  remember,  Sir,  at  this  moment,  but  one  parliamentary  body 
in  the  world,  which  acknowledges  an  inherent  right  in  its  mem- 
bers to  enter  their  protests  upon  the  journals*  That  body  is  the 
British  House  of  Lords.  It  is  the  privilege  of  every  peer,  as  I 
understand  it,  to  enter  upon  the  journals  his  protest  against  any 
measure  which  may  have  been  passed  contrary  to  his  own  indi- 
vidual views  or  wishes.     But  what  has  been  the  practice  in  our 

*  The  privilege  of  "  inserting  in  the  record  an  opinion  contrary  to  the  resolution  of 
the  majority  "  is  secured  to  the  members  of  the  Executive  Council  of  Massachusetts, 
by  a  special  provision  of  the  Constitution,  and  other  State  Constitutions  may  contain 
similar  provisions. 

60 


710  PROTEST  AGAINST   THE  ADMISSION    OP  CALIFORNIA. 

own  country  ?  You,  yourself,  Mr.  President,  have  read  to  us  an 
authority  upon  this  subject.  It  seems  that  in  the  earliest  days 
of  our  history,  when  there  may  have  been  something  more  of  a 
disposition  than  I  hope  prevails  among  us  now,  to  copy  the  pre- 
cedents of  the  British  Government,  a  rule  was  introduced  into 
this  body  for  the  purpose  of  securing  tb  the  Senators  of  the 
several  States  this  privilege  which  belongs  to  the  peers  of  the 
British  Parliament.  That  proposition  was  negatived.  I  know 
not  by  what  majority,  for  you  did  not  read  the  record ;  I  know 
not  by  whose  votes;  but  the  rule  was  rejected.  It  was  thus 
declared  in  the  early  days  of  our  history  that  this  body  should 
not  be  assimilated  to  the  British  House  of  Lords  in  this  respect, 
however  it  may  be  in  any  other  ;  and  that  individual  Senators 
should  not  be  allowed  the  privilege  of  spreading  upon  the  jour- 
nals the  reasons  which  may  have  influenced  their  votes. 

I  am  sure,  that  my  honorable  friend  from  Virginia  would 
be  the  last,  and  that  the  State  which  he  represents  would  be  the 
last,  in  these  later  days  of  the  Republic,  to  endeavor  to  bring 
about  a  greater  analogy  between  that  body  and  this,  and  to 
attempt  to  secure  for  us  privileges  which  have  heretofore  been 
confined  to  an  aristocratic  peerage.  I  say  this  in  the  utmost 
sincerity,  and  with  the  most  perfect  respect  for  the  honorable 
Senator  from  Virginia.  Indeed,  nothing  goes  more  against  my 
own  heart,  than  to  refuse  any  privilege  which  may  be  asked  by 
a  minority,  upon  this  or  upon  any  other  question. 

But,  Sir,  I  cannot  forget  that  the  day  has  been  when  I  myself 
have  desired  to  place  my  name  —  not  indeed  upon  the  journals 
of  this  body,  for  I  have  come  here  too  recently  to  have  had  any 
desires  on  the  subject,  but  upon  the  records  of  another  body,  in 
opposition  to  more  than  one  measure  which  has  been  brought 
up  for  my  vote.  "Where  is  the  protest  against  the  annexation  of 
Texas?  If  the  precedent  which  it  is  now  proposed  to  establish, 
had  been  in  existence  at  that  time,  can  there  be  a  doubt  that 
Northern  Senators,  if  not  Southern  Senators  —  for  there  were 
Senators  from  the  South,  as  well  as  Senators  from  the  North, 
who  considered  that  measure  unconstitutional,  and  I  have  now 
in  my  eye  an  honorable  Senator  from  Georgia  (Mr.  Berrien)  who 
cooperated  with  us  at  the  time  on  constitutional  grounds  —  can 


PROTEST  AGAINST    THE    ADMISSION   OP  CALIFORNIA.  711 

there  be  a  doubt,  I  say,  that  there  would  have  been  both  North- 
ern and  Southern  Senators,  and  Northern  and  Southern  Repre- 
sentatives, who  would  have  desired  to  avail  themselves  of  an 
opportunity  to  place  upon  the  record  their  protest  against  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  at  the  time  it  was  accomplished  ? 

I  am  unwilling  to  admit,  Mr.  President,  that  this  is  the  first 
time  in  our  history  that  an  act  has  been  consummated  which 
renders  such  a  protest  justifiable  or  proper.  I  am  unwilling  to 
admit,  that  there  has  been  no  measure  passed  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  this  Government,  in  opposition  to  which  members  of 
either  branch  were  entitled,  upon  principles  of  courtesy,  if  cour- 
tesy only  is  to  prevail  here,  to  enter  their  names  and  their  rea- 
sons upon  the  record. 

Why,  Sir,  I  remember  the  bill  for  the  declaration  of  the  Mex- 
ican war,  or,  I  should  rather  say,  for  the  recognition  of  the  Mex- 
ican war,  in  which  that  memorable  preamble  was  inserted, 
"  whereas  war  exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico,"  &c.  That  bill  was 
passed  with  little  or  no  debate ;  but,  at  the  very  moment  of  its 
passage  in  the  other  branch  of  Congress,  I  drew  up  a  protest 
against  that  preamble.  It  is  still  extant,  not  indeed  in  "  very 
choice  Italian,"  but  in  such  chirography  as  I  was  able  at  the 
moment  to  command.  It  was  signed  by  more  than  myself.  It 
was  signed  by  an  honorable  friend  from  Connecticut,  (Mr.  Tru- 
man Smith,)  now  a  member  of  this  body,  and  by  an  honorable 
member  from  Ohio,  (Mr.  Vinton.)  But  we  found  that  neither 
precedent  nor  principle,  as  we  thought,  would  sanction  us  in  any 
attempt  to  place  that  protest  upon  the  record,  and  we  therefore 
forbore  the  attempt. 

Now,  Sir,  for  myself,  I  do  not  desire  to  add  fuel  to  the  flame, 
which  seems  almost  ready  to  consume  the  country.  I  desire  to 
do  nothing,  and  to  say  nothing,  to  add  to  the  irritation  which 
exists  on  the  other  side  of  this  chamber,  and  in  certain  quarters 
of  the  Union.  I  am  willing  even  to  acknowledge,  and  I  do 
acknowledge,  that  there  are  considerations  and  circumstances 
connected  with  the  admission  of  California,  which  are  calculated 
to  excite  and  irritate  gentlemen  from  the  Southern  States.  I 
would  spare  their  feelings.  But  at  the  same  time  I  would  ad- 
here, now  and  always,  to  those  wholesome  precedents,  and  I 


712  PROTEST  AGAINST  THE  ADMISSION  OF   CALIFORNIA. 

may  add,  to  those  established  principles,  which  have  heretofore 
governed  us  in  these  legislative  bodies.  I  say  those  established 
principles,  Sir,  for  I  can  hardly  help  regarding  this  as  a  question 
of  principle.  The  Constitution  calls  upon  us  to  do  what  ?  To 
keep  a  journal  of  our  proceedings,  in  order  that  the  people  may 
be  able  to  see  what  measures  have  passed,  and  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  those  measures.  Is  this  paper  any  part  of  our 
proceedings?  The  Constitution  does  not  secure  to  a  member 
the  privilege  of  entering  his  reasons  on  the  record,  nor  does  it, 
in  express  terms,  prohibit  him  from  doing  so.  But  is  there  not 
something  of  an  implication  to  be  derived  from  this  express 
injunction  of  the  Constitution,  that  we  should  keep  a  journal  of 
our  proceedings  ?  For,  of  what  use  will  it  be  to  keep  such  a 
journal,  if  the  record  of  our  proceedings  is  to  be  cumbered  and 
complicated  and  smothered  up  by  such  a  succession  of  protests 
as  will  inevitably  succeed  each  other  upon  this,  and  upon  other 
questions,  if  such  a  precedent  shall  now  be  established  ?  Where 
will  the  practice  stop  ?  Sir,  if  the  question  were  merely  to  receive 
this  paper,  and  treat  it  respectfully,  as  we  treat  petitions  and  me- 
morials, it  would  gratify  me  to  unite  in  assenting  to  such  a  course. 
But  with  the  greatest  possible  respect  for  the  Senators  who  have 
signed  it,  I  cannot  vote  for  its  reception,  if  the  question  of  recep- 
tion involves  also  the  question  of  entering  it  upon  the  journal. 


THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW. 

REMARKS   IN   THE    SENATE   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES,  AUGUST    19,1850. 


I  happen  to  have  on  my  table,  at  this  moment,  Mr.  President, 
a  little  pamphlet,  of  which  this  is,  I  think,  the  second  number, 
entitled,  "  The  United  States  Postal  Guide,"  and  which  contains 
a  paragraph  which  I  would  venture  to  recommend  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Senator  from  Virginia,  (Mr.  Mason.)  It  is  in  these 
words :  — 

"  Fugitive  Slaves.  In  an  action  brought  in  the  United  States  District  Court  of 
the  Southern  District  of  Iowa,  by  Kuell  Daggs,  of  Clark  county,  Missouri,  plaintiff, 
against  Elihu  Frazier  and  four  other  defendants,  for  harboring,  concealing,  and  pre- 
venting the  arrest  of  plaintiff's  slaves,  who  had  absconded  into  Iowa,  the  jury  found  a 
verdict  for  the  plaintiffs  of  $2,900. 

"  A  similar  trial  had  before  Judge  McLean,  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States,  by  John  Norris,  of  Kentucky,  against  eight  residents  of  Michigan.  The  num- 
ber of  slaves  was  four,  and  the  damages  given  by  the  jury  $2,856." 

Now,  Sir,  here  we  have  the  result  of  the  latest  judicial  pro- 
ceedings on  the  subject  before  us.  Here  we  have  a  record  of 
the  most  recent  decisions  which  have  taken  place  in  two  of  the 
free  States  of  this  Union.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  here  is  quite 
sufficient  evidence  to  show  that,  whatever  insurmountable  obsta- 
cles there  may  be  in  a  trial  by  jury  to  the  recovery  of  the 
fugitive  slaves  themselves,  there  is  no  such  insurmountable 
obstacle  to  the  recovery  of  the  most  ample  and  exemplary 
damages  against  those  who  have  aided  in  their  escape.  I  think 
this  will  serve,  to  some  extent,  as  an  answer  to  the  suggestions 
of  the  Senator  from  Virginia.  It  will  prove,  at  any  rate,  that 
the  South  is  not  so  entirely  without  remedy  or  redress  for  the 
wrongs  of  which  she  complains,  even  as  the  law  now  stands. 
For  myself,  Sir,  without  intending  to  detain  the  Senate  at  any 

60* 


714  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

length,  I  cannot  help  expressing  my  hearty  concurrence  in  the 
amendment  proposed  by  the  Senator  from  New  Jersey,  (Mr.  Day- 
ton.) I  understand  that  it  is  the  same  proposition  which  was 
laid  on  the  table  of  the  Senate,  some  weeks  ago,  by  my  distin- 
guished predecessor  in  this  seat,  (Mr.  Webster,)  and  which  was 
prepared  and  proposed  by  him  after  a  careful  consultation  with 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  (Mr.  Justice  McLean,) 
whose  decisions  in  cases  of  this  kind  have  always,  I  believe, 
been  satisfactory  to  the  country.*  I  hold  it  to  be  a  just  and 
reasonable  provision,  and  one  which  ought  to  form  a  part  of 
any  bill  which  shall  be  passed  for  this  purpose.  The  Senator 
from  Georgia  seemed  to  go  upon  the  idea  that  there  is  but 
one  question  to  be  decided  with  regard  to  a  person  claimed  as 
a  fugitive  from  labor ;  and  that  is  the  question  whether  he  belongs 
to,  or  owes  labor  or  service  to,  the  party  who  claims  him.  But 
it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  another  and  a  preliminary  question, 
and  that  is,  whether  he  is  a  fugitive  at  all ;  whether  he  belongs 
or  owes  seryice  to  anybody  ?  It  must  always  be  a  question 
whether  such  a  person  be  your  slave,  or  whether  he  be  our  free- 
man ?  Now,  whether  he  be  your  slave  might  be  a  question  very 
proper  to  be  tried  by  a  jury  of  the  vicinage,  and  to  be  decided 
on  the  spot  where  the  professed  owner  resides  ;  but  whether  he  be 
our  freeman  would  seem  to  be  a  question  which,  upon  the  very 
same  principle,  should  be  tried  where  he  is  seized,  and  where  the 
immediate  liberty  which  he  enjoys  is  about  to  be  taken  away 
from  him. 

Mr.  Butler.  Will  the  Senator  allow  me  to  ask  the  question  fairly,  so  as  to  put  it 
before  the  country,  whether  the  Senator  knows  of  a  single  instance  where  a  citizen  has 
claimed  a  person  as  a  slave  who  was  not  his  own,  or  where  one  has  so  claimed  a  per- 
son while  acting  as  an  agent  for  the  owner  ? 

Mr.  Winthrop.  Mr.  President,  if  I  understand  aright  the 
history  of  this  very  law  of  1793,  which  we  are  now  engaged  in 
amending,  I  think  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  will  be 
answered  if  I  briefly  recite  that  history.  As  I  understand  the 
matter,  that  law  originated  on  this  wise.  In  the  year  1788  or 
1789,  a  free  negro,  residing  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  named 

*  Webster's  Works,  Little  &  Brown's  ed.  1851,  vol.  v.  pp.  373,  374. 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW.  715 

John,  was  kidnapped  by  three  white  men  from  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia. These  three  white  men  were  indicted  for  the  crime ;  and 
as  they  had  fled  to  the  State  of  Virginia,  they  were  demanded 
by  Governor  Mifflin,  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the  instigation  of 
the  abolition  society  of  that  State,  over  which,  if  I  mistake  not, 
Benjamin  Franklin  about  that  time  presided.  The  Governor  of 
Virginia,  whose  name  I  do  not  remember,*  decided  that  there 
was  no  law  for  carrying  into  effect  that  clause  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  just  then  going  into  operation,  under  which  fugi- 
tives from  justice  were  to  be  surrendered.  He  therefore  refused 
to  deliver  up  the  three  white  men,  indicted  as  having  kidnapped 
a  free  negro.  Governor  Mifflin,  soon  after,  communicated  these 
facts  to  General  Washington,  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  who  communicated  them  to  Congress,  and  upon  this 
communication  the  law  of  1793  was  based.  That  law  provides, 
first,  for  the  return  of  fugitives  from  justice,  and  then  for  the 
return  of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  And  the  brief  history 
which  I  have  thus  given  of  its  origin,  will  in  some  degree 
account  for  the  fact,  that  these  two  incongruous  matters  are 
mingled  together  in  the  same  bill. 

It  seems  then,  Mr.  President,  that,  at  the  very  outset  of  the 
history  of  this  Government,  a  case  like  that  respecting  which 
the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  inquires,  did  actually  occur, 
and  that  it  gave  occasion  to  the  passage  of  the  very  statute 
which  is  now,  for  the  first  time,  about  to  be  amended.  I 
cannot  answer  as  to  other  cases.  There  may,  or  may  not, 
have  been  others.  It  is  said  that  they  are  not  very  likely  to 
happen,  and  I  admit  that  it  is  so.  But  as  long  as  there  is 
danger  that  they  will  occur,  as  long  as  there  is  a  possibility 
that  they  may  occur,  so  long  will  there  be  opposition  to  the 
seizure  and  abduction  of  supposed  fugitives  in  the  summary 
and  irresponsible  manner  provided  for  in  this  bill.  And  this 
leads  me,  Sir,  to  say  one  word  more.  I  believe,  in  all  sincerity, 
that  more  fugitives  from  labor  and  service  would  be  recap- 
tured and  recovered  by  their  owners  under  a  law  providing  for  a 
trial  by  jury,  than  under  the  law  of  1793,  or  under  the  law  which 
the  Senator  from  Virginia  has  now  submitted  to  our  consider- 

*  Beverly  Randolph. 


716  THE  FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW. 

ation.  And  why  would  it  be  so  ?  Because  all  laws  depend  in  no 
small  degree  for  their  efficiency  upon  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
State  or  the  community  in  which  they  are  to  be  executed.  If 
there  be  a  strong  sense  of  the  injustice  and  oppressiveness  of 
any  particular  provision,  whether  of  this  law  or  of  any  other, 
there  will  always  be  more  or  less  of  opposition  to  its  execution. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  provisions  should  be  inserted  in  this  bill 
like  those  proposed  by  the  Senator  from  New  Jersey,  which 
cannot  but  accord  with  the  sense  of  justice,  and  the  strong  pre- 
conceived opinion  of  right,  of  the  communities  in  which  this 
law  is  to  have  its  main  operation  and  effect,  I  believe  it  would 
in  most  cases  be  faithfully  carried  out,  and  that  more  fugitives 
from  labor  would  be  returned  to  their  masters  under  its  operation, 
than  have  been  returned  within  the  last  half  century.  That  is 
my  own  honest  opinion. 

At  any  rate,  Sir,  I  shall  vote  for  the  amendment  offered  by 
the  Senator  from  New  Jersey,  as  right  and  just  in  itself,  what- 
ever may  be  its  effect.  I  am  in  favor  of  recognizing  the  right  of 
trial  by  jury  in  all  cases  where  a  question  of  personal  liberty  is 
concerned.  I  hope  the  amendment  will  be  adopted.  But  if  not, 
I  shall  offer  one  myself,  which  shall  at  least  provide  that  the  writ 
of  Habeas  Corpus  may  be  allowed  in  cases  of  this  kind,  and  that 
the  certificates  of  these  commissioners  shall  not  prevent  a  review 
of  the  question  by  some  more  responsible  magistrate  than  is 
provided  for  in  this  bill. 

Me.  Mason.  I  took  some  little  interest  in  learning  the  facts  of  the  case  just  ad- 
verted to  by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Massachusetts.  I  understood  the  Senator  to 
reply  to  the  question  of  my  friend  from  South  Carolina,  which  was,  whether  he  ever 
knew  of  any  instance  in  which  a  man  claimed  as  a  slave  by  a  claimant  from  a  slave 
State  was  found  to  be  a  free  man  and  not  a  slave ;  and  the  Senator,  by  way  of  addu- 
cing a  case,  instanced  that  out  of  which  this  law  of  1793  grew.  The  history  of  that 
law  I  understand,  I  think,  as  well  as  the  honorable  Senator  from  Massachusetts ;  and 
it  is  this :  Three  men,  from  the  State  of  Virginia,  went  into  the  State  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  carried  off  a  negro,  and  brought  him  to  the  State  of  Virginia.  And  they 
were  indicted  in  Pennsylvania  for  "  kidnapping,"  as  it  is  called.  A  demand  was  made 
by  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  upon  the  Governor  of  Virginia  for  the  restoration, 
or  rather  the  surrendering,  of  these  three  men  as  fugitives  from  justice,  the  offence 
charged  being  that  they  had  committed  a  felony,  in  taking  off  this  negro  who  was 
alleged  to  be  free.  Now,  I  want  to  know  from  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  where 
he  learns  that  the  negro  thus  taken  in  Pennsylvania  was  a  free  man  and  not  a  slave  ? 


THE  FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW.  717 

Mr.  Winthrop.  I  will  answer  the  honorable  Senator  from 
Virginia  with  great  pleasure.  In  the  first  place,  Sir,  our  rule  of 
presumption  in  Massachusetts  is  precisely  opposite  to  that  which 
I  believe  generally  prevails  in  Virginia.  We  hold  that  every 
colored  person  is  a  freeman  until  he  is  proved  to  be  a  slave. 
Now,  there  is  no  proof  or  allegation  anywhere  that  this  kid- 
napped negro  was  not  free,  —  and  the  very  indictment  found 
against  those  who  seized  him  and  sold  him,  would  seem  to  settle 
the  question  that  he  was  free.  I  stated,  however,  in  the  second 
place,  that  he  was  a  freeman,  upon  the  evidence  of  a  report  which 
was  made  to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  some  years  ago, 
by  a  committee  which  had  investigated  the  facts,  and  which  de- 
scribes him  as  "a  free  negro,  named  John."  I  do  not  understand, 
moreover,  that  in  any  of  the  proceedings  connected  with  this 
case,  or  in  any  of  the  papers  communicated  to  Congress  at  the 
time,  the  suggestion  was  anywhere  made  that  this  man  was  a 
slave;  but,  on  the  contrary,  I  understand  that  those  papers  every- 
where speak  of  him  as  a  freeman.*  In  regard  to  this  point,  how- 
ever, I  am  ready  to  be  corrected. 

But,  Sir,  as  I  am  called  up  again  upon  this  subject,  I  cannot 
resist  the  opportunity  of  giving  one  more  answer  to  the  inquiry 
of  my  honorable  friend  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr.  Butler.)  His 
question  in  substance  is,  where  is  there  an  instance  of  a  free 
person  being  seized  as  a  slave  ?  Now,  Sir,  he  must  allow  me 
to  remind  him  —  and  I  assure  him  that  I  do  so  in  no  mere 
spirit  of  crimination  or  reproach  —  that  such  a  thing  may  hap- 
pen even  under  the  express  laws  of  his  own  State.  It  is  well 
known,  and  I  believe  that  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina 
himself  has  on  some  occasion  expressed  his  regret  at  the  fact,  — 
that  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and  other  slaveholding  States, 
have  laws  upon  their  statute-books  under  which  free  persons  of 
color,  coming  from  Boston  or  New  York  or  Philadelphia,  or  any 
other  of  the  commercial  cities  of  the  Union,  in  Northern  vessels, 
and  arriving  in  Southern  ports,  may  be  seized,  without  any 
charge  of  crime,  and  without  any  examination  except  to  ascer- 
tain the  color  of  their  skin,  —  may  be  carried  on  shore  and  im- 

*  American  State  Papers,  vol.  xx.  pp.  38-43. 


^   0^  TI 

- 


718  THE  FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW. 

prisoned, —  and  unless,  when  the  vessel  sails,  the  master  of  the 
vessel  should  reclaim  them,  and  pay  a  pretty  heavy  reckoning 
for  their  maintenance  in  jail  during  the  whole  period  of  their 
detention,  may  be  sold  into  slavery  for  life.  Now,  supposing 
that  one  of  these  free  colored  persons  of  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, or  of  any  other  State,  having  been  seized,  while  on  board 
of  a  vessel  in  which  he  was  lawfully  engaged,  and  having  been 
imprisoned  and  sold  into  slavery  in  the  manner  and  under  the 
circumstances  which  I  have  stated,  should  make  his  escape,  and 
should  succeed  in  getting  back  to  the  port  from  whence  he 
sailed,  —  would  there  be  any  thing  so  very  unreasonable  in  our 
calling  for  a  trial  by  jury  upon  a  question  whether  he  should  be 
remanded  into  slavery  ?  Would  it  be  altogether  incumbent 
upon  us,  do  you  think,  Sir,  to  take  the  mere  oral  testimony  of 
the  claimant,  —  even  though  he  might  have  purchased  the  negro 
bond  fide,  —  and  at  the  same  time  to  refuse  to  take  the  testimony 
of  the  fugitive  himself,  or  of  those  who  might  have  known  him 
as  a  freeman  before  he  went  on  the  ill-starred  voyage  which  ter- 
minated in  his  being  seized  and  sold  as  a  slave  ? 

Here  again,  then,  is  a  case,  in  which  such  an  occurrence  as 
that  alluded  to  by  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  might  hap- 
pen. I  do  not  say  that  it  is  very  likely  to  happen ;  but  I  cannot 
help  adding  in  this  connection,  that,  in  my  judgment,  there  is  no 
grievance,  no  complaint,  which  the  Southern  States  have  ever 
arrayed  against  the  Northern  States,  which  can  be  compared  for 
a  moment  with  the  grievance  which  the  Northern  States  have 
to  complain  of  at  the  hands  of  the  Southern  States  in  the  pro- 
visions of  these  laws,  —  laws  by  which  the  cooks  and  stewards 
engaged  on  board  their  vessels,  and  in  the  prosecution  of  their 
lawful  employments,  are  thus  liable  to  be  seized  and  sold  into 
slavery.* 

*  It  was  proposed  to  include  in  this  volume  some  passages  of  a  debate  on  this  subject, 
and  particularly  in  regard  to  the  laws  of  Louisiana,  which  occurred  incidentally  in 
the  Senate  soon  after  these  remarks  were  made.    But  it  was  found  impossible  to 


detach  what  was  said  by  Mr.  Winthrop  from  its  connection,  and  to  insert  it  here  in  a 
separate  form,  without  doing  great  injustice  both  to  himself  and  others.  The  same 
consideration  prevents  the  insertion  of  other  remarks  upon  other  subjects  during  Mr. 
Winthrop's  Senatorial  service.  Meantime,  while  this  volume  is  passing  through  the 
press,  it  is  noticed  with  pleasure,  that  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana  have  passed  an  act, 
which  received  the  signature  of  the  Governor  of  that  State  on  the  18th  of  March, 
1852,  essentially  modifying  the  law  of  1842,  and  relieving  it  of  many  of  its  most 
obnoxious  and  oppressive  features. 


THE  FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW.  719 

Before  taking  my  seat,  Sir,  I  will  venture  to  make  one  sug- 
gestion, a  little  more  practical,  perhaps,  in  regard  to  this  sum- 
mary process  recommended  by  the  amendment  of  the  Senator 
from  Virginia.  Here  is  a  case  referred  to  in  his  own  report  — 
the  celebrated  case  of  Prigg  v.  The  Commonwealth  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. "What  were  the  circumstances  of  that  case  ?  It  seems 
that  a  negro  woman  named  Margaret  Morgan  had  fled  from 
service  and  escaped  to  Pennsylvania  in  the  year  1832 ;  and  that 
the  defendant,  as  the  legally  constituted  agent  of  Margaret  Ash- 
more,  had  caused  the  said  Margaret  Morgan  to  be  apprehended 
in  the  year  1837.  Now,  here  is  an  interval  of  five  years  from 
the  time  of  the  escape  to  the  time  of  the  arrest;  and  there  might 
be  an  interval  of  ten  years,  or  of  twenty  years  even,  so  far  as 
any  provision  of  this  bill  is  concerned.  There  is  no  statute  of 
limitations  here  in  regard  to  the  rights  or  powers  of  the  claim- 
ant. He  may  come  into  a  free  State  after  any  lapse  of  time, 
however  long,  and  upon  his  mere  oral  testimony,  when  his  recol- 
lections of  the  fugitive  himself  may  be  ever  so  indistinct,  and 
when  the  fugitive  himself  may  be  so  much  changed  as  to  render 
liability  to  mistake  ever  so  great,  he  may  demand  of  one  of 
these  commissioners  the  certificate,  which  may  settle  forever 
against  the  party  claimed  the  question  of  his  right  to  freedom. 
Sir,  if  the  trial  by  jury  is  not  to  be  allowed  in  all  cases,  would  it 
not  be  proper,  would  it  not  be  just,  to  incorporate  into  this  law 
something  of  the  principle  of  "fresh  pursuit;"  giving  to  all 
persons  the  right  of  trial  by  jury,  except  in  cases  of  such  fresh 
pursuit ;  and  giving  to  that  fresh  pursuit  a  limit  of  not  exceed- 
ing one  or  two  years  at  the  furthest?  When  a  longer  time  than 
this  has  elapsed  since  the  alleged  fugitive  escaped,  ought  there 
not,  I  ask,  to  be  ample  opportunity  afforded  for  investigation, 
on  the  spot  where  he  is  seized,  in  order  that  it  may  be  ascer- 
tained, beyond  all  doubt,  whether  the  party  claimed  be  really 
the  fugitive  he  is  charged  with  being,  and  whether  there  may 
not  be  those  in  the  neighborhood  who  have  known  him  as  one 
born  and  brought  up  among  themselves,  and  as  now  wrongfully 
seized  as  a  runaway  slave  ?  I  can  only  say  that  such  a  course 
would  seem  to  me  eminently  just  and  proper. 


THE   OTTOMAN   EMPIRE. 


A   SPEECH   MADE   AT   THE   PUBLIC   DINNER     GIVEN   TO    AM  IN   BEY  BY   THE 
MERCHANTS   OF   BOSTON,  NOVEMBER  4,  1850. 


I  am  greatly  honored,  Mr.  President,  by  the  sentiment  just 
proposed,  and  I  beg  my  good  friend,  the  Vice-President,  (Hon. 
Benjamin  Seaver,)  to  accept  my  hearty  thanks  for  the  kind  and 
complimentary  terms  in  which  he  has  presented  my  name  to  the 
company.  I  am  most  grateful  for  the  opportunity  of  meeting 
with  so  large  a  number  of  the  intelligent  and  enterprising  mer- 
chants of  Boston,  and  of  uniting  with  them  in  a  tender  of 
deserved  hospitality,  and  in  a  tribute  of  just  respect,  to  the  Com- 
missioner of  his  Imperial  Majesty,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey. 

And  yet,  I  cannot  but  reflect,  even  as  I  pronounce  these  words, 
how  strangely  they  would  have  sounded  in  the  ears  of  our 
fathers  not  many  generations  back,  or  even  in  our  own  ears  not 
many  years  ago.  A  deserved  tender  of  hospitality,  a  just  tribute 
of  respect,  to  the  Representative  of  the  Grand  Turk !  Sir,  the 
country  from  which  your  amiable  and  distinguished  guest  has 
come,  was  not  altogether  unknown  to  some  of  the  early  Ameri- 
can discoverers  and  settlers.  John  Smith  —  do  not  smile  too 
soon,  Mr.  President,  for  though  the  name  has  become  proverbi- 
ally generic  in  these  latter  days,  it  was  once  identified  and  indi- 
vidualized as  the  name  of  one  of  the  most  gallant  navigators 
and  captains  which  the  world  has  ever  known  —  that  John 
Smith  who  first  gave  the  cherished  name  of  New  England  to 
what  the  Pilgrims  of  the  Mayflower  called  "these  Northern 
parts  of  Virginia  "  —  he,  I  say,  was  well  acquainted  with  Tur- 
key ;  and  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago,  he  gave  the  name  of  a 
Turkish  lady  to  one  of  the  Capes  of  our  own  Massachusetts 


THE   OTTOMAN  EMPIRE.  721 

Bay.  But  he  knew  Turkey  as  a  prison  and  a  dungeon,  and  he 
called  what  is  now  Cape  Ann,  Cape  Tragabigzanda,  only  to 
commemorate  his  affection  for  one  who  had  soothed  the  rigors 
of  a  long  and  loathsome  captivity. 

Nor  was  Turkey  an  unknown  land  to  at  least  one  of  those 
Winthrops  of  the  olden  time,  with  whom  the  Vice-President  has 
so  kindly  connected  me.  In  turning  over  some  old  family  papers 
since  my  return  home,  I  have  stumbled  on  the  original  auto- 
graph of  a  note  from  John  Winthrop,  the  younger,  dated  "  De- 
cember 26th,  1628,  at  the  Castles  of  the  Hellespont,"  whither  he 
had  gone,  as  is  supposed,  as  the  Secretary  of  Sir  Peter  Wich, 
the  British  Ambassador  at  Constantinople.  The  associations  of 
that  day,  however,  with  those  remote  regions,  were  by  no  means 
of  an  agreeable  character,  and  I  should  hardly  dare  to  dwell 
longer  upon  them  on  this  occasion  and  in  this  presence. 

I  rejoice  that  events  have  occurred  to  break  the  spell  of  that 
hereditary  prejudice,  which  has  so  long  prevailed  in  the  minds  of 
not  a  few  of  us,  towards  the  Ottoman  Empire.  I  rejoice  that 
our  associations  with  Turkey  are  no  longer  those  only  of  the 
plague  and  the  bowstring  ;  that  we  are  encouraged  and  author- 
ized to  look  to  her  hereafter  for  something  better  than  a  little 
coarse  wool  for  our  blankets,  or  a  few  figs  for  our  dessert,  or  even  a 
little  opium  or  rhubarb  for  our  medicine  chests ;  that,  in  a  word, 
we  are  encouraged  and  warranted  to  look  to  her,  under  the 
auspices  and  administration  of  her  young,  gallant,  and  generous 
Sultan,  for  examples  of  reform,  of  toleration,  of  liberality,  of  a 
magnanimous  and  chivalrous  humanity,  which  are  worthy  of 
the  admiration  and  imitation  of  all  mankind.  I  rejoice,  espe- 
cially, that  an  occasion  has  been  afforded  for  testifying  the  deep 
sense  which  is  entertained  throughout  our  country,  of  the 
noble  conduct  of  the  Sublime  Porte  in  regard  to  the  unfortunate 
exiles  of  Hungary. 

The  influence  which  the  Ottoman  Empire  seems  destined  to 
exert  over  the  relations  of  Eastern  and  Western  Europe,  is  of 
the  most  interesting  and  important  character ;  and,  while  we  all 
hold  steadfastly  to  the  great  principle  of  neutrality  which  Wash- 
ington established  and  enforced,  we  yet  cannot  suppress  our 
satisfaction  that  this  influence  is  now  in  the  hands  of  one,  who 

61 


722  THE   OTTOMAN   EMPIRE. 

seems  determined  to  wield  it  fearlessly  for  the  best  .interests  of 
civilization  and  humanity. 

And  now,  Sir,  let  us  hope  that  our  distinguished  friend,  Amin 
Bey,  may  return  home  with  some  not  less  favorable  impressions 
of  our  own  land.  Of  our  enterprise,  of  our  industry,  of  our 
immense  material  production,  of  our  rapid  progress  in  arts  and 
improvements  of  every  kind,  of  our  vast  territorial  extent,  he 
cannot  fail  to  testify.  Let  us  hope  that  he  may  be  able  to  speak 
also  of  internal  order,  of  domestic  tranquillity,  of  wise  and  just 
laws,  faithfully  administered  and  promptly  obeyed,  of  a  happy, 
contented,  and  united  people,  commending  by  their  practice  and 
example,  as  well  as  by  their  principles  and  precepts,  the  institu- 
tions under  which  they  live. 

The  distinguished  gentleman  who  preceded  me,  (Mr.  Web- 
ster,) and  whom  I  have  been  under  the  disadvantage  of  follow- 
ing in  other  scenes  as  well  as  here,  has  spoken  of  the  Union 
of  these  States.  There  is  no  language  so  strong  or  so  emphatic, 
which  even  he  can  use,  as  to  the  importance  of  preserving  that 
Union,  which  does  not  meet  with  a  prompt  and  cordial  echo 
in  my  own  bosom.  To  the  eyes  of  Amin  Bey,  and  to  the  eyes 
of  all  foreign  nations,  we  are  indeed  but  one  country,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  To  them  there  is  no  Boston  or  New 
York,  no  Carolina  or  Louisiana.  Our  commerce  goes  forth 
under  one  and  the  same  flag,  whether  from  the  Bay  of  Mas- 
sachusetts or  from  the  "  golden  gate "  of  California.  Under 
that  flag,  it  has  been  protected,  prospered,  and  extended  beyond 
example.  Under  that  flag,  new  fields  are  opening  to  it,  and  new 
triumphs  are  before  it.  May  our  distinguished  guest  take  home 
with  him  an  assurance,  founded  upon  all  that  he  has  seen  and 
all  that  he  has  heard,  of  the  resolution  of  us  all,  that  the  flag  of 
our  Union  shall  still  and  always  remain  one  and  the  same,  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  untorn  and  untarnished,  proof  alike  against 
every  thing  of  foreign  assault  and  every  thing  of  domestic 
dissension ! 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION    OF    THE    YOUNG. 


A  SPEECH  MADE  AT   THE    ANNIVERSARY   MEETING  OF  THE  WARREN  STREET 
CHAPEL   ASSOCIATION,  ON  SUNDAY  EVENING,  APRIL  27,  1351. 


The  Secretary  of  the  Association  (Rev.  C.  F.  Barnard)  will 
bear  me  witness,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  that  when  I  accepted 
his  kind  invitation  to  be  present  and  preside  here  this  evening, 
there  was  an  express  understanding  and  stipulation  between 
us,  that  I  was  not  to  be  held  responsible  for  any  thing  in  the 
nature  of  an  Address.  I  am  sure,  however,  that  you  will  all 
pardon  me,  if,  before  putting  a  formal  and  final  question  upon 
the  adoption  of  this  Report,  I  shall  add  a  very  few  words  to 
what  has  already  been  so  impressively  said  by  those  who  have 
preceded  me.  I  need  not  assure  you  that  I  have  listened  with 
the  deepest  interest  to  the  account  which  the  Report  has  given 
of  the  progress  and  prospects  of  this  Institution.  No  man, 
indeed,  who  has  a  heart  within  his  bosom,  a  heart  either  for  the 
welfare  of  man  or  for  the  glory  of  God,  could  have  listened 
to  that  account  without  emotions  deeper  than  he  could  readily 
find  words  to  express.  For  myself,  certainly,  I  know  of  few 
things  better  calculated  to  touch  and  thrill  the  inmost  suscepti- 
bilities of  a  Christian  soul,  than  the  precise  picture  presented 
to  us  in  this  paper;  the  picture  of  so  many  young  children, 
rescued  from  the  snares  of  ignorance,  idleness,  and  vice ;  snatch- 
ed, many  of  them,  as  brands  from  the  burning ;  and  trained  up 
to  habits  of  industry,  to  the  love  of  truth,  to  the  practice  of  virtue, 
to  the  knowledge  and  praise  of  God.  And  I  may  be  permitted 
to  add,  that  I  know  of  no  person  who  has  secured  for  himself 
a  prouder  or  more  enviable  distinction  than  one,  who,  having 


724  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION   OF  THE   YOUNG. 

drawn  such  a  picture  with  fidelity,  and  having  gracefully  and 
modestly  held  it  up  to  the  public  view,  can  say  with  truth, 
"  these  are  the  fruits  of  my  labors ;  this  is  the  account  of  my 
stewardship." 

It  is  now,  I  think,  not  far  from  a  quarter  of  a  century,  since 
your  Secretary  and  myself,  with  at  least  one  other  of  those 
whom  I  have  seen  at  my  side  this  evening,  having  finished  our 
collegiate  course,  left  the  walls  of  the  neighboring  University 
together.  We  had  many  classmates  and  common  friends  who 
were  soon  scattered  along  the  various  paths  of  life,  and  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  country.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  of  the  richest 
promise,  were  struck  down  at  the  very  threshold  of  their  career, 
and  others  of  them  have  since  fallen  in  more  advanced  stages  of 
manhood ;  but  the  greater  part  have  remained  to  this  day,  and 
not  a  few  have  reached  high  degrees  of  preferment  in  social, 
literary,  or  political  life.  I  hazard  nothing,  however,  in  saying, 
that  there  is  not  one  of  them  who  could  have  been  present  here 
this  evening,  and  listened  to  the  account  which  my  friend  has 
given  of  the  work  to  which  he  has  so  successfully  devoted  him- 
self, without  feeling  the  comparative  worthlessness  of  his  own 
pursuits,  or  without  uniting  with  me  in  admitting,  that  while  so 
many  of  us  have  been  careful  and  cumbered  about  many  things, 
our  brother  has  chosen  that  good  part,  which  shall  not  be  taken 
away  from  him. 

Certainly,  no  one  can  deny  or  doubt  for  a  moment,  that  the 
work  in  which  this  Association  is  engaged,  is  one  of  the  great 
works  of  the  day,  and  one  which  demands  the  active  sympathy 
and  cooperation  of  every  patriot  as  well  as  of  every  Christian.  I 
need  not  say  that  it  is  a  work  enjoined  upon  us  by  the  highest 
sanctions  of  religious  obligation.  I  need  not  remind  you  in  this 
place,  and  in  this  presence,  that  there  is  nothing  more  exquisite 
in  the  example  of  our  Saviour  than  his  tenderness  for  young 
children ;  and  that  there  is  hardly  any  thing  more  memorable  in 
his  teachings  than  the  woe  which  he  denounced  against  those 
by  whom  one  of  these  little  ones  should  be  offended.  But  we 
need  not  look  to  the  word  of  God,  or  to  the  example  of  Christ,  to 
find  motives  for  sustaining  such  institutions  as  this.  If  we  were 
to  throw  aside  all  considerations  of  religious  obligation ;  if  we 


RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION   OP    THE    YOUNG.  725 

were  to  be  governed  only  by  the  most  selfish  calculations  of 
worldly  policy,  this  Institution,  and  others  of  a  kindred  character, 
could  never  be  permitted  to  fail  or  languish  for  want  of  friends 
or  for  want  of  funds.  Does  any  one  point  me  to  economical 
considerations  ?  Why,  does  not  the  whole  experience  of  our 
age  and  of  our  country  prove,  that  what  we  save  in  schools  we 
must  pay  for  in  prisons  ? —  That  what  we  economize  in  the  pre- 
vention of  vice  and  crime,  we  must  pay  for,  and  pay  for  a  hun- 
dredfold, not  merely  in  the  expense  of  their  detection  and  punish- 
ment, but  in  the  thousand  injuries  and  losses  which  they  inflict 
upon  society  ? 

In  whatever  aspect  we  contemplate  the  community  in  which 
we  live,  whether  we  look  to  the  wide  range  of  our  extended 
Country,  or  to  the  narrow  limits  of  our  own  State  or  City,  we 
shall  find  everywhere,  that  our  interests  are  inseparably  identified 
with  the  great  cause  of  education  and  religion.  If  this  Republic 
is  to  stand,  if  these  free  institutions  of  ours  are  to  endure,  if  this 
venerated  Commonwealth  is  to  maintain  any  thing  of  its  ancient 
character  and  consequence,  if  this  beloved  City  of  ours  is  to 
enjoy  peace  within  its  walls  and  prosperity  within  its  palaces,  it 
will  not  be  owing,  primarily  and  principally,  to  our  armies  or 
navies,  to  our  courts  or  congresses,  to  our  sheriffs  or  policemen, 
(though  I  would  by  no  means  speak  lightly  of  the  necessary 
machinery  of  government,)  but  it  will  be  owing,  first  and  above 
all,  to  the  blessing  of  God  upon  our  efforts  to  train  up  our  child- 
ren in  the  way  they  should  go,  so  that  when  they  are  old  they 
may  not  depart  from  it.  There  are  others  who  may  see  greater 
dangers  from  political  agitation  or  sectional  collision,  and  I 
would  not  underrate  the  immediate  troubles  of  the  times ;  but 
the  greatest  danger  which  presents  itself  to  my  own  mind,  as  I 
attempt  to  cast  the  horoscope  of  my  country,  is  that  arising 
from  the  gradual  growth  and  increase  among  us  of  a  population 
not  prepared  for  liberty,  not  fitted  for  freedom,  not  capable  of 
self-control,  not  educated  and  instructed  in  those  principles  of 
morality  and  virtue^  of  law  and  order,  of  the  fear  of  God  and  of 
respect  for  government,  upon  which  all  republics  must  rest  for 
their  foundation,  and  which  they  absolutely  require  for  their  sta- 
bility and  success. 

61* 


726  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION   OP  THE    YOUNG. 

And,  my  friends,  we  must  meet  this  danger  at  the  threshold, 
or  it  will  be  too  late.  We  must  grapple  with  it  now,  and 
through  the  instrumentality  of  institutions  like  this,  or  it  will 
grow  too  strong  for  us.  Who  shall  say  how  much  of  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  our  Commonwealth,  or  even  of  our  whole 
Country,  may  depend  upon  those  little  groups  of  idle,  profane, 
and  ragged  boys  which  we  see  on  the  sidewalks  or  at  the 
corners  of  our  streets,  it  may  be  on  some  holiday  festival,  or  it 
may  be  disturbing  the  quiet  of  some  Sabbath  evening  ? 

We  are  too  apt  to  forget  that  these  boys  are  to  be  the  men  of 
the  future,  and  perhaps  the  masters  of  the  future.  But  let  us 
remember,  too,  that  we  may  be  their  masters  now.  Let  us 
remember  that  we  may  exert  influences  upon  them  now,  which 
shall  control  their  conduct  and  their  character  long  after  we  are 
gone  down  to  our  graves.  If  we  will  but  call  them  in  from 
their  evil  associations  and  vicious  pursuits,  if  we  will  give  them 
the  means  of  useful  and  honorable  employment,  if  we  will  teach 
them  the  rich  rewards  of  a  life  of  honesty  and  virtue  and  dili- 
gence, if  we  will  open  to  them  the  word  of  life,  and  show  them 
that  godliness  which  has  the  promise  of  the  life  which  is,  as  well 
as  of  that  which  is  to  come, —  we  shall  have  made  them  good 
citizens  as  well  as  good  Christians,  and  shall  have  performed 
one  of  the  highest  duties  of  patriotism  as  well  as  of  piety. 

I  think  it  was  related  of  an  old  philosopher,  that,  on  going 
into  a  school-house,  and  seeing  a  band  of  ill-mannered  and  ill- 
behaved  boys,  instead  of  finding  fault  with  the  boys  themselves, 
he  inflicted  a  severe  chastisement  upon  the  master.  This  was 
rather  a  rough  proceeding  for  a  philosopher,  but  it  was  a  forcible 
illustration  of  a  true  principle.  If  the  boys  in  our  land  are  ill- 
mannered  and  ill-behaved,  it  is  the  fault  of  their  parents  and 
teachers.  It  was  only  this  very  afternoon  that  the  services  of 
the  sanctuary  which  I  attended,  were  disturbed  by  the  crash  of 
a  window,  broken  undoubtedly  by  one  of  those  truant  and  trou- 
blesome boys  which  the  Secretary  has  mentioned  in  his  Report. 
My  first  feeling  at  this  incident  was  one  of  indignation  at  the 
act  of  the  boy,  and  of  a  wish  that  he  might  be  caught  and  pun- 
ished ;  but  my  second  sober  thought  was  one  of  pity  for  the 
boy,  and  of  regret,  I  had  almost  said  indignation,  that  there 


RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION   OF  THE  YOUNG.  727 

were  not  more  of  these  Warren  Street  Chapels  in  our  city,  into 
which  boys  of  this  character  might  be  brought,  and  where  they 
might  be  trained  up,  under  the  magical  influence  of  brother  Bar- 
nard, or  others  like  him,  to  be  devout  worshippers  within  the 
temple,  instead  of  rude  rioters  without. 

My  friend  who  just  addressed  you,  (Hon.  James  Savage,)  has 
reminded  us  of  the  storm  which  has  recently  swept  over  our  city. 
I  believe  I  am  correct  in  saying,  that  the  experience  of  those 
who  have  lived  longest  among  us  can  recall  no  equal,  can  "  par- 
allel no  fellow,"  to  that  storm  in  violence.  More  than  one  of  the 
proudest  structures  of  human  art  have  been  prostrated  in  its 
path,  and  not  a  few  of  our  fellow  beings  have  perished  on  the 
sea  and  on  the  shore.* 

I  doubt  not  that  as  we  felt  the  tempest  raging  around  our 
dwellings,  and  as  we  perceived  how  powerless  we  were  to  avert 
its  approach,  to  arrest  its  progress,  or  to  disarm  its  fury,  we 
realized,  more  vividly  than  almost  ever  before,  the  feebleness  of 
man,  the  omnipotence  of  God ;  and  we  were  ready  to  exclaim 
with  the  Psalmist,  "  except  the  Lord  keep  the  city,  the  watch- 
man waketh  but  in  vain."  But  let  us  not  forget  that  there  are 
storms  to  be  witnessed  and  to  be  encountered,  in  our  progress 
through  life,  of  a  far  more  fearful  character.  There  are  passions 
in  the  breast  of  every  human  being,  which  if  suffered  to  swell 
and  rage  unchecked,  may  produce  disasters  a  thousandfold 
more  ruinous.  But,  thank  Heaven,  against  these  moral  storms 
we  may  provide.  If  we  will  take  but  seasonable  means,  we 
may  reclaim  those  passions  from  their  wild  nature,  and  may  put 
them  under  the  guardianship  of  reason,  of  conscience,  and  of  a 
daily  sense  of  responsibility  to  God ;  and  then  we  are  secure. 
The  blast  of  the  tempest  may  dash  down  in  a  night  the  best- 
constructed  lights  which  human  ingenuity  can  set  up  along  our 
shores,  and  bury  the  poor  mariners  in  the  ruins ;  but  if  we  will 
once  kindle  up  the  spark  of  conscience  in  the  breast,  it  may 
defy  the  convulsions  of  the  elements ;  if  we  will  but  once  build 
up  the  great  beacon  of  the  Bible  throughout  our  land,  the  rain 
will  descend,  the  floods  will  come,  the  winds  will  blow  and  beat 

*  The  storm  of  April  15-17,  1851,  will  long  be  memorable  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  Light  House  on  Minot's  Ledge,  in  Boston  Harbor,  and  for  other  disasters. 


728  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION   OF  THE  YOUNG. 

upon  it  in  vain !  It  will  stand  secure  and  unharmed,  a  lamp 
to  our  feet  and  a  lantern  to  our  path  through  all  the  accidents  of 
life,  and  will  conduct  us  in  safety  to  the  haven  where  we  would 
be  hereafter. 

Let  us,  then,  cherish  every  institution  like  this,  for  giving  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor,  and  for  implanting  its  precious  seeds  in  the 
youthful  mind ;  and  let  the  best  sympathy  of  our  hearts,  and 
the  best  succor  of  our  hands,  be  with  those  who  are  engaged  in 
so  noble  a  work.  For  myself,  I  feel  it  a  privilege  to  be  here  this 
evening.  I  thank  my  friends,  the  Directors  of  the  Association, 
for  the  honor  they  have  conferred  upon  me  in  calling  me  to  the 
chair ;  and  I  once  more  express  my  most  earnest  wishes  for  the 
continued  success  and  prosperity  of  this  Institution. 


THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 


A   SPEECH   DELIVERED   AT   THE   ANNUAL   CITY  DINNER   IN  FANEUIL   HALL, 

JULY  4,  1851. 


[In  reply  to  the  following  toast :  — t;  Tlie  Past  Members  of  Congress  "  —  Boston  is 
justly  proud  of  the  list  of  those  of  the  illustrious  dead  and  of  the  respected  and 
honored  living  who  have  represented  her  interests  in  the  National  Councils — may 
their  enlarged  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the  Constitution  be  the  guiding  principles 
which  shall  ever  animate  their  successors."] 

I  could  not  find  it  in  my  heart,  Mr.  Mayor  *  to  decline  the 
kind  request  of  your  committee  that  I  would  be  present  here 
to-day  and  say  a  few  words  in  reply  to  the  sentiment  which  has 
just  been  proposed.  I  am  greatly  honored  by  being  designated 
to  respond  to  such  a  sentiment,  and  by  thus  being  authorized  to 
appropriate  to  myself  some  humble  share  of  the  compliment 
which  it  contains.  It  has  been  my  fortune  to  serve  the  people 
of  Boston,  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  for  a  longer 
period,  I  believe,  than  any  one  who  has  represented  them  since 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  I  do  not  forget,  however,  by 
whom  I  have  been  preceded.  I  do  not  forget  that  upon  the  list 
of  my  respected  and  illustrious  predecessors,  to  which  you  have 
alluded,  are  contained  the  names  of  Otis  and  Eustis  and  Ames, 
among  the  dead;  of  Quincy  and  Gorham  and  Lawrence  and 
Webster,  among  the  living.  As  I  remember  these  and  other 
names,  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  my  own  deficiencies,  both  com- 
parative and  positive.  But  while  I  freely  confess  myself  inferior 
to  all  who  have  preceded  or  followed  me,  in  the  ability  and 
success  of  my  services,  I  do  not  yield  to  any  of  them,  either 
among  the  dead  or  the  living,  in  the  warmth  of  my  attachment 
*  Hon.  John  P.  Bigelow  in  the  Chair. 


730  THE   AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

to  my  country  and  its  institutions,  in  the  earnestness  of  my 
efforts  to  advance  the  interests  of  my  constituents,  or  in  the 
sincerity  of  my  desire  to  promote  harmony,  conciliation,  and 
concord  among  the  whole  American  people. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  I  know  not  how  to  thank  you  for 
this  cordial  and  flattering  reception.  I  am  here,  as  you  know, 
with  no  title  to  consideration  save  such  as  may  result  from  a 
public  career  which  has  recently  been  brought  to  a  close.  After 
sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  official  employment,  in  different 
branches  of  the  State  and  National  Legislatures,  I  am  once 
more  in  the  rank  and  file  of  private  citizenship.  My  place  in 
the  procession  and  at  the  table  to-day  is  among  the  Exes.  An 
ex-member  of  the  General  Court,  an  ex-member  of  Congress,  an 
ex-Speaker,  an  ex-Senator,*  I  am  an  ex-every  thing,  excepting 
only  and  always  that,  which,  thank  Heaven,  no  party  combina- 
tions and  no  personal  prejudices  can  ever  prevent  me  from  being, 
—  a  Boston  boy,  a  Massachusetts  man,  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  an  American  freeman,  —  with  a  heart  full  of  gratitude  to 
those  to  whose  unmerited  favor  I  owe  whatever  honor  I  have 
enjoyed,  and  full  of  love  and  loyalty  also  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union  of  that  native  country  in  whose  councils  I  have 
so  long  served. 

Let  me  add  that  I  am  content  with  my  position  ;  and  it  will 
be  owing  to  no  effort,  solicitation,  or  desire  of  my  own,  if  it  shall 
ever  be  changed.  There  is,  in  my  judgment,  quite  as  much  of 
truth,  as  there  is  of  wit,  in  the  saying  of  a  distinguished  Virginia 
politician  on  some  occasion,  that,  in  the  alphabet  of  a  true  phi- 
losophy, the  X's  are  at  least  next  door  to  the  Y's,  (wise.)  I  will 
not  say  that  "  the  post  of  honor  is  a  private  station  ; "  but  I  will 
say  —  and  you,  Mr.  Mayor  will  know  how  to  agree  with  me  — 
that  the  post  of  personal  comfort,  of  true  satisfaction,  and  of 
inward  peace,  is  not  always  a  public  one.  Certainly,  fellow- 
citizens,  you  will  all  give  me  credit  for  realizing  at  this  hour, 
that  if  a  termination  of  my  Congressional  career  had  secured 

*  An  unexampled  Coalition  between  the  Democrats  and  Free-Soilers,  in  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  by  which  the  State  and  National  Offices  at  their  disposal 
were  made  the  subject  of  a  formal  negotiation  and  barter,  had  brought  Mr.  Winthrop's 
service  in  the  United  States  Senate  to  a  close  on  the  7th  of  February,  1851.  Agree- 
ably to  the  provisions  of  the  contract,  Mr.  Rantoul  was  made  Senator*  for  the  remnant 
of  the  short  term,  and  Mr.  Charles  Sumner  for  the  long  one. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  731 

me  no  other  boon,  than  that  of  hereafter  enjoying  a  comfortable 
Fourth  of  July  dinner  like  this,  in  old  Faneuil  Hall,  instead  of 
being  doomed  to  endure  the  almost  blistering  rays  of  a  Wash- 
ington sun  every  alternate  year,  I  might  well  congratulate 
myself  on  the  result. 

"Why,  Sir,  where  should  an  American  desire  to  be  on  a  Fourth 
of  July  but  in  Faneuil  Hall  ?  Where  else  can  he  breathe  the 
very  natal  air  of  American  Independence  ?  Where  else  can  he 
quench  his  thirst  at  the  very  fountain-head  of  American  liberty  ? 
Whatever  part  Massachusetts  may  have  sustained  in  the  great 
controversies  which  have  agitated  the  country  in  later  years,  — 
and  I  am  not  ready  to  admit  that  it  has  been  an  unworthy  or 
an  inferior  one, —  no  one  will  venture  to  suggest  that  she  played 
any  thing  less  than  the  first  part  in  that  great  drama,  whose 
opening  scenes  we  are  assembled  to  commemorate.  Of  how 
many  of  the  great  events  of  the  Revolution  was  not  Massachu- 
setts the  stage  ?  How  many  of  them  were  enacted  almost 
within  eye-shot  and  ear-shot  of  the  spot  on  which  we  stand  ? 
The  heights  which  overhang  us  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left  —  the  plains  which  lie  behind  them  —  the  harbor  at  our  feet 
—  the  Hall  in  which  we  are  assembled  —  State  street  —  the  Old 
State  House  —  the  Old  South  —  where  else  was  engendered 
that  noble  spirit,  that  fearless  purpose,  that  unconquerable 
resolve,  of  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was,  after  all, 
only  the  mere  formal  and  ceremonious  proclamation  ?  We 
sometimes  talk  playfully  about  the  walls  having  ears.  O,  Sir, 
if  these  walls  could  have  had  ears  three  quarters  of  a  century 
ago,  and  if  they  could  find  a  tongue  now,  what  a  tale  would 
they  not  unfold  of  the  true  rise  and  progress  of  American 
Liberty ! 

Let  me  not  seem  to  disparage  the  particular  act  which  we 
meet  to  celebrate,  or  to  be  disposed  to  deck  these  hallowed 
columns  with  laurels  stripped  from  other  theatres.  There  are 
enough  for  all.  The  Declaration  itself  was  a  bold  and  noble 
act.  Honor  to  the  pen  which  drafted  it!  Honor  to  the  tongue 
which  advocated  it!  Honor  to  the  hands  which  signed  it! 
Honor  to  the  brave  hearts  and  gallant  arms  which  maintained 
and  vindicated  it !     Honor  to  the  five  Massachusetts  Delegates 


732  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

in  the  Congress  of  that  day,  who  were  second  to  none  in  that 
illustrious  body  for  ability,  eloquence  and  patriotism, — Hancock, 
under  whose  sole  signature  it  was  originally  published,  the  two 
Adamses,  Elbridge  Gerry,  and  Robert  Treat  Paine.  Honor  to 
them  all! 

Indeed,  the  more  one  reflects  on  the  real  character  of  that  act, 
the  more  full  of  noble  courage  it  appears.  Remember,  Sir,  that 
there  was  no  divided  responsibility  in  that  Congress.  There 
were  no  checks  and  balances  in  our  confederated  system.  There 
was  no  concurrent  vote  of  a  second  branch  ;  there  was  no 
Executive  signature,  or  Executive  veto,  to  fall  back  upon.  Fifty- 
six  Delegates,  chosen,  as  you  yourself  have  just  suggested,  long 
before  there  was  any  distinct  contemplation  of  such  a  course, 
sitting  in  a  single  chamber,  with  closed  doors,  in  the  capital  of  a 
colony  by  no  means  the  most  ripe  for  such  a  movement,  are 
found,  doing  what  ?  Taking  the  tremendous  responsibility  of 
adopting  a  resolution,  and  promulgating  an  instrument,  which 
may  not  only  subject  their  own  property  to  confiscation,  and 
their  own  necks  to  the  halter,  but  which  must  involve  their  con- 
stituents and  their  country  in  a  war  for  existence,  and  of  incal- 
culable duration,  with  the  most  powerful  nation  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  There  was  no  example  for  such  a  deed.  There  was 
no  precedent  on  file  for  such  a  declaration.  And  who  will  say 
that,  to  put  one's  name  to  such  an  instrument,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, in  the  clear,  bold,  unmistakable  characters  of  John 
Hancock,  was  an  exhibition  of  a  courage  less  heroic  than  that 
which  has  rendered  many  a  name  immortal  on  the  field  of 
battle  ? 

Still,  Sir,  the  way  had  been  opened  for  such  a  proceeding ;  the 
popular  heart  had  been  prepared  for  it.  As  was  well  said  by 
John  Adams  at  the  time,  "  the  question  was  not  whether  by  a 
Declaration  of  Independence  we  should  make  ourselves  what 
we  are  not ;  but  whether  we  should  declare  a  fact  which  already 
exists."  And  how  did  that  fact  exist?  How  had  it  been  brought 
about  ?  By  what  events,  but  those  which  had  occurred  at  Con- 
cord and  Lexington,  at  Bunker  Hill  and  in  Faneuil  Hall  ?  By 
what  men,  but  by  our  own  Otis,  and  Quincy,  and  Hancock,  and 
Hawley,  and  Bowdoin,  and  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Adams, 


THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.  733 

and  Paul  Revere,  and  Prescott,  and  Warren,  and  all  that  glori- 
ous company  of  Massachusetts  patriots,  whose  names  will  live 
forever  ? 

You  have  all  taken  notice,  I  doubt  not,  fellow-citizens,  of 
the  beautiful  experiment  which  has  been  in  operation  at  Bunker 
Hill  for  some  weeks  past,  for  making  visible  the  revolution  of 
the  earth,  by  a  pendulum  suspended  from  the  apex  of  the  monu- 
ment. It  has  furnished  a  convincing  proof  of  the  correctness  of 
those  great  physical  laws  of  the  universe  which  philosophy  had 
long  ago  unfolded  to  us.  But  I  could  not  help  reflecting,  as  I 
witnessed  it  the  other  day,  that  Bunker  Hill  had  done  some- 
thing more  than  merely  furnish  a  convenient  place  for  exhibiting 
the  visible  and  tangible  evidence  of  the  world's  motion.  Sir,  it 
has  itself  made  the  world  move !  And  if,  by  some  mechanical 
arrangement  of  pendulums  or  clock-work,  it  were  possible  to 
mark  the  course  of  the  moral  and  political  changes  of  man- 
kind, and  to  trace  them  back  to  their  original  impulse,  — 
where,  where  would  it  be,  but  to  Bunker  Hill  or  Faneuil  Hall, 
that  we  should  betake  ourselves  —  and  not  to  any  place  nearer 
either  to  the  North  Pole  or  to  the  Equator  —  to  witness  the 
most  exact  and  perfect  illustration  of  the  world's  progress,  and 
to  find  the  very  primum  mobile  of  those  great  revolutions, 
American  and  European,  by  which  human  liberty,  during  the 
present  century,  has  been  so  vastly  advanced  and  extended  ? 

I  am  not  disposed,  Mr.  Mayor,  to  indulge  in  too  much  of  local 
complacency,  or  of  sectional  pride,  on  such  an  occasion  as  this. 
We  have  come  together,  not  as  Bostonians  or  as  New  Engend- 
ers, but  as  Americans.  We  have  assembled  to  celebrate  the 
birth-day  of  our  country,  and  I  would  embrace  in  all  the  good 
wishes  and  pleasant  remembrances  and  proud  anticipations 
which  belong  to  the  hour,  that  whole  Country,  in  all  its  length 
and  breadth,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

I  would  associate  with  all  the  homage  which  we  render  to  the 
memory  of  the  revolutionary  patriots  and  heroes  of  our  own 
State,  the  Hamiltons  and  Jays,  the  Morrises  and  Franklins,  the 
Laurenses  and  Marions,  the  Henrys  and  JefFersons,  and,  above 
all,  the  unapproached  and  unapproachable  Washington,  of  other 


734  THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 

States.  I  would  think  of  our  country,  to-day  and  always,  as 
one  in  the  glories  of  the  past,  one  in  the  grandeur  of  the  present, 
and  one,  undivided  and  indivisible,  in  the  destinies  of  the  future. 
But  at  a  moment  when  there  seems  to  be  a  willingness  in  some 
quarters  to  disparage  our  ancient  Commonwealth,  and  almost  to 
rule  her  out  from  the  catalogue  of  patriot  States,  I  have  not 
been  unwilling  to  revive  some  recollections  of  our  local  history, 
and  of  the  part  which  she  has  played  in  other  days.  I  could 
hardly  help  feeling  that,  if  we  were  to  hold  our  peace,  the  very 
stones  would  cry  out.  Sir,  in  all  that  relates  to  Liberty  and 
Union,  Massachusetts,  I  am  persuaded,  is  to-day  just  what  she 
was  seventy-five  years  ago.  There  is  no  variableness  or  sha- 
dow of  turning  in  her  devotion  to  the  great  principles  of  her 
revolutionary  fathers,  nor  will  she  ever,  as  I  believe,  be  found 
wanting  to  any  just  obligation  to  her  sister  States. 

Mr.  Mayor,  the  act  of  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  was  an  act  of 
revolution.  It  was  an  act  of  organized  and  systematic  resist- 
ance to  an  oppressive  and  tyrannical  government.  It  was  a 
solemn  and  stern  appeal  from  the  decrees  of  a  foreign  despot,  to 
that  great  original  right  of  self-preservation  and  self-government 
which  the  Declaration  so  nobly  promulgates.  Thanks  to  the 
courage  of  our  fathers,  the  appeal  was  successful,  and  the  yoke 
of  colonial  bondage  was  forever  thrown  off. 

But  another  and  more  difficult  task  was  still  to  be  performed 
by  them,  without  which  all  their  previous  toils  and  trials  would 
have  been  worse  than  useless.  The  work  of  overthrow,  separa- 
tion, independence,  completed,  the  greater  labor  of  building  up 
a  system  of  government  for  themselves  remained,  —  a  system 
which  should  render  revolutions  forever  unnecessary,  by  esta- 
blishing law  and  order  on  the  basis  of  the  popular  will  constitu- 
tionally expressed.  That  labor,  also,  was  performed.  The  Con- 
stitution was  framed,  adopted,  and  organized,  and  we  and  our 
fathers  have  lived  under  it  for  a  little  more  than  sixty-two  years. 

Yes,  fellow-citizens,  we  have  reached  a  marked  epoch  in  the 
history  of  our  country.  You  have  been  reminded  that  it  is  just 
three  quarters  of  a  century  since  our  independence  was  declared. 
But,  if  I  mistake  not,  something  of  a  mysterious  significance 
has  been  attached  to  the  precise  age  which  our  Constitution  has 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  735 

now  reached.  A  man  in  his  sixty-third  year  is  said  to  be  at  a 
critical  period  in  his  life.  It  is  called  his  "  grand  climacteric.'' 
If  he  safely  passes  over  that  period,  he  looks  for  a  long  continu- 
ance of  life  and  health.  And  our  Federal  Constitution  has  at 
length  reached  its  grand  climacteric.  And  though  differences  of 
opinion  may  exist  among  us  as  to  the  exact  amount  of  danger 
in  which  we  have  been  involved,  and  as  to  the  precise  manner 
in  which  our  controversies  have  been  adjusted,  nobody  will  deny 
that  circumstances  have  occurred  to  mark  the  period  through 
which  we  are  passing,  as  a  more  than  commonly  critical  period 
in  our  political  existence.  But,  thanks  to  that  Almighty  Being 
who  shapes  our  ends  and  controls  our  destinies,  the  shades 
which  seemed  gathering  over  our  pathway  are  already  scattered, 
the  bow  is  clearly  visible  upon  the  clouds,  and  the  sky  above 
us  is  beginning  to  be  once  more  radiant  with  the  healing  beams 
of  a  restored  national  concord ! 

Let  us  not  indulge  ourselves,  however,  in  any  hopes  or  in  any 
fears,  founded  only  on  a  superstitious  tradition.  Human  life 
may  have  its  mysterious  periods  of  safety  and  of  danger,  and 
they  may  be  altogether  beyond  our  control.  We  know  that  it 
has  one  period,  which  no  prudence  can  avert  and  no  foresight 
postpone.  We  "  cannot  stay  mortality's  strong  hand."  The 
beloved  Chief  Magistrate  who,  this  day  last  year,  was  engaged 
in  adding  another  stone  to  the  monument  of  his  illustrious  ex- 
emplar, was  himself  the  subject  of  a  monument  before  the  expi- 
ration of  a  single  week.  And  the  patriotic  hands  and  eloquent 
voices  which  are  assisting  this  day  in  laying  the  corner-stone  of 
a  new  Capitol,  may  have  become  motionless  and  mute  before 
that  structure  shall  have  reached  its  completion.  One  after 
another,  we  must  all  meet  "the  inexorable  hour."  But  not  so 
with  our  country.  There  is  no  natural  term  to  the  life  of  a 
nation.  It  is  for  the  people  to  say,  as  they  rise  up,  generation 
after  generation,  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  Institutions  which 
their  fathers  have  founded,  whether,  by  God's  blessing,  they 
will  transmit  them  unimpaired  to  their  children. 

It  is  for  us  to  say,  whether  we  will  be  true  to  those  great  ele- 
ments of  Free  Government,  to  those  noble  principles  of  Liberty 
and  Law,  and  to  that  blessed  compact  of  Union,  which  our 
fathers  have  enshrined  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


736  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

If  we  are  but  faithful  to  that  great  bond  and  bulwark  of  our 
Union,  the  Constitution,  critical  periods  may  come  and  go  — 
there  may  be  grand  climacterics  and  petty  crises  —  stars  may 
rise  and  set  —  the  great  and  the  good  may  fall  on  our  right 
hand  and  our  left — but  the  Country,  the  Country,  will  survive 
them  all,  —  will  survive  us  all,  —  and  will  stand  before  the  world 
an  imperishable  monument  of  the  patriotism  of  the  sons,  as 
well  as  of  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  their  sires. 

Let  me  conclude,  then,  by  offering,  as  an  expression  of  my 
best  wishes  for  my  country,  on  its  seventy-fifth  birthday,  the  fol- 
lowing sentiment :  — 

"  Permanent  Peace  with  other  countries ;  fixed  boundaries 
for  our  own  country ;  perpetuity  to  the  Union  of  the  States ; 
and  a  faithful  fulfilment  of  the  Constitutional  Compact  by  all 
who  are  parties  to  it." 


RAILROAD  JUBILEE. 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  THE  PAVILION  ON  BOSTON  COMMON  AT  THE 
CELEBRATION  OF  THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  CANADA  AND  BOSTON  RAIL- 
ROADS, SEPTEMBER  19,  1851. 


[In  reply  to  a  complimentary  sentiment  proposed  by  the  Honorable  John  P.  Bige- 
low,  Mayor  of  the  City.] 

I  am  deeply  sensible,  Mr.  Mayor,  that  the  honors  and  compli- 
ments of  this  occasion  belong  to  others.  They  belong,  in  the 
first  place,  as  my  friend,  Mr.  Everett,  has  just  suggested,  to  the 
distinguished  and  illustrious  strangers  of  our  own  country  and 
of  other  countries,  who  have  adorned  our  festival  with  their  pre- 
sence. And  they  belong,  in  the  next  place,  to  those  of  our  own 
fellow-citizens,  of  whom  I  see  not  a  few  around  me,  to  whose 
far-seeing  sagacity  and  persevering  efforts  and  personal  labors 
we  owe  the  great  works  whose  completion  we  celebrate.  For 
myself,  Sir,  I  have  no  pretension  of  either  sort ;  but  I  am  all  the 
more  grateful  for  the  opportunity  you  have  afforded  me  of  say- 
ing a  few  words,  and  for  the  kind  and  cordial  manner  in  which 
you  have  presented  me  to  this  assembly.  Most  heartily  do  I 
wish  that  I  could  say  any  thing  worthy  of  such  a  scene.  Most 
heartily  do  I  wish  that  I  could  find  expressions  and  illustrations 
in  any  degree  commensurate  to  the  vast  and  varied  theme  which 
such  an  occasion  suggests.  And  still  more  do  I  wish  that  I  could 
find  a  voice  capable  of  conveying,  even  to  one  half  of  this 
crowded  and  countless  audience,  such  poor  phrases  as  I  may  be 
able  to  command.  But  voice,  language,  and  imagination  seem 
to  falter  and  fail  alike,  in  any  attempt  to  do  justice  to  circum- 
stances like  the  present. 

62* 


738  RAILROAD  JUBILEE. 

Mr.  Mayor,  the  very  dates  which  you  have  selected  for  your 
three  days'  jubilee,  would  furnish  material  for  a  discourse  which 
would  occupy  far  more  than  all  the  daylight  which  is  left  us. 
The  17th,  18th,  and  19th  days  of  September!  How  many 
of  the  most  memorable  events  in  our  local,  colonial,  and  national 
history,  are  included  in  this  brief  period ! 

It  was  on  one  of  these  days,  in  the  year  1620,  that  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  of  New  England  took  their  final  departure  from  the 
mother  country,  their  last  and  tearful  leave  of  old  England,  and 
entered  on  that  perilous  ocean  voyage,  of  more  than  three  months' 
duration,  which  terminated  at  Plymouth  Rock ! 

It  was  on  one  of  these  days,  ten  years  later,  in  1630,  that  the 
Puritan  Fathers  of  Massachusetts,  with  one  of  whom  you  have 
done  me  the  honor  to  associate  me,  first  gave  the  name  of  Boston 
to  the  few  tents  and  huts  and  log  cabins  which  then  made  up 
our  embryo  city ! 

It  was  on  one  of  these  same  days,  too,  in  1787,  that  the  Pa- 
triot Fathers  of  America  set  their  hands  and  seals,  at  Philadel- 
phia, to  that  matchless  instrument  of  government — the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  —  which  has  bound  this  nation  to- 
gether for  better  or  worse — let  me  not  say  for  better  or  worse, 
but  for  the  best  and  highest  interests  of  our  country  and  of 
mankind  —  in  one  inseparable  and  ever-blessed  Union  forever! 

Nor,  Mr.  Mayor,  is  this  eventful  period  in  the  calendar  with- 
out associations  and  reminiscences  of  pride  and  glory,  for  our 
brethren  whom  we  have  welcomed  from  over  the  borders.  It 
was,  if  I  mistake  not,  on  one  of  these  same  three  September 
days,  in  the  year  1759,  that  the  proud  fortress  of  Quebec  was 
finally  surrendered  to  the  British  forces, —  surrendered  as  the 
result  of  that  memorable  conflict  on  the  heights  of  Abraham, 
five  or  six  days  before,  in  which  the  gallant  Wolfe  had  expired 
in  the  blaze  of  his  fame,  happy  (as  he  said)  to  have  seen  his 
country's  arms  victorious,  —  and  in  which  the  not  less  gallant 
Montcalm  had  lain  down  in  the  dust  beside  him,  happy,  too, 
(as  he  also  said,)  not  to  have  seen  the  downfall  of  this  last 
strong-hold  of  the  French  dominion  on  the  North  American 
continent 

Nor  is  this  a  reminiscence,  Sir,  in  which  we  of  New  England, 


RAILROAD  JUBILEE.  739 

and  of  Massachusetts  particularly,  have  no  part  or  heritage ;  for, 
let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  Massachusetts,  during  that  year, 
besides  furnishing  to  the  British  army  her  prescribed  quota  of 
six  or  seven  thousand  men  to  fight  the  battles  of  a  common 
Crown,  at  Louisburg,  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  elsewhere,  actually 
raised  three  hundred  additional  men,  at  the  request  of  General 
Wolfe  himself,  who  served  as  the  very  pioneers  of  that  seemingly 
desperate  assault  upon  Quebec.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  either, 
that  the  Colonial  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  testified  their  ad- 
miration of  Wolfe,  and  their  sorrow  for  his  loss,  by  voting  a 
marble  monument  to  his  memory. 

But  all  these,  I  am  aware,  are  but  the  accidental  coincidences 
of  this  occasion.  We  have  assembled,  not  to  recall  the  past, 
but  to  rejoice  in  the  present;  not  to  commemorate  the  early 
trials  and  exploits  of  our  fathers,  but  the  mature  achievements 
and  proud  successes  of  their  sons.  We  come  not  to  celebrate 
the  triumphs  of  the  forum  or  the  battle-field,  but  the  peaceful 
victories  of  science,  of  invention,  and  of  those  mechanic  arts,  so 
many  of  whose  noble  products,  and  nobler  producers,  we  have 
seen  in  the  splendid  pageant  of  the  day. 

And  in  whatever  aspect  we  contemplate  these  great  highways 
of  intercommunication,  in  whose  construction  and  completion 
we  this  day  exult,  we  find  it  difficult  to  express,  and  impossible 
to  exaggerate,  our  sense  of  their  magnitude  and  importance. 
It  is  for  others,  and  upon  other  occasions,  to  speak  of  their  influ- 
ence on  our  material  interests,  our  commercial  prosperity,  and 
our  local  advantages. 

Your  own  intelligent  and  accomplished  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments, indeed,  have  anticipated  all  that  could  be  said  by  any 
one,  on  any  occasion,  on  this  part  of  the  subject.  They  have 
prepared  a  tabular  representation,  which  I  am  glad  to  see  has 
been  laid  upon  every  plate,  which  tells  in  figures  less  deceptive 
or  equivocal  than  those  of  rhetoric,  how  much  has  been  done  in 
this  way  for  Boston,  for  Massachusetts,  for  New  England,  for 
the  country,  for  the  whole  unbounded  continent,  by  the  enter- 
prise, industry,  capital,  and  skill  of  our  citizens.  Here,  too,  is  a 
miniature  map,  which  they  have  furnished  us,  exhibiting  our 
little    Commonwealth,   as   it  really  is,  covered   all  over  with 


740  RAILROAD   JUBILEE. 

railroad  lines,  as  with  the  countless  fibres  of  a  spider's  web. 
They  tell  us  here,  Sir,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  passenger 
trains,  containing  no  less  than  twelve  thousand  persons,  shooting 
into  our  city,  on  a  single,  ordinary,  average,  summer's  day,  with 
a  regularity,  punctuality,  and  precision,  which  make  it  almost  as 
safe  to  set  our  watches  by  a  railroad  whistle,  as  by  the  Old  South 
clock ! 

But,  Sir,  by  what  figures  of  rhetoric,  or  of  arithmetic  either, 
shall  we  measure  the  influence  of  those  great  improvements  on 
our  political  condition,  or  on  our  social  relations,  domestic  or 
foreign  ? 

Consider  them  for  an  instant,  in  connection  with  the  extent  of 
our  own  wide-spread  Republic.  By  what  other  agency  than 
that  of  railroads  could  a  Representative  Government,  like  ours, 
be  rendered  practicable  over  so  vast  a  territory  ?  The  necessary 
limits  of  such  a  Government  were  justly  defined  by  one  of  our 
earliest  and  wisest  statesmen,  to  be  those  within  which  the 
Representatives  of  the  People  could  be  brought  together  with 
regularity  and  certainty,  as  often  as  needful,  to  transact  the 
public  business. 

And  by  which,  do  you  think,  Sir,  of  the  old-fashioned  modes 
of  transportation  or  travel  —  the  stage-coach,  the  pack-saddle,  or 
the  long  wagon,  —  or  by  which,  even,  of  those  queer  conveyances 
which  his  Excellency,  the  Governor- General  of  Canada,*  tells  us 
he  once  shared  with  my  friend,  Governor  Paine,  —  could  Dele- 
gates from  California  or  Utah,  or  even  from  some  of  our  less 
recent  and  less  remote  acquisitions,  be  brought  to  our  sessions  of 
Congress  at  Washington,  and  carried  back  at  stated  intervals  to 
consult  the  wishes  of  their  constituents,  within  any  reasonable 
or  reliable  time  ? 

Mr.  Mayor,  in  view  of  this  and  many  other  considerations,  to 
which  I  may  not  take  up  further  time  by  alluding,  and  which, 
indeed,  are  too  familiar  to  require  any  allusion,  I  feel  that  it  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  our  Railroad  system  is  an  essential  part 
of  our  Representative  system ;  and  that  it  has  exerted  an  influ- 
ence, second  in  importance  to  no  other  that  can  be  named,  ma- 

*  The  Earl  of  Elgin,  whose  admirable  speech  on  this  occasion  will  be  forgotten  by 
no  one  who  heard  it. 


RAILROAD  JUBILEE.  741 

terial,  political,  or  moral,  in  binding  together,  in  one  indissoluble 
brotherhood,  this  vast  association  of  American  States.  It  is 
hardly  too  much  to  add,  that  it  seems  to  have  been  Providentially- 
prepared,  as  the  great  centripetal  enginery,  which  is  destined  to 
overcome  and  neutralize  forever  those  deplorable  centrifugal  ten- 
dencies, which  local  differences,  and  peculiar  institutions,  and 
sectional  controversies  have  too  often  engendered. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  admirable  reply  to 
your  own  most  appropriate  address,  Sir,  welcoming  him  within 
the  lines  of  Boston,  reminded  us  that  his  illustrious  predecessor, 
Washington,  occupied  eleven  days  in  travelling  by  express  from 
Philadelphia  to  the  neighboring  city  of  Cambridge,  in  one  of 
the  most  critical  emergencies  of  our  local  history.  Let  me  re- 
mind you,  also,  of  a  similar  experience  in  the  journeyings  of 
another  of  his  predecessors.  In  the  recently-published  diary 
of  our  own  John  Adams,  will  be  found  the  following  entry, 
dated  at  Middletown,  Connecticut,  on  the  8th  day  of  June,  1771 : 

"  Looking  into  the  almanac,  I  am  startled.  Supreme  Court 
at  Ipswich  the  18th  day  of  June ;  I  thought  it  a  week  later, 
25th ;  so  that  I  have  only  next  week  to  go  home,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles.  I  must  improve  every  moment.  It  is  twenty- 
five  miles  a  day,  if  I  ride  every  day  next  week." 

John  Adams  startled,  —  and,  let  me  say,  he  was  not  of  a  com- 
plexion to  be  very  easily  startled  at  any  thing,  —  at  having  only 
a  week  for  going  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles !  Startled  at  the 
idea  of  being  obliged  to  go  twenty-five  miles  a  day  every  day 
for  a  week !  While  here,  but  a  moment  since,  was  his  illustri- 
ous successor,  who,  having  already  travelled  nearly  five  hundred 
miles  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  having  spent  three  or  four  days 
in  Newport  and  Boston,  which  we  hope  have  been  as  delightful 
to  him  as  they  have  been  to  us,  is  now  on  his  way  back,  and  is 
about  to  reach  Washington  again,  before  the  week  in  which  he 
left  there  is  fairly  at  an  end ! 

And  here,  Mr.  Mayor,  I  turn,  in  conclusion,  to  what  to-day,  at 
least,  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  us  all,  is  the  great  charm  of  this 
modern  miracle  of  rapid  intercommunication.  It  is  that  it  ena- 
bles us  to  see,  to  know,  and  to  enjoy  personal  intercourse  with 
the  great,  the  good,  the  distinguished,  the  admired,  of  our  own 


742  RAILROAD  JUBILEE. 

land  and  of  other  lands.  We  can  take  them  by  the  hand,  we 
can  see  their  faces,  we  can  hear  their  voices,  and  we  can  form 
ties  of  mutual  respect  and  regard,  which  neither  time  nor  distance 
may  afterwards  sever. 

There  have  been  those  here  to-day  whom  none  of  you  will 
soon  forget ;  and  there  is  at  least  one  of  them  to  whom  I  had 
particularly  proposed  to  myself  the  pleasure  of  alluding.  I  refer 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  the  Honorable  Alexander  Stuart, 
a  noble  son  of  old  Virginia,  with  whom,  in  other  years,  I  have 
been  associated  in  Congress,  and  whom  I  am  always  proud  to 
call  my  friend.  He  has  already  taken  his  leave  of  us,  Sir;  but 
I  am  sure  we  all  desire  to  follow  him  with  our  good  wishes, 
and  to  assure  him,  that  though  out  of  sight  he  is  not  out  of  mind. 

But  let  me  congratulate  the  company  that  we  have  another 
Alexander  Stewart  still  left  at  the  table  —  a  distinguished  son  of 
Nova  Scotia  —  an  eminent  citizen  of  Halifax  —  a  high  func- 
tionary of  the  Provincial  Government  —  whom  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  have  at  my  side  during  the  last  hour,  and  who 
is  every  way  entitled  to  our  highest  consideration  and  respect. 
With  a  view  of  introducing  him  to  the  company,  I  propose,  as 
a  sentiment,  — 

"  Prosperity  to  Nova  Scotia  and  the  City  of  Halifax,  and  the 
health  of  our  distinguished  guest,  the  Honorable  Alexander 
Stewart,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls." 


AGRICULTURE. 


A   SPEECH   DELIVERED  AT  THE  DINNER  OF  THE  MIDDLESEX  AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY,  AT  LOWELL,  OCTOBER   24,    1851. 


[In  reply  to  a  complimentary  toast  by  the  President  of  the  Society,  the  Honorable 
E.  R.  Hoar.] 

I  am  greatly  obliged,  Mr.  President,  by  the  friendly  manner  in 
which  you  have  presented  my  name  to  the  company,  and  greatly 
honored  by  the  cordial  reception  they  have  given  to  it.  I  have 
come  here,  as  you  know,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Middlesex  Agri- 
cultural Society,  most  kindly  communicated  by  yourself,  as  their 
President,  to  witness  their  cattle  show  and  ploughing  match,  and 
to  listen  to  the  lessons  of  experience  and  the  words  of  exhort- 
ation which  might  be  addressed  to  them  by  my  excellent  and 
able  friend,  Mr.  Child. 

Let  me  add,  that  as  one  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Massachusetts 
Agricultural  Society,  and  one  of  its  delegates  to  the  State  Agri- 
cultural Board,  I  hardly  felt  at  liberty  to  neglect  such  an  oppor- 
tunity of  observing  the  progress  of  agricultural  improvement  in 
this  good  old  County  of  Middlesex ;   a  County  which  abounds 
alike  in  the  memorials  of  a  glorious  past,  and  in  the  evidence 
of  a  prosperous  present ;   whose  soil  is  enriched  with  the  best 
blood  of  the  fathers,  and  adorned  with  the  noblest  institutions  of 
their  sons ;  and  which,  in  the  person  and  example  of  its  own 
Prescott,  leading  on  his  patriot  band  at  Bunker  Hill  in  a  farmer's 
frock,  gave  a  pledge  and  an  earnest,  that  no  degree  of  devotion 
to  agricultural  pursuits,  or  to  any  other  material  interests,  would 
ever  interfere  with  the  readiness  and  the  resolution  of  its  citizens, 
to  do  their  full  share  in  maintaining  and  vindicating  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  their  country. 


744  AGRICULTURE. 

I  need  not  assure  you,  Mr.  President,  that  I  have  been  greatly- 
gratified  and  delighted  by  all  that  I  have  seen,  and  all  that  I  have 
heard,  here  to-day.  I  only  wish  that  it  were  in  my  power  to 
contribute  any  thing,  in  return,  to  the  instruction,  or  even  to  the 
entertainment,  of  this  assembly.  But  "  silver  and  gold  have  I 
none."  I  have  no  rich  crops  to  tell  you  of,  no  fat  cattle  to 
describe,  no  new  theories  of  the  potato  rot  to  propose;  and  the 
most  that  I  can  do,  is  to  express,  in  a  few  unpretending  words, 
the  deep  interest  which  I  cannot  fail  to  feel,  as  a  humble  mem- 
ber of  the  community,  in  whatever  relates  to  the  improved  cul- 
tivation of  the  soil,  and  still  more  to  the  improved  condition  of 
all  who  are  concerned  in  it. 

It  would  be  quite  superfluous,  Sir,  for  me,  or  for  any  one,  to 
say  a  syllable,  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  as  to  the  importance 
of  agricultural  pursuits.  It  is  enough  for  us  all  to  remember, 
as  I  am  sure  we  all  have  remembered  while  we  have  partaken 
of  this  substantial  repast,  that  it  is  agriculture,  which  supplies 
the  table  at  which  the  whole  human  family  are  fed ;  that  it  is 
agriculture,  which  is  the  appointed  minister,  the  chosen  hand- 
maid, of  our  Heavenly  Parent,  in  His  gracious  response  to  our 
morning  prayer,  that  He  will  "  give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 

And  even  more  superfluous  would  it  be  to  speak  of  agricul- 
ture as  an  honorable  occupation,  and  one  worthy  the  attention 
and  pursuit  of  the  most  intelligent  and  enlightened  among  us. 
To  say  nothing  of  other  countries,  or  of  other  ages,  or  of  other 
men,  what  higher  testimony  could  be  borne  to  the  honorable 
character  of  any  human  occupation,  than  to  say  that  it  was  the 
favorite  occupation  of  Washington, — the  pursuit  which  he  ex- 
changed with  regret  even  for  the  highest  honors  of  the  Republic, 
and  to  which  he  returned  with  eagerness  at  the  earliest  moment 
of  his  retirement  from  public  service.  Washington,  Sir,  is 
known  to  us  by  many  titles  —  as  the  General  of  our  armies,  the 
President  of  our  Republic,  the  Saviour  of  his  country  —  and 
there  is  really  no  title  too  good,  or  even  good  enough,  to  bear  his 
name  company.  But  there  is  none  under  which  that  name  will 
be  longer  remembered,  or  more  gratefully  cherished  by  posterity, 
none  with  which  he  himself  would  have  been  more  proud  to  have 
it  associated,  than  that  of  the  Farmer  of  Mount  Vernon. 


AGRICULTURE.  745 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  am  not  here  to  flatter  the  farmers.  And 
if  I  desired  to  do  so,  it  would  be  rather  a  dangerous  experiment 
at  a  moment  when  we  are  within  ear-shot  of  so  many  of  our 
fellow-citizens  who  are  engaged  in  other  pursuits.  I  shall  not 
say  to  them,  as  the  old  Roman  poet  said,  that,  when  Justice 
winged  its  flight  from  the  earth,  it  made  its  latest  abode,  and  left 
its  last  traces,  among  the  homes  and  in  the  hearts  of  the  hus- 
bandmen. For,  I  cannot  forget,  that  that  noble  Association  of 
Massachusetts  mechanics,  for  which  my  friend,  Mr.  Lincoln,  has 
just  responded,  and  of  which  I  enjoy  the  cherished  distinction  of 
being  an  honorary  member,  adopted  long  ago  for  its  motto  "  Be 
just  and  fear  not ; "  and  I  believe  there  is  no  body  of  men  in  the 
land,  who  more  scrupulously  "  reck  their  own  rede,"  and  practise 
according  to  their  own  precepts. 

Nor  shall  I  tell  the  farmers,  as  they  have  been  told  from  high 
quarters,  in  more  recent  days,  that  they  are  the  "  best  part  of  the 
population ; "  for  I  know  they  would  scorn  any  compliment 
which  should  be  paid  them  at  the  expense  of  their  brethren  in 
other  pursuits.  It  is  enough  for  us  all  to  admit  that  there  is  no 
better  part  of  the  population,  unless,  indeed,  it  be  their  own 
wives  and  daughters,  as  represented  in  yonder  group,  whose  pri- 
vilege is  always  to  be  styled,  "the  better  part  of  creation." 
There  are  none  better  entitled,  certainly,  to  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  the  community,  or  to  the  protecting  and  foster- 
ing care  of  the  government  of  the  country.  And  let  me  add, 
Sir,  that  if  the  farmers  do  not  receive  their  full  share  of  this 
governmental  care  and  protection,  it  is  their  own  fault;  for 
though  our  friend,  Mr.  Child,  has  clearly  proved  to  us  that 
they  do  not  constitute  the  most  numerous  class  in  our  own  State, 
they  are  unquestionably  in  a  great  majority  in  the  country  at 
large,  and  can  have  their  own  way,  whenever  they  see  fit  to 
assert  their  power  and  vindicate  their  rights. 

Mr.  President,  I  would  gladly  have  said  a  more  serious  word, 
before  taking  my  seat,  in  reference  to  the  importance  of  some 
provision  being  made,  either  by  the  liberality  of  individuals,  or 
under  the  patronage  of  the  State,  for  the  promotion  of  agricul- 
tural education,  and  the  diffusion  of  agricultural  science.  But 
the  sound  of  the  car-bell  is  already  in  my  ears,  reminding  me 

63 


746  AGRICULTURE. 

that  in  a  few  minutes  more  I  must  be  on  my  way  to  Boston. 
You  have  your  own  engagements,  too,  the  distribution  of  prizes, 
the  election  of  officers,  and  other  interesting  and  important  duties, 
with  which  I  would  be  the  last  to  interfere.  I  cannot  conclude, 
however,  without  adverting  more  particularly  to  the  fact  that 
this  is  not  a  mere  agricultural  occasion. 

There  is  something  of  peculiar  and  most  agreeable  signifi- 
cance both  in  the  title  of  your  Association,  and  in  the  time, 
place,  and  circumstances  of  your  festival.  You  are  a  society  of 
Husbandmen  and  Manufacturers,  and  you  have  chosen  as  the 
scene  of  your  cattle-show  the  very  site  and  seat  of  our  largest 
and  most  numerous  manufacturing  establishments ;  while  the 
Mechanic  Association  of  the  county  has  prepared  a  beautiful 
exhibition,  crowded  with  every  variety  of  curious  machine  and 
ingenious  implement  and  exquisite  fabric,  and  is  uniting  with 
you  in  all  your  arrangements  and  festivities.  Horticulture,  too, 
has  lent  its  choicest  fruits  and  its  richest  garlands  to  the  occa- 
sion. And,  above  all,  a  good  Providence  has  shed  the  selectest 
influences  on  the  hour,  by  favoring  us  so  unexpectedly  with  a 
day  of  such  unsurpassed  loveliness  and  brilliancy. 

The  whole  occasion,  Sir,  furnishes  a  striking  and  beautiful 
testimony,  on  the  part  of  those  who  understand  the  matter  best, 
to  the  union  and  harmony  of  interests,  which  ought  to  exist,  and 
which  do  exist,  among  all  the  different  branches  of  human  labor. 
It  furnishes  a  noble  refutation  and  rebuke  to  the  idea,  too  often 
propagated  for  mischievous  purposes,  that  there  is  an  antagonism 
of  interest  or  of  feeling  between  the  agricultural  and  manufac- 
turing population  of  the  country,  and  especially  between  the 
farmers  and  mechanics  of  our  own  State.  It  declares,  in  a 
voice  not  to  be  misinterpreted,  that  the  interests  of  labor  are  one 
and  the  same,  in  whatever  departments  it  is  employed ;  and  that 
the  industrial  classes,  instead  of  thriving  at  each  other's  expense, 
find  their  highest  interest  and  advantage  in  each  other's  prosper- 
ity. The  greatest  division  of  labor — the  greatest  union  among 
laborers  —  this  is  the  lesson  of  the  scene  before  us,  and  I  hope  it 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  It  cannot  be  forgotten,  Sir,  by  the 
farmers  at  least,  while  the  mechanic  arts  are  providing  such 
implements  for  agriculture,  as  those  to  which  you  have  already 


AGRICULTURE.  747 

alluded, — the  Massachusetts  Plough  and  the  Virginia  Reaper, 
which  have  recently  carried  off  the  prizes  at  the  World's  Fair, 
and  given  new  celebrity  to  American  invention  and  Yankee  skill ; 
and  which,  let  me  add,  are  remembered  by  us  not  the  less  grate- 
fully to-day,  as  having  associated  in  the  triumphs  of  modern  art, 
those  two  ancient  Commonwealths,  which  were  so  closely  and  so 
gloriously  associated  in  the  early  struggles  of  American  Independ- 
ence. Nor  will  agriculture  forget  its  indebtedness  to  invention 
and  the  mechanic  arts,  while  it  is  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  noble 
highways  of  intercommunication  whose  completion  we  have  just 
celebrated,  and  which  have  brought  the  markets  of  Canada 
home  to  our  very  doors.  Why,  I  have  heard,  Sir,  within  a  few 
hours  past,  that  since  the  opening  of  these  roads,  during  the  last 
week,  one  of  your  Middlesex  farmers  has  found  a  ready  sale  for 
thirty  or  forty  bushels  of  fresh  peaches  in  the  city  of  Montreal ! 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  am  admonished  that  these  railroads  are 
like  the  wind  and  tide  in  at  least  one  respect  —  "  they  wait  for 
no  man," — and  I  hasten  to  secure  my  own  passage,  as  well  as 
to  relieve  your  patience,  by  proposing  as  a  sentiment,  as  I  most 
cordially  do, — 

"  Success  to  the  Farmers,  Manufacturers,  and  Mechanics  of 
Middlesex,  and  may  they  ever  continue  to  cherish  and  cultivate 
those  feelings  of  mutual  respect  and  fraternal  regard,  which  have 
united  them  to-day  in  a  common  and  brilliant  Festival." 


THE   MECHANIC   ARTS. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  THE  FESTIVAL  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  CHARI- 
TABLE MECHA-NIC  ASSOCIATION,  IX  FANEUIL  HALL,  ON  WEDNESDAY 
EVENING,   OCTOBER  1,  1851. 


[In  reply  to  a  complimentary  call  from  George  G.  Smith,  Esq.,  the  Chief  Marshal  of 
the  occasion.] 

I  could  have  wished,  Mr.  Chief  Marshal,  that  your  worthy 
Vice-President,  whose  privilege  it  is  to  preside  over  the  neigh- 
boring Observatory,  as  well  as  over  this  Association  to-night, 
and  who  has  so  long  been  a  living  Bond  *  between  science  and 
art,  might  have  brought  some  star  of  larger  magnitude  than 
myself  within  the  range  of  his  glass  at  this  moment,  and  have 
allowed  me  to  remain  still  longer  unobserved.  But  we  all  know 
that  there  is  no  escape  from  his  telescope,  and  I  willingly  yield 
myself  to  his  summons,  as  kindly  announced  by  yourself. 

I  thank  you  most  heartily,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  for  this 
friendly  reception.  I  thank  you  still  more  for  the  opportunity  of 
enjoying  this  most  agreeable  occasion.  I  have  often,  in  other 
years,  attended  your  festivals  as  a  guest,  and  always  with  re- 
newed gratification.  But  you  must  pardon  me,  if  I  cannot  con- 
sent to  be  considered  as  a  mere  guest  this  evening ;  for,  since 
you  have  accorded  me  the  distinction  of  being  enrolled  among 
your  honorary  members,  I  feel  emboldened  to  assert  my  privi- 
leges as  a  brother.  A  most  unworthy  and  unprofitable  brother, 
I  do  confess,  and  little  better  than  a  drone  in  your  industrial 
hive  ;  but  one,  who  is  all  the  more  deeply  grateful  for  your  libe- 
rality, in  allowing  him  to  come  in  for  a  share  of  your  honey, 
and  especially  in  admitting  him  to-night  to  join  with  you  in 
doing  homage  to  your  Queen  Bees. 

*  Mr.  Bond,  the  Cambridge  Astronomer,  the  Vice-President  of  the  Association, 
occupied  the  Chair. 


THE  MECHANIC   ARTS.  749 

And  never  was  there  a  moment,  Mr.  President,  in  the  history 
of  mankind,  when  any  one  might  be  more  justly  proud  to  find 
his  name  on  the  rolls  of  a  Mechanic  Association.  Never,  cer- 
tainly, was  there  a  year  when  the  inventors  and  artisans  of  the 
world  could  hold  up  their  heads  with  a  loftier  consciousness  of 
their  importance  to  their  fellow-men,  than  they  may  in  this  year 
of  our  Lord,  1851.  "Wherever  we  turn,  at  home  or  abroad,  we 
see  the  strong  hand  of  the  mechanic,  aided  and  guided  by  science, 
impressing  itself  upon  the  condition  of  society,  and  giving  form 
and  character  to  the  age  in  which  we  live.  As  it  was  in  the 
procession  of  the  late  Railroad  Jubilee  here  in  our  own  streets, 
to  which  the  Mayor  has  so  happily  alluded,  —  so  is  it  everywhere 
in  the  great  procession  of  human*  events,  as  we  see  it  passing 
along  over  the  highways  of  human  existence,  and  on  the  stage 
of  daily  life ;  —  the  emblems  of  the  trades,  the  insignia  of  the  arts, 
the  triumphal  banners  of  mechanic  labor  and  invention,  are  the 
chief  features  of  the  scene,  and  furnish  its  most  striking  and 
attractive  ornaments. 

The  highest  praise  has  been  awarded  from  all  quarters  to 
Prince  Albert,  of  Old  England,  for  proposing  and  patronizing 
the  noble  scheme,  which  has  been  so  successfully  and  brilliantly 
carried  out,  of  an  exhibition  of  the  industry  of  the  world,  and 
there  is  no  one  here  who  would  detract  one  jot  or  tittle  from  the 
credit  which  belongs  to  him.  But,  after  all,  Sir,  he  has  only 
recognized  the  grand  fact  of  the  times.  He  has  only  made  a  sea- 
sonable  and  just  acknowledgment  of  that  which  could  no  longer 
be  denied.  The  Crystal  Palace,  (as  was  truly  said  by  the  Earl 
of  Carlisle,  so  well  and  so  favorably  known  to  us  all  as  Lord 
Morpeth,)  is  only  "  the  formal  recognition  of  the  dignity  and 
value  of  labor."  But  that  dignity  and  that  value  existed,  whether 
they  were  formally  recognized  or  not.  They  did  not  wait  for  the 
breath  of  princes  to  call  them  into  being,  nor .  require  a  World's 
Fair  for  their  blazonry.  They  were  created  by  no  royal  patent, 
and  made  manifest  by  no  crystal  palace.  By  the  strength  of 
millions  of  stout  arms,  by  the  energy  of  millions  of  intelligent 
minds,  and  by  the  countless  products  which  industry,  invention, 
science,  and  skill,  have  brought  to  the  advancement  of  civiliza- 
tion and  the  improvement  of  society,  they  have  forced  them- 

63* 


750  THE    MECHANIC   ARTS. 

selves  upon  the  attention,  the  acknowledgment,  and  the  admira- 
tion of  the  world.  They  have  asserted  their  own  title,  and  made 
their  own  way,  to  the  recognition  and  respect  of  mankind. 

Sir,  I  am  not  about  to  detain  this  brilliant  assembly  from  the 
pleasures  which  await  them,  by  any  detailed  remarks  about  the 
World's  Fair,  or  about  our  own  particular  section  of  it.  You 
have  heard  already,  to  your  hearts'  content,  of  Stevens's  Yacht, 
and  Colt's  Revolver,  and  Maynard's  Primer,  and  Palmer's 
Wooden  Leg,  and  Prouty's  Plough,  and  McCormick's  Reaper, — 
which  may  literally  be  said  to  have  made  the  farmers  of  Old 
England  "  acknowledge  the  corn,"  —  and  of  that  marvellous  lock 
of  our  own  Boston  Hobbs,  who  seems  to  have  settled  the  point, 
that  if  Love  ever  laughs  at  locksmiths  again,  it  will  not  be  at 
Yankee  locksmiths.  You  have  all  heard,  too,  of  that  frank  admis- 
sion of  the  London  Times,  "  that  every  practical  success  of  the 
season  belongs  to  the  Americans."  We  may  well  be  content 
with  such  compliments  from  such  sources.  We  need  have  no 
fear  after  this,  that  "  those  who  live  in  glass  houses  will  throw 
stones"  again  in  this  direction.  We  can  afford  to  adopt  the 
language  of  the  wise  man,  "let  another  praise  thee,  and  not 
thine  own  mouth  ;  a  stranger,  and  not  thine  own  lips." 

We  can  afford  to  do  more,  Mr.  President ;  we  can  afford  to 
acknowledge  our  own  deficiencies.  We  can  afford  to  admit,  as, 
indeed,  we  cannot  help  admitting,  that  notwithstanding  so  many 
notable  successes  and  triumphs  in  these  practical  machines  and 
implements  of  industry,  our  manufactures  and  our  mechanic 
arts  are  still  greatly  inferior  to  those  of  the  old  world,  both  in  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  great  varieties  of  products.  And  how 
could  it  be- otherwise  ?  Why,  Sir,  for  young  republican  Ame- 
rica to  have  gone  out  to  a  contest  with  the  old  world,  in  the  arts 
which  depend  on  long  experience,  consummate  skill,  and  accu- 
mulated capital,  and  which  have  required  royal  courts  and 
princely  establishments  for  their  existence  and  patronage  else- 
where, would  have  been  simply  ridiculous.  For  her  to  have 
come  off  victorious  in  such  a  contest,  would  have  equalled  the 
triumph  of  the  stripling  of  Israel,  with  his  sling  and  his  stone, 
over  the  giant  of  Gath,  with  the  staff  of  his  spear  like  a  wea- 
ver's beam.     It  would  have  been  more  than  human. 


THE  MECHANIC   ARTS.  751 

But  let  me  ask,  Sir,  who  of  us  is  sorry  that  we  are  behind,  far 
behind,  the  old  world  in  articles  of  mere  taste  and  ornament  ? 
Who  does  not  rejoice  that  we  cannot  vie  with  Europe  and  Asia 
in  arts  that  minister  only  to  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of 
life?  Who  is  in  haste  to  see  the  day,  when  the  tissues  and 
tapestries,  the  jewels  and  porcelain  of  India  or  of  France,  shall 
be  native  to  our  own  land?  Who,  on  the  contrary,  does  not 
desire  that  such  a  consummation  may  be  postponed,  until  that 
double  problem  shall  be  solved,  of  which  the  history  of  mankind 
as  yet  affords  no  solution,  —  first,  how  these  sumptuous  and 
gorgeous  decorations  of  the  rich  can  be  fabricated,  without  the 
degradation  and  debasement  of  the  poor ;  and  second,  how  the 
morality  and  purity,  which  are  the  very  vital  air  of  republican 
liberty,  can  withstand  the  fascinations  and  blandishments  of  a 
corrupting  and  cankering  luxury. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say,  Mr.  President,  in  a  single  concluding 
sentence,  that  there  is  at  least  one  element  wanting  in  that  great 
exhibition,  for  the  purposes  of  any  just  comparison  between  our 
own  and  other  countries.  We  see  there  the  products ;  but  we 
do  not  see  the  producers.  We  see  there  the  fabrics ;  but  we  do 
not  see  the  hands  which  made  them.  Sir,  if  it  had  been  possi- 
ble to  exhibit  in  any  tangible  shape,  or  by  any  personal  represent- 
ation, the  real  condition  of  the  artisans  and  mechanics  of  the 
world ;  if  the  makers  of  every  article  could  have  been  seen  stand- 
ing by  their  work,  with  their  ordinary  dress  on  their  back,  with 
their  ordinary  food  at  their  side,  and  with  all  the  advantages  or 
disadvantages  of  their  relative  condition  fully  developed  and 
displayed,  —  their  intelligence,  their  education,  their  wages,  the 
amount  of  individual  comfort,  independence,  and  happiness  they 
enjoy, —  the  whole  moral,  social,  and  political  position  which 
they  occupy,  —  what  contrasts  would  not  have  been  witnessed ! 
If  this  very  hall,  with  all  that  it  now  contains,  could  be  wafted 
over  the  waters  by  a  wish,  on  some  magic  carpet,  like  that 
described  in  one  of  the  tales  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  —  if  it 
could  be  set  down  safely  in  that  much-talked-of  "  vacant  space  " 
in  the  American  section  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  —  and  if  your 
excellent  President,*  now  there,  could  be  on  the  spot  to  meet  you 

*  Jonas  Chickcring.  Esq. 


752  THE    MECHANIC  ARTS. 

as  you  alight,  and  to  say  to  the  assembled  throng  of  visitors : 
"  Here  are  the  American  mechanics  —  here  are  the  men  who 
build  our  ships,  our  houses,  our  bridges,  and  our  railroads — who 
make  our  iron  ware,  and  tin  ware,  and  brass  ware,  and  wooden 
ware,  and  who  construct  those  wonderful  machines  and  invent 
those  curious  implements  to  which  you  have  given  your  prizes  — 
and  here,  too,  are  their  wives  and  daughters;  —  behold  them, 
and  compare  them  with  your  own,"  —  would  they  not  all  feel 
that  it  was  something  better  than  a  vainglorious  boast  for  us 
to  exclaim, — 

"  Man  is  the  nobler  plant  our  realm  supplies, 
And  souls  are  ripened  in  these  northern  skies  ! " 


AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT    THE    DINNER    OF    THE    HAMPSHIRE,    HAMPDEN, 
AND    FRANKLIN    AGRICULTURAL    SOCIETY,   AT   NORTHAMPTON,   OCTOBER 

9,  1851. 


[In  reply  to  a  complimentary  toast  proposed  by  W.  0.  Gorliam,  Esq.,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Society.] 

I  need  not  assure  you,  Mr.  President,  how  deeply  I  am  in- 
debted to  your  eloquent  Secretary,  for  so  kind  and  compliment- 
ary an  introduction  to  the  yeomanry  of  old  Hampshire.  I  am 
not  —  at  least,  I  hope  I  am  not  —  altogether  a  stranger  to  them. 
I  have  visited  their  lovely  valley,  and  climbed  their  beautiful  hill- 
sides, in  other  years.  I  have  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of 
many  of  them,  on  other  occasions  and  amid  other  scenes.  With 
not  a  few  of  them,  as  you  well  remember,  I  was  associated  long 
ago  in  the  Legislature  of  our  own  Commonwealth.  With  more 
than  one  of  them  I  have  been  more  recently  and  more  closely 
connected  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  Wherever  I  have  met 
them,  I  have  found  them  true  men,  trusty  counsellors,  patriotic 
citizens,  faithful  and  cherished  friends.  I  rejoice  to  recognize  so 
many  of  them  before  me  at  this  moment,  and  to  have  such  an 
opportunity  of  renewing  the  assurances  of  our  mutual  regard 
and  respect.  I  rejoice  to  see  them  on  their  own  ground,  in  the 
midst  of  their  fellow-citizens,  with  their  wives  and  daughters  by 
their  side,  and  surrounded  by  so  many  evidences,  both  of  imme- 
diate enjoyment,  and  of  permanent  prosperity  and  happiness. 

Sir,  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  be  born  and  bred  in  a  city  ;  and 
I  am  not  insensible  to  the  advantages  which  are  to  be  found  in 
the  varied  institutions,  in  the  compact  neighborhoods,  and  in 


754  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 

the  general  movement  and  activity  of  a  large  and  wealthy  me- 
tropolis. I  never,  certainly,  can  find  it  in  my  heart  to  regret  my 
relations  to  Boston.  I  am  bound  to  her  by  a  thousand  ties  of 
old  association,  of  present  interest,  and  of  personal  obligation. 
But  never  yet  have  I  found  myself  on  the  hills  or  the  plains  which 
lie  along  the  courses  of  your  charming  river,  without  feeling  that 
your  lot,  above  that  of  almost  all  other  Massachusetts  men,  has 
been  cast  in  pleasant  places,  and  that  you  have,  indeed,  a  goodly 
heritage. 

Certainly,  Sir,  if  there  be  a  spot  on  our  not  over-fertile  New 
England  soil,  if  there  be  a  spot  beneath  our  not  always  clement 
New  England  sky,  on  which  a  man  may  find  a  more  than  ordi- 
nary security  for  the  enjoyment  of  health  and  happiness,  of  com- 
petency and  comfort,  of  contentment  and  independence,  of  vigor 
of  body  and  vigor  of  mind,  it  must  be  somewhere  along  these 
verdant  meadows,  or  upon  these  sunny  slopes  of  the  Connecticut ; 
it  must  be  somewhere  among  these  "  banks  and  braes  of  your 
Bonnie  Doon."  And,  let  me  add,  if  there  be  a  spot  beneath  the 
sun,  where  virtue,  and  piety,  and  integrity,  and  patriotism,  have 
already  found  some  of  their  brightest  examples  and  purest 
models,  it  is  here,  amid  the  homes  of  your  Stoddards  and 
Edwardses,  your  Williamses,  and  Hawleys,  and  Strongs. 

But,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  you  are  not  here  to  listen 
to  empty  compliments  to  the  beauties  of  your  scenery,  the  ad- 
vantages of  your  condition,  or  the  character  of  your  distinguished 
men,  dead  or  living.  This  is  a  farmers'  festival ;  and  having 
gone  through  with  the  exhibitions  and  competitions  of  the  day, 
you  have  come  together  for  a  friendly  interchange  of  opinions, 
and  a  frank  comparison  of  views,  on  the  great  subject  of  agri- 
culture. And  a  great  subject  it  certainly  is,  and  one  worthy  of 
the  most  careful  examination  and  study  of  our  ablest  and  most 
enlightened  minds.  Nay,  Sir,  it  demands  such  examination  and 
study,  and  it  must  have  them,  unless  we  are  willing  that  our 
posterity  shall  reap  the  bitter  fruits  of  our  ignorance  and  neglect, 
and  shall  have  nothing  else  to  reap. 

For  myself,  I  have  little  pretension,  I  am  conscious  —  no  man 
here  has  less — to  give  advice,  or  pronounce  an  opinion,  upon 
any  question  pertaining  to  the  practical  cultivation  of  the  soil. 


AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.  755 

If  I  were  called  upon,  at  this  moment,  certainly,  to  put  my  hand 
to  the  plough,  I  am  sensible  that  I  should  stand  greatly  in  need 
of  Prouty's  No.  40,  which  has  recently  obtained  the  premium  at 
the  World's  Fair,  and  which  the  Chairman  of  one  of  your  Com- 
mittees has  described  to  us,  this  morning,  as  being  made  "  to  go 
alone."  But  I  have  been  deeply  impressed  with  some  of  the 
views  which  have  been  presented  on  this  occasion,  and  on  other 
occasions,  by  the  experienced  and  scientific  gentleman  *  who  has 
addressed  us  at  the  church  this  morning,  and  I  cannot  forbear 
giving  utterance  to  one  or  two  of  those  impressions,  in  a  few 
plain  and  unpretending  remarks. 

No  one,  I  am  sure,  who  examined  the  Agricultural  Report, 
which  was  issued  from  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington,  last 
year,  could  fail  to  haVe  been  struck  with  the  suggestions  it  con- 
tained in  regard  to  the  gradual  deterioration  and  impoverishment 
of  the  American  soil.  No  one  can  have  forgotten  the  idea,  so 
forcibly  presented  by  the  author  of  that  Report,  —  that,  for  want 
of  more  system  and  more  science  in  the  cultivation  of  our  lands, 
we  are  rapidly  exhausting  the  soil  of  its  productive  qualities, 
and  are  in  danger  of  leaving  it  to  those  who  come  after  us,  des- 
titute of  all  those  ingredients  and  elements  upon  which  they  must 
rely  for  bread. 

I  fear,  Sir,  that  we  have  all  been  too  long  accustomed  to  think 
of  the  soil  we  cultivate,  as  an  imperishable  and  indestructible 
thing.  And  it  is  true,  that  by  no  acts  and  by  no  omissions  of 
ours  can  we  annihilate  the  solid  ground  beneath  our  feet,  or 
remove  from  its  strong  foundations  the  sure  and  firm-set  earth 
which  we  inhabit.  It  is  true  that  the  same  hills  and  valleys, 
the  same  mountains  and  plains,  which  are  before  us  and  around 
us  now,  will  remain  fixed  and  steadfast  long  after  we  are  buried 
in  their  dust,  and  will  be  trodden  by  generation  after  generation 
of  our  successors.  But  it  is. not  less  true,  that  the  productive 
elements  of  the  soil  are  as  perishable  as  the  plants  and  fruits  to 
which  they  give  life  and  nourishment.  It  is  not  less  true,  that 
the  fertilizing  ingredients  of  the  earth  stand  as  much  in  need  of 
renewal  as  the  seeds  of  our  annual  harvests ;  and  that  unless 
we  pay  back  to  the  ground,  seasonably  and  punctually,  the  full 

*  Dr.  Daniel  Lee,  of  the  United  States  Patent  Office. 


756  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 

amount  that  we  draw  from  it,  there  will  be  a  fearful  accumu- 
lation of  arrears  to  be  settled  by  our  posterity. 

Our  neglect  cannot,  indeed,  change  the  substantial  forms  of 
nature.  We  cannot  dissolve  the  Sugar-Loaf.  "We  cannot  shake 
Mount  Tom  and  Mount  Holyoke  from  their  rocky  thrones,  and 
remove  them  into  the  sea  or  the  river.  But  we  can  destroy  their 
verdure  and  strip  them  of  their  foliage.  We  can  make  their 
glorious  beauty  a  fading  flower,  and  leave  them,  and  the  valleys 
below  them,  so  exhausted  of  their  natural  elements  of  produc- 
tion and  fertility,  that  when  our  children  go  to  them  for  bread, 
they  shall  only  find  a  stone. 

Why,  Mr.  President,  it  has  been  estimated  by  your  able  ora- 
tor, that  it  would  require,  in  round  numbers,  not  less  than 
a  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  judiciously  expended,  to  re- 
store to  that  richness  of  mould  and  strength  of  fertility  which 
they  originally  possessed,  the  one  hundred  millions  of  acres  of 
land  in  this  country,  which  have  already  been  partially  exhausted ! 
And  how  can  we  ever  speak  of  our  farms  as  being  free  from 
mortgage,  or  our  country  from  a  national  debt,  while  such  a 
state  of  things  exists,  and  is  going  on ! 

Sir,  if  there  be  truth,  or  any  approximation  to  truth,  in  this 
calculation,  how  vastly  important  has  it  not  become,  that  our 
agriculture  should  henceforth  be  conducted  on  more  scientific 
and  systematic  principles!  How  vastly  important  has  it  not 
become,  as  an  act  of  sheer  justice  to  our  children  and  our  child- 
ren's children,  and  lest  they  should  rise  up  in  judgment  against 
us,  as  having  robbed  them  of  their  rightful  inheritance,  that  the 
practical  farmers  of  our  land  should  be  instructed,  should  instruct 
themselves,  should  in  some  way  or  other  become  informed,  as  to 
the  true  nature  of  the  soil  they  cultivate,  and  should  learn  by  what 
processes  and  appliances,  by  what  manures  and  fertilizers,  it  may 
be  kept  in  a  condition  —  not  merely  for  furnishing  food  for  them- 
selves —  but  for  supporting  that  long  succession  of  generations 
which,  we  hope  and  believe,  are  destined,  by  God's  blessing,  to 
maintain  for  a  thousand  years  to  come,  a  populous,  and  prosper- 
ous, and  glorious  Commonwealth,  on  the  very  spot  on  which  it 
was  first  founded  by  our  fathers. 

"  Plant  for  posterity,"  was  the  saying  of  the  old  Roman  phi- 


AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.  757 

losopher  and  patriot,  when  he  was  setting  out  trees  at  eighty- 
years  of  age.  And  there  is  something  delightful  in  the  idea  of 
our  children  sporting  in  their  childhood,  and  reposing  in  their 
old  age,  beneath  the  spreading  branches  which  our  hands  have 
reared  for  them.  But  "manure  for  posterity"  may  well  be  the 
more  homely,  but  far  more  important  maxim  of  the  provident 
and  patriotic  farmers  of  the  present  day.  In  feeding  your  child- 
ren, take  care  that  you  are  not  starving  your  grandchildren. 
Let  every  landlord,  every  proprietor  of  acres,  remember  and 
realize,  that  though  the  fee-simple  of  his  farm  is  in  himself,  and 
though  no  court  of  law  or  court  of  equity  can  sustain  an  action 
against  him  for  strip  or  waste,  he  yet  holds  the  soil  in  strict 
moral  trust,  and  is  accountable  in  the  eyes  of  men,  and  at  the 
bar  of  God,  for  the  degree  of  fertility  or  barrenness  which  he 
may  bequeath  to  his  descendants. 

And  most  especially,  Mr.  President,  is  such  a  sense  of  obliga- 
tion and  responsibility  needed  in  our  own  Commonwealth.  In 
other  and  newer  and  larger  States,  there  may  be  less  immediate 
call  for  such  precautions.  They  have  a  richer  original  soil  to 
draw  upon,  and  much  of  it  is  still  a  virgin  soil.  They  have  a 
greater  extent  of  territory  to  expatiate  in  and  experiment  upon. 
They  may  go  on  cropping  from  acre  to  acre,  like  bees  from 
flower  to  flower.  If  they  exhaust  their  farms  to-day,  to-morrow 
they  may  repair  "  to  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new."  One  may 
almost  apply  to  them  the  language  of  one  of  those  charming 
melodies  of  Moore's,  so  familiar,  I  doubt  not,  to  many  of  my  fair 
hearers  — 

"  They  may  roam  thro'  this  world,  like  a  child  at  a  feast, 
Who  but  sips  of  a  sweet,  and  then  flies  to  the  rest ; 
And  when  pleasure  begins  to  grow  dull  in  the  East, 
They  may  order  their  wings  and  be  off  to  the  West." 

But  we  have  no  such  ample  territory  or  luxuriant  soil.  We 
are  one  of  the  oldest,  and  one  of  the  smallest  States  in  the  Union. 
Our  lands  are  limited  in  extent,  and  more  limited  in  fertility. 
Poor  at  the  outset,  they  have  been  long  under  the  plough.  And 
unless  intelligence  and  science  shall  do  something,  and  some- 
thing seasonable  and  effective,  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of 
nature,  and  arrest  the  progress  of  exhaustion,  we  shall  leave  little 
64 


758  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 

but  desolation  and  destitution  to  our  descendants,  so  far,  at 
least,  as  our  own  agriculture  is  concerned. 

Our  commerce  may  continue  to  extend  itself,  and  to  spread  its 
wings  over  every  sea ;  our  manufactures  and  mechanic  arts  may 
flourish  and  thrive ;  our  population  may  have  bread  enough  and 
to  spare  —  purchased  in  exchange  for  the  profits  of  other  pur- 
suits. But  if  we  mean  to  retain  within  our  borders  a  prosper- 
ous and  numerous  agricultural  class,  an  intelligent,  independ- 
ent, and  virtuous  rural  population  — 

"  A  bold  yeomanry,  their  country's  pride, 
Which  once  destroyed,  can  never  be  supplied," 

(and  Heaven  forbid  that  we  should  ever  be  without  one ! )  we 
must  take  good  care  to  hand  down  our  soil  as  well  as  our  insti- 
tutions— to  transmit  our  lands  as  well  as  our  liberties  —  unim- 
paired to  posterity. 

It  is  in  view  of  considerations  like  these,  Mr.  President,  that  I 
rejoice  to  observe  that  the  attention  of  our  Legislature,  and  of 
our  people,  has  recently  been  awakened  to  the  subject  of  agri- 
cultural education.  We  have  already  a  noble  system  of  public 
schools,  of  which  the  farmers  enjoy  their  full  share  of  the  advan- 
tages, and  which  is  amply  adequate  to  the  primary  preparation 
of  our  children  for  all  the  various  professions  and  pursuits  of 
life.  Forever  blessed  be  the  memory  of  our  Fathers  for  this  in- 
estimable legacy ! 

Other  nations  may  boast  of  their  magnificent  gems  and 
monster  diamonds.  Our  Kohinoor  is  our  Common  School  Sys- 
tem. This  is  our  "  Mountain  of  Light,"  —  not  snatched,  indeed, 
as  a  prize  from  a  barbarous  foe,  nor  destined  to  deck  a  royal  . 
brow,  or  to  irradiate  a  Crystal  Palace  ;  but  whose  pure  and  pene- 
trating ray  illumines  every  brow,  and  enlightens  every  mind,  and 
cheers  every  heart  and  every  hearthstone  in  the  land,  and  which 
supplies,  from  its  exhaustless  mines,  "  ornaments  of  grace  unto 
the  head,  and  chains  upon  the  neck,"  of  every  son  and  daughter 
of  Massachusetts ! 

But  while  we  cherish  our  common  schools,  as  now  established, 
as  our  proudest  and  richest  heritage,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
our  young  farmers  may  be,  and  should  be,  provided,  in  some 


AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.  759 

other  and  supplementary  way,  with  the  opportunity  of  acquiring 
knowledge  and  science  more  immediately  pertaining  to  their 
particular  sphere  of  labor ;  though  whether  this  is  to  be  done  by 
independent  agricultural  schools  and  colleges,  like  those  existing 
in  many  parts  of  Europe,  and  recently  described  to  us  by  your 
own  accomplished  Hitchcock,  or  by  ingrafting  a  system  of  agri- 
cultural education  upon  the  schools  and  colleges  which  we 
already  have,  it  is  for  those  wiser  than  myself  to  decide. 

Mr.  President,  I  may  not  pursue  this  topic  further.  I  may  not 
trespass  longer  on  the  attention  of  this  most  intelligent  and 
agreeable  company.  I  said,  in  rising  to  address  you,  that  I  was 
glad  to  meet  here  to-day,  so  many  of  my  old  friends  of  the  River 
Counties.  I  cannot  forget,  in  concluding,  that  there  are  some  of 
them  whom  I  do  not  meet,  and  whom  I  shall  meet  no  more  on 
earth.  There  are  two  of  them  especially,  whose  familiar  forms 
have  presented  themselves  to  my  mind's  eye  more  than  once  on 
this  occasion,  and  whose  memories,  in  all  our  hearts,  are  as  green 
as  the  sod  which  covers  them. 

The  one,  in  the  prime  of  life,  with  the  purple  light  of  youth 
still  lingering  upon  his  cheek,  "  the  expectancy  and  rose  of  the 
fair  State,"  who  left  no  superior  at  the  bar  of  his  own  County, 
and  who  would  have  found  few  equals  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
to  which  he  had  been  summoned.  The  other,  on  the  verge  of 
old  age,  but  whose  eye  was  not  yet  dimmed,  nor  his  natural 
strength  abated,  whose  cordial  grasp  and  sunny  smile  will  never 
be  forgotten  by  those  who  have  shared  them,  and  whose  hoary 
locks,  so  long  the  ornament  of  the  Senate  Chamber,  only  lent 
a  deeper  impressiveness  to  the  words  of  sober  wisdom  and  of 
ardent  patriotism,  to  which  he  so  often  and  so  eloquently  gave 
utterance. 

Allow  me,  in  taking  my  seat,  to  propose  to  you,  — 

The  memory  of  James  C.  Alvord,  and  of  Isaac  C.  Bates. 


MASSACHUSETTS   IN   1775. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  THE  CELEBRATION  OF  THE  COMPLETION  OF  A 
MONUMENT,  —  ERECTED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  MASSACIIU-' 
SETTS,  TO  ISAAC  DAVIS,  ABNER  HOSMER,  AND  JAMES  HAYWARD,  AT 
ACTON,   OCTOBER   29,  1851. 


[In  reply  to  a  complimentary  call  from  the  President  of  the  day,  Eev.  James  T. 
Woodbury.] 

I  could  have  wished,  Mr.  President,  that  this  call  might  have 
been  postponed  to  a  later  period  of  the  festival,  or  that,  at  least, 
I  might  have  been  spared  from  attempting  to  speak,  until  the 
clatter  of  plates  within,  and  the  noise  of  drums  without,  had  in 
some  measure  subsided.  But  I  suppose  that  one  who  has  just 
looked  on  the  bones  of  Isaac  Davis,  must  not  permit  himself  to 
shrink  from  any  service  which  may  be  assigned  him.  And 
indeed,  Sir,  I  am  deeply  indebted  to  your  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments for  the  privilege  of  being  present  at  all  on  this  occasion, 
and  for  the  opportunity  they  have  afforded  me  of  witnessing 
the  impressive  ceremonies  of  this  morning,  and  of  listening  to 
the  instructive  and  eloquent  address  of  His  Excellency  the 
Governor. 

Sir,  we  have  had  many  celebrations  and  jubilees  of  late  in 
this  part  of  the  country,  and  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  be  present 
at  not  a  few  of  them.  But,  though  comparisons  are  sometimes 
odious,  I  can  safely  and  sincerely  say  that  there  has  been  none, 
none  among  them  all,  which  has  seemed  to  me  so  peculiarly 
congenial  to  the  spirit  of  our  republican  institutions,  so  emi- 
nently characteristic  of  the  American  people  and  of  American 
principles,  as  that  in  which  we  are  now  engaged. 


MASSACHUSETTS    IN   1775.  761 

We  are  here,  Mr.  President,  for  what  ?  Not  to  inaugurate  the 
opening  of  some  magnificent  highway  of  internal  communica- 
tion. Not  to  display  the  rich  trophies  of  agricultural  or  horti- 
cultural industry  and  skill.  Not  to  celebrate  the  almost  miracu- 
lous triumphs  of  modern  mechanic  art  and  invention.  Not  to 
offer  the  homage  of  our  hearts,  or  the  hospitalities  of  our  homes, 
to  some  popular  Chief  Magistrate  of  our  own  Republic,  or  of  a 
neighboring  Colony.  No,  Sir;  no.  All  these  things  have  been 
attended  to  elsewhere.  In  the  crowded  cities,  in  the  larger 
towns,  they  have  been  done,  and  well  done.  And  it  was  fit  they 
should  be  done  ;  and  many  of  them  have  been  attended  with  a 
more  costly  ceremonial,  with  a  more  gorgeous  pageant,  with 
more  of  outside  pomp  and  circumstance,  than  have  been  witnessed 
on  this  occasion. 

But  these  are  not  the  objects  which  have*  broken  the  ordinary 
stillness  of  this  quiet,  rural  neighborhood.  These  are  not  the 
objects  which  have  summoned  to  this  retired  spot  such  masses 
of  the  people  of  Middlesex,  and  of  Massachusetts  generally,  in 
all  their  various  capacities  of  magistrate,  and  citizen,  and  citizen- 
soldier,  and  which  have  engaged  and  engrossed  all  our  minds 
and  all  our  hearts  to-day.  Not  for  the  present,  not  for  the  living, 
not  for  those  who  are,  or  ever  have  been,  high  in  place,  exalted 
in  rank,  powerful  in  influence,  have  these  memorials  been  pre- 
pared, and  these  libations  poured  out.  We  have  assembled,  on 
the  contrary,  to  pay  a  grateful,  though  a  tardy  tribute,  to  the 
memory  of  three  humble  citizens  of  one  of  the  smallest  towns 
in  the  State,  two  of  them  privates  in  a  militia  company,  and  the 
third  with  no  higher  title  than  that  of  a  captain,  whose  simple 
story  is  that  they  laid  down  their  lives,  seventy-six  years  ago,  in 
defence  of  American  Liberty. 

I  need  not  say,  Sir,  that  such  an  example  of  rendering  honor 
to  the  memory  of  the  humblest  officers  and  the  common  soldiers 
of  our  Revolutionary  Militia,  is  in  beautiful  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  republican  equality  which  pervades  our  institutions,  and 
is  better  calculated  than  all  the  bounties  and  bonuses  and  land 
scrip,  which  can  be  voted  by  the  most  liberal  or  the  most  prodi- 
gal Congress,  to  raise  up  defenders  for  those  institutions,  — where 
alone  they  must  be  looked  for  in  time  of  need,  —  among  the 
64* 


762  MASSACHUSETTS  IN   1775. 

rank  and  file  of  the  people.  It  gives  an  assurance  which  will 
not  be  forgotten,  that,  however  it  may  be  in  the  country  church- 
yards of  the  old  world,  the  "  village  Hampdens  "  and  village 
Heroes  of  our  own  land  will  never  want  a  stone  to  mark  their 
grave,  or  an  inscription  to  tell  the  tale  of  their  prowess  and  their 
patriotism. 

But  it  would  be  quite  unjust,  Mr.  President,  to  limit  the  inten- 
tion of  this  occasion  to  the  precise  object  which  has  given  rise 
to  it.  It  has  a  larger  and  more  comprehensive  scope.  We  are 
here  to  commemorate,  and  to  commend  afresh  to  the  admiration 
and  imitation  of  our  children,  the  patriotism  and  valor  and  self- 
devotion  of  the  whole  people  of  Massachusetts  in  1775  —  of  all 
her  citizens  and  of  all  her  soldiers  —  militia-men,  minute-men, 
and  volunteers  —  as  exemplified  and  illustrated  *on  the  19th  of 
April,  in  the  persons  of  three  of  their  number,  to  whom  so  early 
and  so  glorious  a  crown  of  martyrdom  was  assigned. 

Let  me  not  seem  to  disparage  the  individual  heroism  of  Isaac 
Davis,  Abner  Hosmer,  and  James  Hayward.  Their  names  are 
upon  yonder  granite ;  they  are  upon  the  scroll  of  history ;  they 
are  uppermost  to-day  upon  the  tablets  of  all  our  hearts.  Few 
instances  could  be  selected  from  the  whole  range  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary records,  of  greater  bravery  and  daring  than  those  of  these 
three  noble  men  of  Acton.  But  let  us  not  forget  the  full  force 
and  import  of  that  memorable  exclamation  of  the  gallant  Davis 
himself, — "  I  have  n't  a  man  that 's  afraid  to  go."  Sir,  that  was 
a  generous  and  a  just  exclamation.  It  was  true,  not  only  of  his 
own  Acton  Company,  which  led  the  way  so  gallantly  down  to 
the  old  North  Bridge,  but  it  was  true  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
common  soldiers  and  of  the  common  people  of  the  State,  whe- 
ther in  town  or  country,  in  cities  or  in  villages.  Everywhere,  in 
every  county  and  district  alike,  throughout  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  the  State,  there  was  found  the  same  resolute  deter- 
mination to  resist  the  tyranny  of  the  mother  country,  even  unto 
death. 

There  were  different  manifestations  of  this  spirit  in  different 
localities,  and  different  individuals  enjoyed  different  opportuni- 
ties of  displaying  it.  In  Boston,  it  exhibited  itself  in  words  and 
deeds  of  defiance  towards  Commissioners  of  Stamps  and  Com- 


MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1775.  763 

missioners  of  Customs,  towards  royal  Governors  and  a  hireling 
garrison.  There  was  Faneuil  Hall.  There  was  the  Old  South. 
There  was  the  Green  Dragon.  There  was  the  Liberty  Tree. 
There  was  the  Tea  Party.  There  were  Otis,  and  Quincy,  and 
Hancock,  and  Adams.  There  American  Liberty  was  born  and 
cradled. 

In  Salem,  it  displayed  itself  in  the  brave,  though  bloodless  resist- 
ance, offered  to  Colonel  Leslie  and  the  British  troops,  by  Colonel 
Pickering  and  the  minute-men  of  that  region,  on  that  memora- 
ble Sabbath  afternoon,  February  26,  1775  ;  —  a  resistance  which 
almost  made  the  North  Bridge  of  Essex  as  famous  in  our  annals, 
as  the  North  Bridge  of  Middlesex.  There,  as  was  said  by  the 
British  journals  at  the  time,  the  Americans  first  "  hoisted  the 
standard  of  Liberty." 

In  Lexington  and  Concord,  it  manifested  itself  on  the  19th 
day  of  April,  in  a  sterner  form  and  in  less  doubtful  colors.  There 
the  first  blood  was  shed. 

At  Bunker  Hill,  on  the  17th  of  June,  it  assumed  a  still  sterner 
and  fiercer  front.  There  was  the  first  challenge,  the  first  defiance, 
the  first  intrenchment,  the  first  general  engagement  with  the 
British  forces.  There  Prescott  and  Putnam  fought,  and  Warren 
fell. 

And,  lastly,  at  Dorchester  Heights,  on  the  17th  of  March,  1776, 
it  presented  itself  in  the  more  welcome  shape  of  a  vigorous  and 
masterly  movement,  which  settled  the  question  of  Liberty  once 
and  for  all,  so  far  as  Massachusetts  soil  was  concerned,  and  made 
it  free  soil  forever!  There  was  the  first  success  of  Washington 
and  the  American  cause,  under  the  Union  Flag. 

Thus,  Mr.  President,  in  all  these  different  localities  of  the  Old 
Bay  State,  something  was  done  first ;  the  first  word,  the  first 
blow,  the  first  blood,  the  first  redoubt,  the  first  triumph.  Each 
vied  with  the  other  in  acts  of  heroism.  Deep  called  unto  deep, 
valley  responded  to  valley,  plain  to  plain,  hill-top  to  hill-top. 
There  were  diversities  of  operations,  but  the  same  spirit ;  the 
same  calm,  deliberate,  fearless,  unchangeable,  and  unconquerable 
spirit,  of  which  the  Acton  Martyrs  furnished  so  noble  a  type. 
In  1805, 1  think,  Nelson's  last  signal  at  Trafalgar  was,  "  England 
expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty."     But  thirty  years  before  that, 


764  MASSACHUSETTS  IX    1775. 

in  New  England,  every  man  did  his  duty.  On  that  day,  Massa- 
chusetts, certainly,  might  have  said  of  her  citizen  soldiers,  what 
your  own  Davis  said  of  his  company, —  "  I  have  n't  a  man  that 's 
afraid  to  go."  No,  nor  a  woman,  nor  a  child;  for  the  spirit  of 
Liberty  pervaded  all  ages  and  sexes,  and  the  patriot  mothers  of 
Massachusetts  were  alternately  occupied  in  furnishing  food  and 
clothing  for  their  husbands  in  the  field,  and  in  educating  their 
children  at  home  to  a  hatred  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  and  to 
an  admiration  of  those  who  fought  and  bled  in  resisting  it. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  idea,  Mr.  President,  by  relating  to  you 
one  of  the  most  interesting  personal  incidents  which  I  can  look 
back  upon,  in  the  course  of  a  ten  years'  service  in  Congress.  It 
was  an  interview  which  I  had  with  our  late  venerated  fellow- 
citizen,  John  Quincy  Adams,  about  five  or  six  years  ago.  It 
was  on  the  floor  of  the  Capitol,  not  far  from  the  spot  where  he 
soon  afterwards  fell.  The  House  had  adjourned  one  day,  some- 
what suddenly  and  at  an  early  hour,  and  it  happened  that  after 
all  the  other  members  had  left  the  hall,  Mr.  Adams  and  myself 
were  left  alone  in  our  seats  engaged  in  our  private  correspond- 
ence. Presently  the  messengers  came  in,  rather  unceremoniously, 
to  clean  up  the  hall,  and  began  to  wield  that  inexorable  imple- 
ment, which  is  so  often  the  plague  of  men,  both  under  public 
and  private  roofs.  Disturbed  by  the  noise  and  dust,  I  observed 
Mr.  Adams  approaching  me  with  an  unfolded  letter  in  his  hands. 
''Do  you  know  John  Joseph  Gurney  ?"  said  he.  "  I  know  him 
well,  Sir,  by  reputation  ;  but  I  did  not  have  the  pleasure  of  meet- 
ing him  personally  when  he  was  in  America."  "  Well,  he  has 
been  writing  me  a  letter,  and  I  have  been  writing  him  an  answer. 
He  has  been  calling  me  to  account  for  my  course  on  the  Oregon 
question  ;  and  taking  me  to  task  for  what  he  calls  my  belligerent 
spirit  and  warlike  tone  towards  England.  And  I  should  like  to 
read  you  what  I  have  written  in  reply." 

And  then  "  the  old  man  eloquent "  proceeded  to  read  to  me, 
so  far  as  it  was  finished,  one  of  the  most  interesting  letters  I  ever 
read  or  heard  in  my  life.  It  was  a  letter  of  autobiography,  in 
which  he  described  his  parentage  and  early  life,  and  in  which  he 
particularly  alluded  to  the  sources  from  which  he  derived  his 
jealousy  of  Great  Britain,  and  his  readiness  to  resist  her,  even 


MASSACHUSETTS    IN    177$.  765 

unto  blood,  whenever  he  thought  that  she  was  encroaching  on 
American  rights.  He  said  that  he  was  old  enough  in  1775,  to 
understand  what  his  father  was  about  in  those  days,  and  he 
described  the  lessons  which  his  mother  taught  him,  during  his 
father's  absence  in  attending  the  Congress  of  Independence. 
Every  day,  he  said,  after  saying  his  prayers  to  God,  he  was 
required  to  repeat  those  exquisite  stanzas  of  Collins,  which  he 
had  carefully  transcribed  in  his  letter,  and  which  he  recited  to 
me  with  an  expression  and  an  energy  which  I  shall  never  forget, — 
the  tears  coursing  down  his  cheeks,  and  his  voice,  every  now 
and  then,  choked  with  emotion :  — 

"  How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest,  t 

By  all  their  country's  wishes  hlest ! 
When  Spring,  with  dewy  fingers  cold, 
Returns  to  deck  their  hallow'd  mould, 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod, 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 

By  Fairy  hands  their  knell  is  rung, 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung ; 
There  Honor  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 
To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay, 
And  Freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  there." 

And  there  was  another  ode  by  the  same  author,  which,  he  said, 
he  was  also  obliged  to  repeat,  as  a  part  of  this  same  morning 
exercise,  —  the  ode,  I  believe,  on  the  death  of  Colonel  Charles 
Ross,  in  the  action  at  Fontenoy,  one  verse  of  which,  with  a 
slight  variation,  would  not  be  inapplicable  to  your  own  Davis : 

<;  By  rapid  Scheld's  descending  wave 
His  country's  vows  shall  bless  the  grave, 

Where'er  the  youth  is  laid  : 
That  sacred  spot  the  village  hind 
With  every  sweetest  turf  shall  bind, 

And  Peace  protect  the  shade." 

Such,  Sir,  was  the  education  of  at  least  one  of  our  Massachu- 
setts children  at  that  day.  And  though  I  do  not  suppose  that 
all  the  mothers  of  1775  were  like  Mrs.  Adams,  yet  the  great 
majority  of  them,  we  all  know,  had  as  much  piety  and  patriot- 


766  MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1775. 

ism,  if  not  as  much  poetry,  in  their  composition,  and  their  child- 
ren were  brought  up  at  once  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord  and  of  Liberty. 

Indeed,  Sir,  I  have  at  my  side,  at  this  instant,  a  living  illustra- 
tion of  the  fact.  Here  is  my  venerable  friend,  Dr.  Walton,  of 
Pepperell,  who  has  come  over  here  to  celebrate  his  eighty-first 
birthday,  and  who  has  just  told  me,  that  on  the  morning  of  the 
19th  of  April,  1775,  he  was  employed  at  his  father's  house  in 
Cambridge  —  being  then  about  five  years  old  —  in  pouring  pow- 
der into  cartridges  for  the  American  soldiers.* 

And  as  it  was  in  Massachusetts,  Sir,  so  was  it  throughout  all 
the  other  colonies.  When  Joseph  Hawley's  declaration — "We 
must  fight "  —  (for  it  was  from  old  Hampshire  that  this  excla- 
mation first  came)  —  was  communicated  to  Patrick  Henry  of  Vir- 
ginia, he  instantly  replied,  as  you  all  remember,  with  a  solemn 
appeal  to  Heaven,  "  I  am  of  that  man's  mind."  And  when  the 
admirable  Laurens,  of  South  Carolina,  just  after  his  own  release 
from  a  cruel  confinement  in  the  Tower  of  London,  heard  that 
his  gallant  and  glorious  son,  after  receiving  the  capitulation  of 
Cornwallis  at  Yorktown,  had  fallen  in  a  skirmish  with  the  ene- 
my, his  more  than  Spartan  language  was,  "  I  thank  God  I  had 
a  son  who  dared  to  die  for  his  country." 

So  truly  did  Joseph  Warren  write  to  Josiah  Quincy  in  1774, — 
"  I  am  convinced  that  the  true  spirit  of  Liberty  was  never  so 
universally  diffused  through  all  ranks  and  orders  of  people  in 
any  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  it  is  now  through  all 
North  America." 

This,  Mr.  President,  is  the  spirit  which  we  this  day  commemo- 
rate; a  spirit,  not  local,  not  sectional,  but  which,  by  the  help  of 
God,  made  the  thirteen  Colonies  independent  of  Great  Britain, 
and  gave  political  being  to  the  United  States  of  America. 

And  now,  Sir,  let  us  not  merely  commemorate  this  spirit,  as 
exhibited  by  our  fathers.  Let  us  cherish  it  in  our  hearts,  and 
display  it  in  our  own  lives,  or,  if  need  be,  in  our  own  deaths. 
Let  the  monuments  which  we  have  erected  here  or  elsewhere,  be 
not  only  tributes  to  the  dead,  but  pledges,  sacred  pledges,  on  the 
part  of  the  living.  Our  fathers  have  left  monuments  for  them- 
*  Here  Dr.  Walton  rose  and  received  the  greetings  of  the  whole  company. 


MASSACHUSETTS  IN    1775.  767 

selves,  far  more  commensurate  to  their  deeds  and  to  their  deserts, 
than  any  which  we  can  build,  —  in  the  institutions  which  they 
have  founded  in  the  States,  and  in  the  Nation  at  large.  Our 
common  schools,  our  churches,  our  constitutions,  State  and  Na- 
tional, our  beloved  Union,  —  these  are  their  monuments. 

Let  it  be  ours  to  keep  them  always  in  repair,  always  standing 
erect  and  unshaken,  a  tower  and  a  castle  for  ourselves  and  our 
children,  a  refuge  for  the  oppressed,  whether  flying  from  an 
Austrian  or  an  Australian  prison,  and  a  beacon  for  the  friends 
of  Liberty  throughout  the  earth.  May  History  never  record  — 
and  here  I  borrow  the  words  of  Fisher  Ames,  and  I  offer  them 
as  the  sentiment  with  which  to  conclude  my  remarks, — 

May  History  never  record  of  the  Institutions  of  our  Country, 
"  that  they  were  formed  with  too  much  wisdom  to  be  valued, 
and  required  too  much  virtue  to  be  maintained." 


NOTE   TO   PAGE   360. 


The  personal  allusion  on  this  page  was  understood  at  the  time  to  have  reference  to 
Mr.  Charles  Sumner,  who  had  just  addressed  the  Convention  in  one  of  those  inflam- 
matory appeals  on  the  subject  of  Slavery,  by  which  he  prepared  the  way  for  his  final 
secession  from  the  Whig  party. 

This  gentleman,  having  failed,  on  this  and  other  occasions,  to  provoke  me  into  public 
controversy^  with  himself,  has  thought  fit  to  devote  some  twenty  or  thirty  pages  of  the 
second  volume  of  his  recently  published  Orations  and  Speeches,  to  a  consideration  of 
some  passages  of  my  public  life.  Fifteen  of  these  pages  arc  taken  up  by  a  verbose 
and  vituperative  letter,  dated  October  26,  1846,  and  addressed  to  me  personally,  but  of 
which  no  copy  was  ever  sent  to  me,  and  which  I  only  heard  of  by  accident,  sometime 
after  its  original  publication,  in  a  Free  Soil  or  Abolition  newspaper. 

It  has  been  suggested  to  me,  that  some  reply  to  this  effusion  might  possibly  be  ex- 
pected in  this  volume.  But  I  really  must  be  excused  from  entering  into  controversy 
with  Mr.  Sumner.  Sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  public  service  must  be  left  to  be  their 
own  interpreter,  and  to  furnish  their  own  answer  to  any  amount  of  reckless  perver- 
sion or  flippant  personality.  And,  indeed,  I  may  well  be  content  to  take  my  share  of 
the  abuse  of  a  volume,  which  consigns  President  Fillmore  to  immortal ;:  infamy."  and 
which  includes  so  many  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  both  parties  within  the  range 
of  its  sweeping  fulminations.  The  very  most  that  I  can  persuade  myself  to  do,  is  to 
append  to  this  concluding  Note,  as  an  act  of  simple  justice  to  myself,  my  original 
reply  to  another  letter  which  Mr.  Sumner  actually  sent  to  me  in  August,  1846,  when 
our  correspondence  terminated. 

Meantime,  however,  if  anybody,  at  home  or  abroad,  should  desire  to  examine  into  the 
character  or  motives  of  his  persevering  attacks  upon  me,  they  will  find  ample  materials, 
both  in  the  foregoing  speeches  of  mine,  and  in  the  record  of  his  own  subsequent  poli- 
tical course,  as  it  has  been  in  process  of  curious  development  during  the  past  year  or 
two. 

Of  this  course,  it  is  enough  to  say  two  things.  One,  that,  having  professed,  usque 
ad  nauseam,  that  he  was  no  politician  and  sought  no  place,  he  has  grasped  at  office  at 
the  first  instant  at  which  it  was  within  his  reach,  and  under  circumstances  from  which 
some,  even,  of  his  best  political  and  personal  friends  recoiled.  The  other,  that,  having, 
for  six  or  seven  years  past,  arraigned  and  reproached  almost  all  who  have  preceded 
him  in  Congress  from  this  quarter,  for  their  alleged  inaction  on  the  subject  of  Slavery, 
and  having  just  before  his  own  election,  laid  down  a  formal  platform,  — pledging  him- 
self to  demand  "  the  instant  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,"  the  Abolition  of  Slavery 


NOTE  TO  PAGE  360.  771 

in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  of  the  domestic  Slave  Trade,  and  the  overthrow  of 
the  Slave  Power,  "  so  that  the  Federal  Government  may  be  put  openly,  actively,  and 
perpetually  on  the  side  of  Freedom,"  —  he  has,  since  his  election,  ignored  the  entire 
subject,  and  has  sat  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  for  five  months  and  a  half,  without  ven- 
turing to  open  his  lips  on  any  question  in  any  way  connected  with  it .;  —  and  this,  too, 
although  the  whole  subject  of  the  Compromises  has  been  repeatedly  under  consideration 
by  the  Senate.  How  long  this  mysterious  and  prudent  silence  is  to  be  observed,  re- 
mains to  be  seen.  It  may,  perhaps,  have  been  broken,  even  before  this  volume  shall 
have  made  its  appearance.  And  I  doubt  not,  that,  at  some  time  or  other,  it  will  be 
made  the  subject  of  a  most  plausible  explanation.  It  is  intimated,  already,  in  some 
quarters,  that  he  is  only  waiting  to  gain  influence  at  Washington,  in  order  to  turn  it  more 
effectively  against  Southern  Institutions.  Personally,  I  cannot  regret  that  he  has  laid 
aside,  whether  for  a  shorter  or  a  longer  time,  the  character  of  an  Agitator.  He  would 
do  well  to  abandon  it  altogether.  It  is  quite  too  late  for  him,  however,  to  explain  away 
this  signal  "  disloyalty  to  Freedom,"  as  he  has  been  accustomed  to  call  it;  —  and,  what- 
ever the  explanation  may  be,  the  fact  will  remain  on  the  record,  in  most  ridiculous,  or, 
as  some  will  think,  in  most  lamentable  contrast,  both  with  his  ferocious  attacks  upon 
others,  and  with  his  fervent  professions  for  himself.    Non  hoc  pollicitus. 

But  I  hasten  to  dismiss  a  subject,  which  nothing  but  the  recent  republication  of  his 
unprovoked  and  offensive  invectives,  in  the  deliberate  and  permanent  form  of  a  stere- 
otyped volume,  could  have  induced  me  to  notice  in  any  way  whatever. 

The  subjoined  letter,  which  has  never  before  been  published,  is  given  here  precisely 
as  it  was  originally  written,  the  sentence  inclosed  in  brackets,  being  that  referred  to  in 
the  Postscript. 

Boston,  17th  August,  1846. 
Sir,— 

Your  communication  of  the  10th  instant,  directed  to  Washington,  reached  me  here,  at 
a  late  hour,  on  the  day  before  yesterday. 

Some  strange  hallucination  has  come  over  either  you  or  myself.  It  is  certain  that 
we  do  not  agree  as  to  what  belongs  to  the  intercourse  of  friends,  or  even  of  gentlemen. 

I  have  read  afresh  the  newspaper  articles  of  which  you  have  informed  me  that  you 
are  the  author,  and  I  am  only  confirmed  in  the  opinion  which  I  formed  of  them  when 
they  first  met  my  eye.  They  seem  to  me  to  abound  in  the  grossest  perversions,  and  in 
the  coarsest  personalities.  They  are  not  content  with  arraigning  my  acts,  but  are  full  of 
insinuations  as  to  my  motives,  and  imputations  on  my  integrity.  They  arrogate  for 
their  author  an  exclusive  privilege  of  pronouncing  upon  matters  both  of  truth  and  of  con- 
science, and  deny  to  me  all  right  of  judgment  as  to  either.  They  proceed  upon  the  offen- 
sive assumption,  that  under  some  influence  of  ambition  or  moral  cowardice,  I  have  know- 
ingly and  deliberately  committed  an  unworthy  and  wicked  act  They  remonstrate 
with  me,  as  with  a  confessed  or  convicted  criminal.  And  they  invoke  upon  me  the 
reproach  and  scorn  of  the  community,  now  and  hereafter.  [It  would  be  difficult  to  say, 
which  was  the  predominating  element  in  these  compositions,  intolerance  or  insolence.] 

I  am  willing  to  believe  that  you  have  not  weighed  the  force  of  your  own  phrases. 
Your  "periculosa  facilitas''''  has  betrayed  you.  Your  habitual  indulgence  in  strains  of 
extravagant  thought  and  exaggerated  expression,  alike  when  you  praise  and  when  you 
censure,  has,  perhaps,  impaired  your  discrimination  in  the  employment  of  language. 
You  must  have  been  deaf,  however,  to  every  thing  but  the  voices  of  admiration  at  your 
elbow,  if  you  have  not  heard  expressions  of  astonishment  and  indignation  on  all  sides 
65 


772  NOTE  TO  PAGE  360. 

at  the  fanatical  and  frantic  spirit  which  your  articles  exhibit,  —  not  unmingled  with 
regrets  that  their  whole  text  and  tenor  should  be  so  little  in  harmony  with  that  cause 
of  Peace,  of  which  you  are  a  zealous,  and,  I  doubt  not,  a  sincere  advocate. 

I  write  for  no  purpose  of  returning  railing  for  railing.  I  am  quite  ready  to  forgive 
the  injury  you  have  done  me ;  and  I  shall  wish  you  nothing  but  success  and  happiness 
in  your  future  career.  But  were  I  to  maintain  relations  of  social  intercourse  (as  you 
propose)  with  one  who  has  thus  grossly  assailed  my  public  morality,  it  would  be  an 
admission  of  the  truth  of  one  of  the  charges  which  has  been  arrayed  against  me  in 
this  case.  It  might  fairly  be  construed  into  an  acknowledgment,  that  I  recognized  differ- 
ent rules  of  action  for  my  private  and  my  political  life.  I  feel  compelled,  therefore,  to 
decline  all  further  communication  or  conference,  while  matters  stand  as  they  now  do 
between  us. 

Sir,  I  am  conscious  of  having  done  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  cause  of  Freedom, 
of  Eight,  of  Humanity,  of  Truth,  or  even  of  Peace.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  my  attach- 
ment to  one  and  all  of  these  great  interests.  I  am  no  stranger,  either,  to  those  Christian 
Churches,  from  which  one  of  your  articles  would  seem  to  excommunicate  me  ;  nor  do 
I  know  any  thing  in  my  moral  or  religious  character,  which  should  fairly  subject  me  to 
be  schooled  even  by  yourself.  If  by  any  vote  I  have  given,  I  have  wounded  the  con- 
science of  anybody  else,  I  sincerely  regret  it.  I  certainly  have  not  wounded  my  own 
conscience.  I  well  knew  that  my  vote  on  the  War  Bill  would  expose  me  to  misrepre- 
sentation. I  felt  painfully  the  perplexity  of  the  case.  I  freely  acknowledge,  that  it 
was  a  doubtful  question,  upon  which,  as  was  well  said  by  Mr.  Charles  Hudson  and  Mr. 
George  Ashmun,  (two  of  the  fourteen,)  in  their  printed  speeches,  "men  of  honesty  of 
purpose  might  come  to  different  conclusions."  I  ask  no  man  to  vindicate  my  vote,  or 
to  agree  with  me  in  opinion.  I  blame  no  man  for  charging  me  with  error  of  judgment. 
But  knowing  for  myself,  that  my  vote  was  given  honestly,  conscientiously,  with  a  sincere 
belief  that  it  was  the  best  vote  which  an  arbitrary  and  overbearing  majority  would  per- 
mit us  to  give,  I  shall  allow  no  man  to  cast  scandalous  imputations  on  my  motives  and 
apply  base  epithets  to  my  acts  in  public,  and  to  call  me  his  friend  in  private.  My  hand 
is  not  at  the  service  of  any  one,  who  has  denounced  it  with  such  ferocity,  as  being  stained 
with  blood. 

One  or  two  of  the  topics  in  your  last  private  communication,  require  a  few  words  of 
notice,  before  this  painful  correspondence  is  brought  to  a  close. 

1.  I  am  utterly  unconscious  of  having  "  scattered  widely  unambiguous  voices  of  con- 
demnation "  in  regard  to  your  Fourth  of  July  Oration  last  year.  I  certainly  differed 
entirely  from  some  of  the  views  of  that  address,  and  considered  them  to  be  disorgan- 
izing and  dangerous.  I  never  attacked  you  in  a  Newspaper.  I  never  libelled  your 
character  or  motives.  Nor  have  I  ever  gone  out  of  my  way  to  say  a  word  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

2.  Nothing  could  be  more  utterly  unfounded,  — not  even  the  preamble  of  the  War 
Bill,  —  than  your  assertion  that  my  sentiment,  on  that  occasion, "  set  country  above  right" 
Such  an  assertion  proves  only,  that  in  your  haste  to  condemn,  you  have  confounded 
Geography  with  Morals. 

3.  Judge  Story  and  myself  had  an  hour  of  most  friendly  and  cordial  conversation 
within  one  week  of  his  lamented  end.  At  Washington,  I  was  in  frequent  consultation 
with  him  on  the  Texas  question,  as  well  as  on  other  subjects,  up  to  the  very  last  mo- 
ment of  his  leaving  there.  If  he  would  have  arrested  me,  (as  you  intimate,)  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  in  "the  path  which  I  seemed  to  have  adopted,"  it  was  owing  either  to 
his  own  misapprehensions,  or  to  the  misrepresentations  of  others.    My  path  has  been 


NOTE  TO  PAGE   360.  773 

one  and  the  same,  unchanged  and  unchangeable,  from  the  moment  I  entered  public  life 
to  the  present  moment. 

4.  I  have  the  strongest  reason  to  think  that  Judge  Story  and  myself  agreed  entirely 
as  to  some  of  the  more  ultra  doctrines  of  your  address,  and,  unless  I  have  been  greatly 
misinformed,  he  expressed  himself  without  reserve  as  to  their  impracticable  and  extra- 
vagant character. 

5.  You  cite  the  opinions  of  many  anonymous  persons  in  favor  of  your  views  of  my 
vote.  I  am  quite  willing  that  its  propriety  should  be  tested  pondere  non  numero.  And 
opportunities  may  still  occur,  when  it  may  be  seen,  whether  there  was  not  a  weight  of 
character  in  my  favor,  against  which  the  gross  charges  of  "  lie,"  "  falsehood,"  "  immo- 
rality," "  wickedness,"  and  the  rest,  will  strive  in  vain  to  prevail. 

And  now  I  must  repeat  the  expression  of  my  sincere  regret  at  being  compelled  to 
address  you  in  such  terms.  I  had  no  purpose  of  entering  into  any  public  controversy 
with  you,  or  any  one  else,  in  relation  to  my  vote ;  nor  have  I  now.  Nor  should  I  have 
written  to  you  at  all,  but  for  your  own  letters  to  me.  I  will  still  hope  that  the  day  may 
not  be  distant,  when  you  may  realize  that  you  have  wronged  me,  and  when  our  old 
relations  may  be  resumed  without  the  sacrifice  of  our  own  self-respect. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Robert  C.  Winthrop. 
Charles  Sumner,  Esq. 

P.  S.  As  I  am  just  leaving  home  for  a  week's  relaxation  at  Newport,  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  me  to  rewrite  this  letter.  I  might  otherwise  have  omitted  a  sentence  over  which 
I  have  drawn  my  pen,  as  I  am  as  little  disposed  to  give  offence  as  to  take  it. 


0?  THS 

'tjjuvbrsity: 

THE   END. 


m 


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